Gatorgrl's Grand Gen2 4Runner makeover

Ok we worked on that peaky leaking sunroof. We had to make a piece since one of our cables is broken and made of unobtanium. He didn't want to permanently disable the sunroof, in the event we come across this cable in the future and can properly fix it. In the interim, this is our fix:

This was made to expand into position to put pressure on the rear of the sunroof, to hold it up.

And this is one in position in the rear corner of the sunroof assembly. The other is in the opposite corner.
Now on to fixing the a/c.....again.

 

Transfer case:
Does anyone else notice that their transfer case gets hot when traveling at highway speeds?
(when its not cold outside)

 

Drove 15 miles. It was warm...

 

Top speed was fiftey five though....

 

I have always removed the rear drive shaft when towing these older Toyota’s because without doing so, you have high speed movement in the rear of the case but no fluid movement off the oil slinger which is operated from the Tcase input.

 

OK, we drove it at 60mph for 8hrs, so maybe that was a bit much for it?

 

I’ld say that’s pretty reliable....

 

OK did some a/c work last night. Yes, more joy was had. Hopefully these pics help someone that might have to do this repair too.


This is the expansion valve we needed to replace. Now to find it in the car.


It's in here, believe it or not.


There it is!


Time to remove it and replace it.



Not so fast...this Allen bolt decided to strip for us. UGH!
Much cursing and drastic measures were attempted until ultimately ,we had to drill it out.


Success was had, but we got hungry and called it a night. Going back today to hopefully finish the job.

 

Hello!

 

Does your T4R still use R-12, or has it been converted to R134a? Pre-1994 Toyotas with the R-12 refrigerant were like walk-in freezers with the A/C on full blast!

 

It's been converted. Still having issue due to no power going to the compressor. Compressor is new and works if we jump it. No voltage going to it. Searching for all the relays now.

On another issue, think we found out why our transfer case is getting hot. Forgot we put the new exhaust on it and the crossover happens right under the transfer case..
Duh! Gonna put heat wrap on it and see if that fixes it.

 

Found the friggin culprit to the a/c issue. It's the damned a/c switch / button. It's a fuckin relay and it's not working any longer. Off to the junkyard I go!

 

Running a little lean?

 

Nope...knock on wood.

This a/c gremlin really kicked our ass. After taking the dash apart and going over every single fuse, relay and switch to the entire a/c system as well as pinning all the connectors, he still couldn't find the culprit. Then, as a last ditch effort, I had the car running and he took one of the relays out and plugged it back in and SHAZAM! the fuckin compressor kicked on. No clue why this time it decided to work. We had all those relays and shit out several times over the last 2 days and this time it decided to work. I give up. It's now working. I don't know why.

 

Here's what we did to the exhaust crossover issue:

Before:


And now:



This should help somewhat to keep the heat off the transfer case.

Also noticed we will need to rebuild out power steering as she is leaking pretty good now. Ugh.

 

What were the headers y’all got? Do you like them? it’s a tight space over there on my truck. Slave cyl/ clutch fork/ fuel line/ ARB air line. I can’t decide if I want to just keep the factory cross-over. Not going for performance, just trying to keep this new engine cooler for the life of the head gasket.

 

@Fourtoad

You should upgrade the stereo!

 

I tried to find and link you to the headers I got off Amazon, but apparently they don't exist anymore. I got them from Auto Dynasty off Amazon. They are stainless steel headers. So far we are happy with them. Yes, it was a tight fit for us too but we made it and created some heat shield in addition to the wrapping.

 

We’re they the $179 set of headers?

 

$183.88 if I remember right.

 

Ok. Seems the pro tuning labs is the type. All the header kits at that price seem the same. Thanks for the info.

 

@Fourtoad

Would you ever put a backup camera or a Bluetooth stereo in your T4R?

 

Charlie, if I could finally STOP fixing more important things, then I might consider upgrading luxury things such as the radio. Both of my builds are in need of some tunes oddly enough.

 

I’ve been listening to cassette tapes of Christmas music.

 

I have all my favorite Christmas songs on my iPod!

 

Not the same. It even has auto-reverse and I don’t have to flip the tape...

 

I don’t think I ever had Christmas songs on tape; Only on CD...

I have a playlist of all my favorite Christmas songs and it just plays in a never-ending loop if I allow it to.

 

Well, today's challenge was to fix a new leak....that damned power steering pump! Bought a reseal kit from o'Reilly's for $15.00 and it took about 1hr to do the job.



Now I get to pressure wash the bottom of the engine to get all that power steering fluid off it. It also appears to have a slight coolant leak, but we have to clean it up first to find where that is coming from.

 

Did you have to press the seal in or just use a socket type deal?

 

He put a little Indian head on it and tapped it into place. Socket type deal.