I know lots will detest this idea, however it popped into my head the other day. Has anyone thought about taking a first gen runner and removing the front diff, CV axles, front drive line, case and tranny and putting a 2wd tranny in?

Was thinking you could do that then put in a newer rear end out of a Tacoma or tundra since they are wider then make your own long arm control arms in front since you wouldn't have to worry about front axles, and basically making the 4runner a per runner style truck for the dunes.

Input and thoughts.

 

Most will say it isn't worth it. There are stock 2wd 2nd gen and beyond 4Runners, if that's what you're looking for. If I was pre-running, I'd have a small 86-88 2wd single cab pickup as I'm not sure I'd want a 1st gen runner jumping dunes (because I'd assume you want this fora family)

 

That's what I'm expecting most people to say but I already have an 89 4runner and I love the remoovable tops, I was thinking it would be cool to take to things like the toyota jamberen(sp?) At pismo

 

Totally possible, man! No doubt.. But to hack your own 4Runner? Not sure. I'd look into buying a broken down IFS 4R and modify for the 2wd. I've seen it done, but not for prerunning. Definitely a cool idea! Be sure to post here if you go through with it.

 

Why not keep it 4x4 and run a off the shelf long travel kit that way you have 4wd if you need it? Or, remove the front diff and axles and keep the 4x4 trans and transfer case to have the 4 low gear still?
My buddy is building a '88 4runner. It has a total chaos front kit with sway a way torsions with bypass shocks. The rear is deaver f67 springs with a cantilever setup under the bed also running bypasses. He put an '05 elocker axle in the back and he did a 3.4 swap in it. Its almost done and ready to rock but we are doing the rear wheel wells and tubs right now because he only had about 4'' of up travel before the tire hit the fender. Once its done its going to be a beast.

 

The off the shelf kits are way to pricey, but boy are the nice. I do like the idea of keeping the tcas for a low range though. I was thinking of keeping the case and putting a pulley on the fwd flange to run something like an alternator or something like a pto winch type thing

My idea was to either extend my control arms and keep my torsion bars or build some control arms from scratch and figure out a cheap way of getting som coil over, as for the rear the only set plan was gonna be an e-locker, or a mechanical locker. Haven't even though about rear spring and if I wanted to do spring under or not.

This whole thing would be a project truck to toy around with the idea of long travel, since I alread have a SAS runner it would be cool to have both types

 

Find a used kit. Ive seen them bought for under $1200 for good used kit. Check the racedezert.com and the dezertrangers.com classifieds.
here is one on RDC with shocks for $1500 http://www.race-dezert.com/classifie...tails&id=67568

 

At this point in time I only have a monthly budget of $100 of free money, so even a used kit is out of the question