What have you done to your 2nd Gen 4Runner today?

Been running the Spartan locker for about 6 years now. Recently switched over to Redline Heavy Shockproof and it has really helped quiet the ratcheting sounds. fwiw

 

Hey Justthemechanic,

I appreciate your sharing with us your 10,000 mile experience with your SPARTAN. I have been pondering if I should replace the 140 Wt Gl-4 with some of that 85W-140 Royal Purple which I had put in my R150F as it was very hard to shift when I first got it and it shifts much better than it did with what ever it was the PO had put in it. Can you tell us your gear oil choice in your rear-end and what is the friction fighters base lubricant is it graphite, molybdenum-di-sulfide or something else? I have a good dose of back lash and in parking lots this can get a bit out of hand as the load/unload off idle can be a bit jerky as there is a lot for free play in the drive-train. Do you experience that and find that you have to throttle up to get it to stop jerking?

Your off road experience is nice to here about and am anticipating the same level of autonomy when tackling challenging sections were a single wheels traction will be all you have working for driving the vehicle forward. Sad to hear that power sliding in the duns will be rather lackluster. Hopefully winding up the RPM into the 3500 to 5000 range will deliver some fun?

Cheers,

Andrew

 

I have been running Mobil 1, 75W-90 Synthetic Gear Lube LS and Sta-Lube, Equa-Torque modifier. No particular brand loyalty, these were on the shelf at my local store. The next time I drain it I will refill with Redline Heavy Shockproof as recommended by BestGen.

I have learned to control the backlash with the clutch and smooth application of throttle. The Spartan locker uses the stock OEM side gears. The tooth profile of the side gear is designed for the spider gears not the shallow rectangular tooth pattern on the Spartan. Only the tip of the side gear tooth engages in the locker tooth profile. The backlash is the result of unmatched tooth profiles. Spartan does make side gears for Dana differentials and I would imagine there is no noticeable backlash.

The closest sand box to me is Sand Hollow State Park OHV Area in St. George, UT. The sand is soft, deep and lots of hills. Low 4x4, 3rd gear, 3000+ rpm. It’s a fun day for me if I can survive the day without winch training.

 

There’s a guy selling an e locker pumpkin with all the gearing, think he’s asking $400 for the complete deal. What say you guys ? Worth looking at for a future Change out

I texted the guy to see what it’s out of, might go with it if it’ll switch out with my stocker. Got a response, it’s from a 98 4runner so I’m guessing if I did buy it a complete swap would be needed. Got some reading to do.

 

Plasti Dipped both bumpers today on my 90’ 4x4 this afternoon. Bondo’d over a few rust spots on the rear before applying the dip. Turned out great! Such a cheap and easy way to improve the look of any truck.

Oh, and also removed mud-flaps.

Some before and after

 

Looks good. Are you gonna plastic dip the chrome on the wheel wells and mirrors?

 

I believe I will, but the 2 cans I bought were about all I could do for the bumpers and only had a little left over to cover up the rust on the hitch and the front and rear windshield wipers. But yeah, would like to the fender trims and mirrors.

 

New tie rods and sleeves this morning.

 

This 4Runner is still new to me so I just can’t stop posting pics. A couple in the dusk time. Can’t wait to do a little mild off-roading with this runner.

 

Ahhh cool Jhayes1189, share away man. I’m with yeah I really just love my 2nd Gen, showing it off and take great pleasure in driving her around. Just dang good vehicles !

 

Yes I absolutely love it! Being a former owner of a 2012 2wd base Tacoma, it’s great to be back in a Toyota truck and to step into the world of Toyota 4x4s without annihilating my bank account lol

 

LOL, totally agree, I guess we just have to pace ourselves man, enjoy the things as we go . Heck man my short list I could burn 10K in a few days,

Solid front axle up front with all the trimmings, probably 7K installed.
Factory Toyota e-locker in the rear 2K installed
3” lift kit with the fancy fox shocks....shit just blew the budget......LOL.

My humble morning pic,

I did install a new Kenwood deck with infinity kappa speakers yesterday, heading to Pahrump this morning so maybe a few pics when I get back.

 

Haha, I understand that struggle, I too could think of thousands I could put in this vehicle. Slowly over time, lol. I’m so glad it gets me down the road well as our second vehicle, that it’s off-road ready when I want to do that, and has a rock solid frame. Even in its age you can feel the build quality of a totally Japanese made truck. And amazing how the body and paint has held up on this thing for 30 years.

The most beautiful thing about owning these old trucks, or older cars in general is that the car payment is ZERO!

 

I'm in Henderson, and wouldn't mind checking out your solid axle one of these days if you get a chance! I'm broke as a joke right now, but as soon as I get back to work and stack up a few checks, I'm going to be putting the beast down for a motor swap and solid axle. I'm a welder and plan on doing all of the fabricating myself, but just need to get an idea and see what needs to be done.

Edit: I just reread what you wrote and saw that's what you WANTED to do.... Hahaha. My bad. Well, if you need anything welded, just let me know. I'm set up at the house for tig and stick. And I have a ProComp 4" lift I'll be dumping for pennies on the dollar when I do the front axle and see if I can do a true 4link in the rear. And the front stinger bumper and sliders.

 

Amen to that jhayes1189 ! I’m done with any car notes, done. If I can’t pay cash I don’t need. I kinda regret selling our Gen 3 last year, we were a 2 4Runner family.

TheBFA, nice rig man and Thank you for the offer, I’ve got a Hobart 125 that pretty much covers everything I’d need to do here. I’ve got enough stuff here to start my own shop, kinda thinking about opening up my place.

