some back story

I'm going to pay for this 4 runner tomorrow which I have been thinking about buying for some time now. It's one of my buddies and he offered me a killer deal on it that I couldn't say no to. Will probably sit up in his shop till I get some rollers for it. It has been sitting inside covered in mud for 2 or three years so a good cleaning and tune up are in order. The clutch master cylinder and front pinion nut backed out while wheeling so he towed it home, sold the wheels and tires and was planning on doing a SAS.

I want to make this 4 runner my daily driver/ hunting/ lighter wheeling rig on a budget so I will wheel and deal or trade for parts along with not making it to crazy. So the build might be really slow for major parts. The goal is to having something to wheel if my built 1 ton v8 jeep is broken and to keep miles off my diesel truck. Plus I would like to be able to just drive to the trail versus having to load up my gooseneck etc.
Specs
1988 4 runner v6 5spd 4x4
- Trailmaster lift
- 4.88's and lockrights f&r
- Marlin crawler rear tube bumper
- rebuilt 3.0 with maybe 2k miles on it
- repainted camaro burnt orange 4 or 5 years back
- comes with TG 5inch rear springs ( but no mounts or shackles)

needs
- Clutch master cylinder (already have one along with slave)
- wheels and tires (have some rollers , but going to put my 35/12.50/17 nitto trail grapplers on when I can find wheels)
-very thorough cleaning
-Fluids changed

plans
- Mini truck front axle( sitting at another friends house just have to pay him)
- regear front to 4.88's and maybe a locker(if I can find it cheap enough)
- TG 4in or 4in HD SAS kit to just keep it simple
- Soft top
- dual stock 23 spl cases
- TG r150 case adapter
- Put on my 35's
- tube front bumper and sliders with winch






And I bought this 4 runner for 500.00, Wish I had kept all my old toyota axle parts etc along with ARP studs, twin sticks, and LF chromo output but sold those with buggy

 

Should be getting the rollers sometime next week then I'll plan a day and night where I can get the new parts on it and load it up on a trailer. Then It's getting the cleaning of it's life and a was/polish/compound along with interior cleaning. While this is a fresher paint job and a no rust 4 runner it will take a min because of all the mud.

Forgot to add last time I was up at his place we hooked up a new battery and it started right up! Impressed the hell out of me

 

Good luck with the 4runner, looks really good, body is better then my 89, hope it worksm out, oh nice price.....Bill

 

Thanks I have a new battery, clutch master and slave, driveshaft, and just waiting on getting my rollers from a buddy. Also need to get some oil for it so I can change it before running the motor much

 

Looks like i'm picking up a d44/d60 combo from my buddy and going with full widths

 

Nice....there goes the "light wheeling rig" haha. Still using leafs?


Looking forward to seeing it get built!

 

yes, davez offroad is working on making its own full width kit so I will probably run that. And yes " light wheeling" will still be the plan, just figured since everything I own is 8lug and I can get a locked d44 and d60 combo for a little more than a toyota front axle goes for.. why not?

 

Waiting on my u-bolt kit to get here and then I will go get this thing moveable so it can be trailered home

 

14 bolt rear and d60 front. best combo imo. i have 14 bolt rear and d44 front but im getting 60 as soon as i can. way stronger. but im also running 43's

 

My jeep has a d60 14b combo on 42's , which was a badass upgrade over my old Toyota axle'd rigs. Not 100% sure on the direction for this one

 

Still have yet to go pick this up and work on it, finally set up my shop so pretty soon it will be moved and worked on finally! Still debating on full widths or yota axles.

 

if you decide to go full widths, sky manufacturing has a great full width kit. I used it swapping full widths under my 86 pickup.

Just food for thought, I went full widths because I was swapping in a V8 and planning on running big tires (40+" eventually). The yota axles are extremely tough in their own right as well, but for my purposes I didn't know if they would take the abuse I am planning on giving the truck lol.

here's the link to my SAS swap to see the full widths
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f152...s-tons-257272/

 

Calling a yota axle tough is a pretty hard thing to do for me lol, I've had two crawlers with built Toyota axles and one had everything aftermarket but housing and I still never "trusted" the axles and broke crap all the time. The reason I was planning on full widths was for width, easy of buying parts, plus I had a set lined up but let them go. I've just had bad luck with Toyota axles and the cost of making them reliable is pretty $$$$. Maybe I'm just really hard on stuff and tend to find the weak links, or bought my Toyota based rigs after they had been flogged on for too long?

Way I figure it, i'll have over 1300 in just parts to make the front end survive abuse and be able to drive home and thats not including buying an axle or regearing/locker. Granted this will mostly be a pavement princess that sees wheeling occasionally, but my goal to make yota front axle survive on 36's-37's and make it home might be expensive! The biggest issue with fullwidths seems to be brakes from what Ive read.

 

Is there an echo in this place? That statement is pretty much what I have been saying about Toyota axles, when all said and done after purchasing the front axle and longs, your into a Toyota axle for more then my Dana 60 front axle cost me.
For full size axle brakes, you get an adapter to run a GM master and Skys Offroad has metric to standard adapters for like $25.

 

Don't forget about having to go ARP everything stud wise so that you don't sheer off all 6 of your factory bolts! Biggest thing i'm concerned with is weight, toyota motors aren't exactly powerful (well except 2jz) and I'd hate to have a 10mpg 4 runner that weighed a ton

 

Yes there is the weight, mine weighs about 500 pounds each, the other drawback of going with fullsize axles is the ground clearance is less then with a Yota axle. My 14 bolt is pretty bad, there are ways to get clearance by shaving the housing, depending on how far you go it can get pretty involved.
Eliminating the drum brakes is also a good way to shave some weight.

 

I'm running 42 pitbull rockers on my d60/14b in my jeep and Clearance isn't to bad. I think I might just keep it all yota because my rear is already geared and locked

 

Went and got this yesterday, found out quickly that my bell housing is busted up and I assume that the transmission is also. So now I'm looking for another r150f or possibly doing the AX15 swap so I can run a dana 300 I'm having evil thoughts about a ax15/d300 combo because well the dana300 is a way better case overall.

We put the TG rear ubolt flip kit, new clutch master and slave then found out the bellhosuing and trans are trashed( it's stuck in reverse). It only took roughly 30 mins to put everything in and then figure out the bellhosuing was trashed. Not sure why it took me a year to go get it? Here are some pics of it on the way home, and some of quick work with my buffer.


Covered in mud for 3 or 4 years first time out of garage since


quick spray off at car wash


paint this morning before



after some quick buffing work with my big dewalt rotary, can't wait to see it after some actual time spent!