I just had a crazy idea has anyone thought of modifying their 3rd gen heater horizontal style climate controls to the more modern late 4th gen circular/horizontal style controls?
I saw a fragment of the 4th gen controls in a pic. and it looks like it might be posible.
Might be a cool thing to do...

 

I've not, but then I don't know what 4th gen controls look like, either. Got a pic?

 

why would you want to do that? i personally perfer my 3rd gen controls to my 4th gens. the 4th gens just feel kinda cheap to me, but thats just my opinion, heres a pic for you though

 

Not those ones I was talking about the ones in the 1998-2000 tacomas
they had circular dial switches for the mode and temp selectors and slide switches for fan speed and fresh/recirc selection, the AC remained a seperate button. I've foolded with them once ot twice at the showroom years ago and they felt fine, in some ways smoother and more refined then the slide switches. I agree they new ones on the 4-5th gen 4runners like your pic are cheap crap.
I took a look at the 1998s in the tech manual and they might fit but I'm not sure if they could be made to work properly.
As for why do it... why not? I was just thinking it would be a way to individualise the truck and wondered if anyone else had had the same thought or tried it themselves. If anyone has a pic of the controls with/without the trim plate and could post it that would be great.

 

I think I know the controls you are talking about Aviator. My dad's 97 4Runner has the slider type controls (Which interestingly are almost identical to my 84's), but I hvae seen newer 4runners of the same generation wiht the dial type. It might take a fair amout of fab work to get things to work however because the slider type controls use cables to move things, whereas the dial type are electrical and use servo motors that would have to be mounted. (I think)

 

I like the slider designs of my 88 and 90 trucks.

I don't like the newer ones

 

Going by what I saw in the FSMs the ones I'm thinking of were still cable controlled just using a dial for the vent and temp controls instead of the sliders.
Here is a link to the FSM page as you can see all operations are still cable controlled the panel looks a little more modern is all.

http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/2000/Repa...embly/remo.pdf

The actual control mount points appear to be the same as the 89-95s about all you'd have to do is adapt the clock surround to the heater face plate. Or so it appears...

 

Hmmm, you got me thinking now. I need to replace the back lighting in there so it looks like another trip to the wrecker to do some measuring is in order.

 

Let me know what you find... if it works I'll share naming rights on the mod with you. lol

 

Aviator, I thought about this idea when I did my 3.4 conversion, until I saw the electrical and servo motor set ups under the dash of my '02 Taco donor. I decided that was WAY more involved than I wanted to get for that project.

If the earlier dial style were still cable operated, then my guess would be that it would be a pretty straight forward swap. I'm pretty sure that the control panels are the same size as the 2nd gen dash ones.

Good luck!

 

Its a "no-go" on my end. I couldn't find a Runner with those controls at the wrecker.

Btw, if it does work, you came up with the idea, ergo, you get naming rights