I might be interested in that lift, in the mean time we should get together sometime man. I’d like to see that truck up close. Maybe to a short run somewhere, Nelson, down to the river. Etc.

 

Getting a new cat and flowmaster muffler today. Yay! I’m a dumbass and I have to replace that stuff because I got the truck stuck in a bunch of mud last month and it made my catalytic converter and muffler clog. Yesterday it was running like crap. It was so bad it made my truck over heat. At least it’s not head gaskets right?

 

Better than having to tear the top end down on a Fathers Day that’s for sure.

Today I replaced the last of the main hoses for the cooling system ! Finally total piece of mind now.

And check this out, the original Toyota steering dampner...190,000 miles.

There was no dampening left..LOL.

 

Wow both the hose and the damper looked bad.

 

Nice dude. I still have my original @203k. It use to leak oil, now it doesn’t. Guess it fixed itself lol jk. The new exhaust setup is pretty sweet. It has a new cat and a flow master 40 series. Since I’m in California I had to get compliant stuff which cost hella extra money. It sounds and looks good though. I didn’t put an exhaust tip on. Did everything from the cat back. Saving money for carb compliant headers next. Wanted to keep the stock look. The pipe is 2 1/4” I believe.

 

Nice Dezman92, is this the muffler that’s supposed to help increase mileage too ? Probably to early to tell but I’m curious.

 

Actually it did improve my mileage a little bit. I was getting about 200 miles until the gas light came on. This time around I got 221. Mixed city and freeway miles. So not too terrible with 33’s and an auto. That’s just one tank I’ve burned through so far. So we’ll see how it averages out.

 

My new lug nut came yesterday, Great Service from the Lugnutguys. Highly recommend them . I had splined lug nuts on the truck which meant I had to keep track of that key, I’m just gettin to old to try and remember that thing and fiddle with it in a lug wrench. Nobody in town had open ended acorn lug nuts.

And new spare, had to order that because nobody in town had one for less than $170, that came and new cover, so that whole project is done now.

Tomorrow she goes for new tire balancing then to the alignment shop and I’m done, well almost, still have to replace some of the vacuum lines but otherwise a few road trips planned, first is down to Arizona to visit the Memorial and the tree for the Granite Mountain Hotshots.

 

Installed a new driver side bottom seat cushion. I can sit for a couple of hours now without squirming around looking for a comfortable position.

I also installed a 1 inch stack of washers and a longer bolt for the aft seat mounts. That lifts the seat up where I don’t feel like I am sitting on the floor.

 

Nice JTM ! I searched all night, well until I fell asleep anyway using that number on the foams, where’d you get that ? I was just quoted $650 to redo my front seats, a bit steep for me right now, that would totally work here too.

 

I bought it from Toyota, part number 71511-89136.

 

Blacked out the side view mirrors and fender trim to match the bumper and grill with plasti dip, and then added a TOYOTA tailgate badge to the drivers door and have a 1st/2nd gen 4Runner badge in the same size coming in the mail for the passenger door. I love vinyl decals and plasti dip.
I plan to do a black trim accent on the bottom where the runner boards would have gone as well to give it a little more finished look. Also changed out 4 quarts of tranny fluid.

 

Can’t help but think something like that in white across the top of the windshield wouldn’t look really neat, awwwww man, Off to search .

 

Over the last several weeks culminating with a garage pass for fathers day weekend I have fitted:

• An All-Pro front bumper and painted it with a color of paint called Oil Rubbed Bronze which is a semi-metallic and looks really good in the sun light.
• An X-BULL 13,000 Lb. winch (58 lbs with synthetic winch line) with a custom made bracket to position the solenoid box behind the All-Pro.
• A light bar with 4 Hella 140's which are switched with a 12 volt Trombetta 100% duty cycle solenoid (the middle two are spots and the outer two have some lateral dispersion).

The Trombetta is armed by a dash switch in the OEM hole near the clutch start disable switch. When armed a 40 amp relay allows the steering wheel high beams stem switch to toggle the Hella's on and off. The 140 Hella's are fitted with 100 watt H7's so the 170 amp alternator definitely tugs at the engine speed when at idle. The headlamps are Hella's as well and have 100 watt high beam with 55 watt low beam H4's fitted.

So when the high beam is selected there are 600 watts of illumination emanating from the front of the 4Runner drawing 50 amps of current. It is like daylight for 100 yards or more.
The next project will be to fit an LT suspension system so I can out drive this lighting solution while bombing about in the Southern California desert.
Yes, it was a good fathers day this year!

 

She looks Ready to Rumble Parker and your install Is very clean ! Double likes.

 

After 4 months on jackstands, this ol girl is finally back on the road.

Bought this 4runner in February for a song. Frame was good and rust free, but the steering components were worn, and interior was rough.

A brief list of what I've done since March:
New timing belt and water pump (also, learned how to install a helicoil, since the aluminum threads like to strip out when removing the tensioner bolt)
Valve cover gaskets
Oil pan gasket
Upper & lower ball joints
Pittman arm
Idler arm
Inner/outer tie rods
Manual locking hubs
front brake pads
Rear brake drums/shoes/wheel cylinders/hardware
New heater control valve
LCE long tube headers + EGR delete
Replaced various dry-rotted hoses and vacuum lines
Gorilla Tape upholstery repair

It's been beautiful to drive since I got the front end aligned yesterday. Now, I just need to finish flushing out all the green coolant from the engine and get the red Toyota stuff running through it, and re-align the steering splines to straighten the wheel back out.