A Guy A Girl and a Trail: Adventures in a 4Runner Limited

I had a busy day yesterday.

I replaced the water pump, thermostat with water inlet, thermostat housing, all the seals and gaskets, hydraulic fan clutch, serp belt, and spark plugs. ANd I found some more work to do in the process. While the front of the engine was disassembled I went through checking all the pulleys and accessories, I found the bearing in the belt tensioner pulley feels pretty grainy and makes a little bit of noise. The rest are all smooth and quiet, so I'll have to replace that pulley. When I pulled the plugs the driver's side rearmost pug has a very slight amount of oil getting in above the plug. It not saturating the coil or anything like that, so there's no major rush to repair it but I'll need to pull the valve covers and replace the spark plug tube seals. The final item I'll need to address is the C4 battery tray. The firewall mount cracked, that's something I'll have to address in the spring when the snow starts to melt before trails reopen, that pretty disappointing considering C4 claims it will hold a group 31 and I'm not running nearly that much weight on it.







This was pretty funny, Toyota's repair manual says you need to remove the alternator and the A/C compressor so you can remove the belt tensioner assembly from the side of the block because there's a water pump bolt behind it... or you can just not do any of that. Pull and hold the tension back and just take the bolt out while the pulley is out of the way. You can remove a bunch of shit or you can just hold tension on a wrench for 20 seconds.

 

Agreed! Had a hard time getting past the $$ to buy it but man, one of the best products I have. So pleased I bought another one for my other grease gun.
No more grease going anywhere but the zerk!

 

This past week was pull your hair out levels of stress at work. Seriously l’ve never been that stressed ever. With COVID well on its way to fucking up another ski season I was looking for some dirt therapy.

My 4 year old knocked out 11.2 miles of dirt singletrack with 840 feet of elevation gain or Saturday and another 5 miles Sunday. He wanted to get his 2 favorite trails on GoPro... who am I to say no

I’m so impressed with how fast he’s getting!

https://youtu.be/I4SRiAm3CLM

 

41 weeks (9 months and 14 days to be exact) but it’s finally here!






But did you notice something missing? The welder completely forgot to weld on the recovery points! They are currently building me a third bumper. What can you do but laugh at this point.

 

Sweet looking trail - where is it if you don't mind me asking?

 

I’m in Colorado, that’s the Erie Singletrack, it’s pretty fantastic for being literally right outside. In the video you see how much pavement is required to be in the neighborhood.

 

That's almost Gobi wait times.

Badass looking bumper though.

 

So did you ultimately decide to keep your current rig and not get the 2021 Pro?

I don't remember hearing a conclusion to that thread.

 

Yes, the 2011 stays. That was the reason behind doing the brake lines, the brake hardware, the cooling system, clock spring, etc. freshening it up to keep it for the long haul.

 

Man, that looks nice! Until you look at those missing pieces!

 

Why not ask them for the recovery points and have them foot the bill to have someone local weld them on? I wouldn’t want to wait for another bumper. This has been quite the saga

 

It was actually kinda funny. I texted their GM and said I got it with some pics right after I opened it up. He actually noticed before I did and brought it up to me.

Same day he gave me options
1 - full refund and I keep the bumper plus they will send the recovery points and I cause use the refund to have it welded and re-powdercoated locally, but he cautioned it’s a pretty intricate design and he wouldn’t recommend having someone other than their usual place do the powder coat.
2 - partial refund and they build the main section and get it shipped out ASAP and I’d swap over the tailgate and swing arm and all that extra stuff when it arrives.
3 - partial refund and they could engineer a way to do bolt on recovery points.
4 - they would fly me out so I could punch each of them in the face for fucking this up so bad lol.


I went with option 2, they had extra materials in stock and said the main structure itself is a relatively quick build. It’s already done and I’ll go to powder coat Monday.

The situation is unfortunate but they have handled it the right way. In the end I’m coming out of this still happy, the end coat will be worth the headaches and waiting.

 

Makes you wish you could combine any offer with 4

 

Shit happens, we’re all human. They have handled a bad situation very well. If my experience was typical they would have been out of business years ago. No ill will on my end.

 

Bumper #3 returned from powder coat yesterday. It should should get packed and ready for shipping this week.

In other news, I placed an order for a Hefty Fabworks front plate bumper yesterday.

 

I ordered a winch to go with the front bumper on Christmas Eve, it was legit like 40 hours and it was at my door.

 

Next thing parts of the refresh is in the works.

The overland custom design forged ball joint end links are finally back in stock so I ordered those for all the way around.
https://overlandcustomdesign.com/co...nks/products/forged-ball-joint-sway-bar-links

and I’m getting parts on order to swap front coils on my kings and rebuild and revalve them all the way around to match the new spring rates.

