I just found the deal of a lifetime. After being semi depressed upon the sale of my 98, I stumbled upon what I could describe as my dream vehicle. I found a 99 Runner w/ Highlander package in black with gray leather and a 5 speed. The craziest thing......It only had 75k and one local California owner. Talk about a score. Price? 8k. Unbelievable. The only downside is that the front bumper needs replacement and htere are several good dings. I got a quote from the best dentman around for $530 to remove, so not that bad. I did buy a new bumper and valance, but have not installed it. I think I am just going to go with a front and rear from Savage Offroad in Fresno. So far, I had the timing belt done, new Revo II's w/E load rating, Bilstein HD's and the W13SE Tundra brake conversion. All fluids: oil, diffs, tranny and t-case have been switched to Redline. I put about 3k into maintenance and parts so far so I'm into the car about 11k. Within the past month I have put 5k on the odometer. Took it to Tahoe three times. Beautiful truck. I bought the OE RR Diff Lock button and REALLY want to go about installing an OE locker. I will post pics here in a bit, but was looking for some technical assistance with the install in the next month or so. I need to locate a nice locker first. Any advice on where to get a nice OE locker is appreciated. If anyone wants to lend a hand, beer and food is on me. Thanks guys.

 

Look in junk yards via car-part.com

All other info/links to pars lists you need will be in the first 3 posts of this thread
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/e...rd-gen-151537/

I would suggest finding the whole axle to swap in instead of modifying the housing

 

Thanks for the info Rob. I appreciate the response.

 

Nice find but you gotta stop spending all your beer money!

 

Pictures?

 

I will go snap some pictures later when I get a chance. I know, I need to stop spending the beer $$$. Us teachers in California don't get paid enough to keep shelling out 70-130 per hour for a mechanic to work on our cars. I can do most of the easy stuff: fluids, plugs, brakes, but the cost of labor for things like the timing belt and shocks could have been used for the beer fund. A darn plentiful one at that.

 

Good call on getting all that maintainence out of the way, you're going to have a soild 4runner by the time you're done

 

Nice 3rd gen. Its a challenge finding a 5spd 3rd gen in california. I had to drive 6 hours for mine.

 

I thought the highlander package included the rear diff lock?

 

It was standard with the SX package which most '99s had the diff lock and all (or very close to) had the taller coils which not all '99 had contrary to belief.

http://www.top4runners.com/ja/highlander.html

 

Extremely jealous. That's a screamin' deal. I'm not too crazy about the grey interiors with the black cars. Personally I think the tan looks much much better.

Check out the front bumper from Shrockworks. IMO the Savage bumpers only look good on a rig dedicated solely to off-roading.

Post some photos soon. Nice find!

 

If the car came stock with the SX package it would have been too good to be true. It pretty much is as it stands. I do have the taller coils though as I have seen the marks on the springs when underneath.

 

I'm really hoping that the wiring and ecu for the locker are hiding somwhere. That would be a score.