I recently purchased this 1996 4Runner 5-Speed with only 150,000 miles on it. It is completely stock and was used by a mountaineering guide so it does have a little bit of rust on the hitch from salt on the roads, but overall, the body/frame is a fairly clean and rust-free. From a mechanical standpoint, it wasn't abused, but at the same time, it wasn't babied and taken care of. It still has the original timing belt in it. Oil however was always changed as were the rest of the components.

My first course of action is to change all of the fluids, timing belt and waterpump. From then on, I am probably going to take some time to clean it up and make it look all nice again before I get it dirty.

 

Nice find.

 

Appropriate number of pedals, but has it moo'd at you yet? Those two things are unrelated...

 

good stuff man. i've had mine for about 6 months now and finally getting the maintenance finished up. now i'm interested in doing a build so i can have a nice yota like the rest of these people on this forum! i'll subscribe to this thread and see your progress man. good luck

 

+1, as that's essentially where we are too with respect to our own new-to-us '96 SR5 which we picked up last September...

 

I have successfully been driving the 4Runner now for the entire summer and am sitting at 166,000 miles. No problems so far and it has been been running great! My local ORV park in Spokane, WA has been great. I have been slowly getting the hang of off-roading and can make it up a lot of the hills and trails. For a stock 4Runner, I am extremely impressed with the capabilities of it. I don't have any pictures right now, but I will take some later today when I go again.
My modifications so far have been simple ones. I did the tacoma whip mod and put in a stereo and speakers. The only other modification is the deckplate mod.
I will post some pictures later when I get back from my local ORV park, 7-Miles ORV in Spokane, WA.

 

You chose well, our 3rd gens are practically bulletproof. 166,000 shouldn't scare you too much, you can expect a long happy life.

 

Hey there everyone, a lot has happened since I purchased the 4runner.
I recently got my spartan locker installed. It is AWESOME! The pictures I am posting are with the 4runner all flexed out. Like everyone else says, I can go everywhere I could go before in 2x4 now. When it is wet outside, I can go even more places than I could before when it was dry! The total install took me about 6 hours with a buddy. However, neither of us had ever done gears before. It probably would only take us half the time if we knew what we were doing.

WARNING! If you use the Chilton Shop Manual, do not use the 54 ft*lbs recommendation for attaching the rear 3rd member to the axle housing. I was torquing down the rear diff in increments and at about 30 ft*lbs, I snapped off one of the studs. Instead, I just torqued down the 3rd to 18 ft*lbs as if my 3rd had the e-locker. So far, no issues with leaking or things rattling around.

As far as wheeling goes, the 4runner is great! Apart from the really big ruts and hill climbs with large boulders, it goes everywhere I want it to go. The traction on snow tires right now is still great!
Some things I hope to get installed this next summer when I get done with school is suspension and sliders. I was thinking about putting in an Sonoran 1.2 system in as I mainly drive on the freeway to get to school a few times a year, drive mountain roads and wheel in it. If you guys have any ideas on a better option, please let me know!

 

Quick update:
Recently had to drive through Snoqualmie Pass this weekend right before they closed it down due to to much snow coming down. A couple of things I discovered with having a locker in the rear:
1) The traction in 2wd is phenomenal. I was able to make it up the majority without having to even touch 4x4.
2) When you do lose traction to both rear wheels, it whips you out really fast. It took me by surprise the first time it happened. I have since then made adjustments in my driving to prevent this from happening again.
3) This is more on the 5VZFE than the locker. Even with more power than I was ever used to in my old pickup, I still was gutless in 3rd (even with stock gearing and tires) due to the amount of snow I was plowing (8-10 inches of slush). Using 4x4 helped a bit just with pulling myself along as well. But I was surprised! I couldn't imagine doing it with a 22re/old v6 or a carbed engine.

All in all though, very happy with how things are working out with the rig. I have big plans this summer! I think first things are sliders and skid plate! Thinking about putting on a lift now with 285's (stock gearing) or settling for 265/75's for a while with stock suspension. Going to be going with the Wrangler Duratrac's. Any advice from anyone? I am constantly hitting my trailer hitch on the ground and scraping about because I have quite a bit of sag. Only about an inch from contacting the bump stops.

Last thing! I was able to go out two weekends ago and drive around my local ORV park and do some snow wheeling. Met some new people with a majority of them driving lifted Cherokees with big mud tires. I was able to go around with them as its not as much fun just to wheel by myself. After I received a lot of smack talk coming from them when they saw my clean and stock looking 4Runner out there driving around. Something about no lift and stock looking tires (snow tires I might add), we went out to the hills when I preceded to go everywhere they went with much less of a running start and less tire spinning. I even had to tow one out when he got stuck. I just have to say, it was priceless. Hurt their ego just a bit but that's because I didn't tell them I had had a locker in the rear...😂

 

I had a setup very similar to the Sonoran 1.2 on my Runner that I pieced together over a couple of months. It was a great setup for an off road capable daily driver. The Sonoran kit is great if you are looking for minimal hassle. You can piece it together and save some cash though if you are willing to put in a little time. Both the LC springs and Tundra front parts can be had for peanuts used if you lurk on some of the Tundra and LC boards, as those guys are replacing them with upgrades. If you wan't plug and play go Sonoran, if you have the time and want the best value piece it together yourself.

 

That's what I was considering doing. I picked up a set of tundra coils and shocks for fairly cheap. I just don't know how worn they are. Also, I have come to the realization that if I lift the 4Runner, I will be more tempted to throw on larger tires. And if I do that, not only are tires more expensive, but I will also lose some gas mileage and performance. I really like the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac's. So I may just skip the lift for right now, get some 265/75 tires and go ahead and do front and rear bumpers, sliders and skid plate. I think that this set up with a front locker added would give me a great rig where I can tackle almost anything around where I am.
I went out this past weekend, wheeled with some guys that had Wranglers with lifts and 35's. I was able to do everything they could do and more because they were open in the front and rear. The only thing I couldn't do was the pure rock crawling due to lack of ground clearance.
What do you guys think of that setup? Armor and smaller tires instead of a lift with bigger tires?