 

Since you’re more adept at this stuff than me, I have a question. Ask here or PM?

 

I’d say post it here, might as well have the potential for multiple opinions.

 

Well, I installed the Prothane sway bar bushings when I did the suspension. I keep them greased but have been getting a popping sound from the front when turning in reverse. Is this something that just happens with the urethane bushings?
Sorry it took me a little while to get back on here. Appreciate the help

 

What spring rate are you running? I just picked up a used set, with 550 spring rate. I got a second set of springs with a rate of 600, just wondering if 550 is ideal for no added weight or if I should have the 600 springs installed instead.

 

A few things come to mind

- Did the suspension come with a sway bar relocation kit? And did you happen to line up the new bushings with the old bushings? It’s not unheard of that the sway bar can contact the radiator support lower braces under certain conditions. Crawl under and look with a flash light from the side and see how much clearance there is. Also if the the hole in the new bushings are the slightest bit offset compared to the OEM stuff it will change the position of the bar which again, can cause interference issues. If the inner diameter is slight to large it can cause excessive movement.

- What are you running for skid plates? I’d start with removing them, cleaning the mounting points where they touch the frame and reinstall them/retighten them. You’d be surprised how the slightest bit of grit can allow the skid plates and underbody bracing to shift and make a pop noise.

- Go over and retorque the suspension components.

- You went with the JBA arms right? Give the ball joints a bunch of grease, and loosen the bolt the bushings and grease those before retightening.

- Finally a visual inspection, look at the fender liners, suspension, underbody, for visual signs of anything that’s scuffed, scraped, oddly clean and shiny, especially with the sway bar and suspension.

- If all else fails the sway bar bushings are quick and easy to swap, put them back to stock and see if the noise goes away.

** Random side note about a couple similar instances I’ve ran into with pretty crazy outcomes. I had a 2004 VW Jetta GLI come in back in the day that kicked my ass. Intermittently when backing up and turning it would pop in the front suspension. I chased my tail with that thing forever trying to find the problem and the precise conditions of when it did it. In the end it was when the brakes where within a specific temperature range at the rotor hats, full steering lock in reverse with just the right amount of brake pedal applied - the pressed in wheel bearing assembly would rock side to side inside the spindle. I’m talking like thousands of a inch of movement but being metal on metal pressed fit that amount of movement transferred a lot of noise. Individual parts were all within spec but as an assembled unit something didn’t sit right.

The other super odd one was a prototype vehicle, new model, still not announced, heavily camo’d - clunk from the front while backing up. It was the brake pads shifting when cold, but that was normal. It ended up being the design of the wheels. The inner barrel of the wheel just happened to catch and amplify that otherwise inaudible sound like it was a megaphone. Swapped wheels and it was silent. That was one of the oddest things I’ve come across, obviously those wheels didn’t make the production car.

 

It’s currently on 550# springs, that’s the ideal setup for near OEM weight up front. That will work well for skids and sliders. Once you do a bumper and or a winch it’s time to upgrade.

I’ve always been mindful of adding weight. My skids are full plate aluminum, I ordered the Hefty Fab plate aluminum front bumper - it’s strong as hell but only 65 lbs, I added the second battery with a tray that mounts it near the firewall instead of up front leverage out over the front axle, the winch is what it is but I did go with synthetic rope to drop some weight.

 

I'll have to check the alignment of the sway bar. I'm thinking that it is probably out of alignment. If I remember correctly the Prothane bushings have elongated mounting holes. I'll also check the skid (TRD) for alignment. I hit a deer about a year ago and I'm wondering if the mount got knocked out of whack. Thanks

 

Just out of curiosity, why did you change the to bushings? Generally aftermarket sway bar bushings is a harder durometer rubber that in effect, stiffens the sway bar, which fights axle articulation - not necessarily a bad thing, it’s better for on road, just not for offroad.

 

Subbed, living that beautiful CO life vicariously through you!

 

I had ordered them before deciding on suspension. I had read some reviews that they helped in stock form with nose dive and just made the vehicle feel more planted. I never got around to installing them (out of sheer laziness) so I decided to go a head and do so with the lift. I like the fact they are greaseable, but the rear one near the gas tank is impossible to get grease into due to clearance so I may end up just pulling them and going back to stock.

I am interested in the sway bar ends you posted, so that might be something I look into here soon.

 

Awesome, good to hear! I don’t plan on adding weight for a while, so I don’t want to put heavier springs that I don’t need. I have a stock front end. Thanks for info

 

Fair enough.

If you’re going to do the link jump on them now. They have been out of stock for a LONG time, I got tired of checking back so months ago I signed up for the email notification for when they were back in stock. They just got back in stock a few days ago so I jumped on it. Get them while you can.