I think I may have solved the cupholder dilema that has cursed me for years. I will post pics when I get home. Here's the summary. My cig lighter broke. Actually, the plastic retainer parts broke. I relocated it to the passenger side of the center dash part, right next to the passenger's left leg. There was a write-up on this on another site. I then had the hole left in the dash where the old cig. lighter was. I bought a gambrel-style cupholder from the local West Marine store. These are the kind that swivel from a mount to avoid spills on a boat. The mount is designed to accept two wood screws. Instead, I bought a $.38 wall anchor - the kind that has the spring open V that opens inside the wall and you screw it in tight. I used a 3/8" x 2" screw/anchor setup. I put the screw throught the cupholder mount, folded the anchor part and pushed it into the 3/4" hole left by the Cig. Lighter. It sprung open inside and I sucked it in tight against the back of the dash by turning the screw. The new cupholder sits about 1/2" above the flat horizontal black panel surface near the 4wd shifter. It came with a can-cozy insert, which I may or may not use. The good news is that it holds a Super Big Gulp size cup, it doesn't swing very much, I didn't have to put holes in my dash in case it doesn't work out, it can also hold a mug because it has the handle cut-out, it is located low so it shouldn't fly all over like the stock unit...it is perfect.

 

wow sounds like you did a good job putting in that cup holder

 

It's the little things...

 

Check this out haha.

http://4runners.org/writeups/cupholder/index.html

 

Thanks. I've seen that. It's just a lot more complicated than I wanted to do.

 

Good god...that looks like a pain in the ass!

 

Having a pop spill from the high part of the dash i a pain in the ass to deal with and makes the cupholder mod a must do especially if you off road regularly.

I had a '97 sold it and bought a '99 cause I was too lazy to do the mod..............


...........j/k the '99 just had so much more including a rear locker but the '99's mid gen upgrades made it sweeter and I got the scoop.

 

I remember it like it was yesterday. A fresh 44 oz. Dr Pepper with the tapered cup (designed to fit in a can-sized cupholder) riding high in my cupholder in my new 4Runner. Turning the corner out of the Chevron parking lot and "snap". AAaaaawwwww shhhhhhhiiiiiiiiii******* The whole thing fell and exploded on my knee.

Yup....I got (had) cupholder issues.

 

You definitely have to post pics!

 

Here's the finished product. So far, it still works.

 

Looks like it works better than the factory cup holders! With all the time spent, you could have done the center console swap... Either way, looks good!

 

Total expense, including relocating cig. lighter = $25

Total time = less than 1 hr.

 

Can it still hold a drink in 4-Lo?

 

Yup, I checked. The cupholder can also slide out of the mount if you really want the space.