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

Belated Happy Birthday to you atgparker ! That’s some awesome looking work that you’ve done I’m really liking your rear disc brake conversion, sweet man.

 

Bought an OEM bumper for my rig after I lost the original in a fender bender now it’s rusted cause it’s poorly made. Now I’m gonna put dads original bumper on! (He has a 91 I have a 90) I’ll keep you guys posted.

 

Nice and shiny now. I had to change out the lower valence as well. I didn’t feel like recutting out spots on the ends for better approach angle as well as a spot for my lightbar.

 

Mounted some short body 7100 Bilstein's (360/80 valving FYI) a few weeks back and got a chance to run them somewhat hard at Borrego Springs, CA over the last several days. Here is the start of our run to Ocotillo Wells. Still missing my Blazeland Long Arm suspension for the front end. But I turned up the torsions by about 10 turns at the anchor bolt to get another inch of ground clearance as the OME torsions had settled a bit over the last several months of pavement pounding!...

Here are some pics of the installation that I came up with for the 7100's.
After some decent trail running they seemed to be about half as warm as the SkyJacker M95's are on the front suspension. You have to love all that surface area which the remote reservoir provides for cooling and general heat dissipation. The M95's up front are about 5" for stroke and the surface area is less than half that of the Bilstein's. So they get hot pretty quickly. The Yukon Grizzly made short work of the Diablo Drop-Off.
The addition of hub centric 2-1/2" thick Trail Gear wheel spacers makes the needed space for outboard frame mounting of the shocks to fit between the tires and frame. Notice the mounting plate for the All Pro Economy Disk Brake Conversion is visible now that the spacers are in place. Wish I had a TIG!...

Here below is a shot at the lookout over Borrego Springs and the Badlands. Notice the sag with a loaded rig.
The softer 1991 OEM coils end up with about 2" of up-travel when I load up the 4Runner with kit, even with the 1-1/2" thick Daystar coil spacer in place the sag is bad! So I could not "mob-it" as hard as I would have liked. Perhaps the Firestone air springs I sourced for my now scrapped Range Rover and the Neway pneumatic proportioning valves will be a good solution for maintaining a 5" ride height travel distance regardless of the load I am carrying?

Missed the rain by staying at Redstone Canyon for the first night which is close to Ocotillo Wells.

Sheep Canyon which T's off of Coyote Canyon near Borrego Springs was the destination for the second nights camping spot.
Awesome trip, great weather and good times with my two son's and some of their buddies.
I feel very blessed to be able to share this passion with them.
Ready for some more suspension improvements, more adventures and the next chapter in the 4Runners development.
Happy New Year

 

What a true blessing atgparker, being able to enjoy with your boys. And that your willing to share with us here. Thank you and all of the 4runners look great ! Impressive amount of work you’ve done to that runner man.

Happy New Year to you and your family.

 

https://frontrangeoffroadfab.com/crossmember-and-skidplate-combo/

I saved this as a potential mod down the road, thought I’d share with you. Hard to tell but might add some ground clearance, strength.

 

Today the Pro Comp Coils were installed into the rear suspension. These suckers are advertised as 4" lift and Summit lists them as having 140 lb./in. for the spring rate. See the pictures for all the details The wire diameter is about Ø.600" which is slightly thicker than the OEM coils I have with Daystar 1.5" spacers. But the really appealing thing about these springs is they are longer and have 7 active coils as compared to 5 with the OEM. They are longer to by almost 3.75" inches. The Free length is almost 19 inches.

The OEM with Daystar is 15 inches.

The Bottle jack gets the job done and the Panhars rods bolt get loosened up. But to get these in you need a spring compressor

Harbor Frieght Maddow MacPherson Strut Spring Compressor was $32 this week.
These work better if you put the bolt at the bottom instead of the top of the spring.
Live and learn, the bolt head can get hard get your socket wrench on and off when the spring compressor is shown in the picture they way I have it.
The bummer on the Pro Comp springs is that the top coils while closed they is not ground so the isolator is going to get ruined.

Ah, the new ride height is much improved 5 inches before the bump stop rubber hits the spring perch.

16" from the rim to the fender it was almost 14 inches before with the OEM coil and the Daystar spacer.

Man this is going to be so awesome once the Blazeland arms get put in the front end.

Full droop with limit straps at full tension, the tires are just off the ground.
The Bilstein's have about another inch of travel before they are topped out. Up travel is approximately 8-1/2 to 9 inches.
I made a 3.00" x 1.75" plate with holes that are offset by 2" for the brake bias valve arm to attach too.
Also had to extend the mount for the panhard rod to stop the drive shaft from rubbing on the fuel tank at full droop.

All finished: 5 inches of up travel and 3 inches of droop without any load in the back. These springs will probably lose some height before too long but hopefully they stay north of 4 inches of up travel for the long haul.

The next adventure is going to be much more interesting.

 

I retro fit an 83 Hilux grill into my 93

 

That’s awesome man! Looks sick!

 

I started building my bumper a couple weeks ago, started with the back plate and slowly worked in a front, top, and bottom.

after that I added a skid plate and sprayed some primer on it to keep the rust out. I also reinforced the brackets to keep the heavier bumper held up.

now I’m waiting for it to dry can’t wait to put it on my rig! Total build time:a little less than 30 hours

 

Finished product!

 

Fabricated an adjustable panhard rod drop down extension for the rear suspension over the weekend.

• Since the Pro Comp coils are 7 active coils and provide a sizable lift once installed, the pan hard rod/bar gets rather far away from horizontal.

• The extension is 4" long to level the bar.

• See my Build Page in the other area of the forum for more details.

 

This is my 91 4Runner SR5.
Third owner was lent down to me by my father. Kept in great condition. Interior is spotless.
Currently working on a rebuild on the original 3VZE motor since they can last forever almost. Vehicle is a conversion from automatic to a 5Speed transmission.
Drive shaft is getting rebuilt at the moment so I’m just waiting for them to finish that up. Cheers

 

Finally got my Blazeland kit installed into the front suspension.

The new look has totally reinvigorated my love for this vehicle.

 

Out fricking standing ! I’m not even going to ask what that cost but she looks great and ready for some serious go anywhere fun. I’d say the only thing that bothers me is your Toyota badge on the grill is barely visible. But who the hell cares, form and function it looks awesome. Are you married Parker, I’d find it hard to stay home with that, at least my free time I know where I’d be...on some trails.

 

Took the 4Runner out to Borrego and Ocotillo a few weeks back as a last ditch run before the summer heat. The Blazeland suspension and the Pro Comps worked quite well in the rough stuff. But the Pro Comps with the huge lift and offset panhard rod adapter roll the body a lot and the effective softening of the roll center due to the 3.5" A-arm length added by the kit has the on road handling in the trash. So, I am trying out some Eibach coils which are not as tall and are about 50 lb/in softer than the OEM coils but provide about 2-3" of lift unloaded. Also on order are some Sway-A-Way 25mm diameter torsion bars to help firm up the extended A-arms. I'm going to try a T-100 anti-roll bar on the front suspension as well to see how well that works as it is bigger in diameter and reaches further out to the OEM holes in the A-arms which should help greatly with controlling body roll and improve the handling.

 

Well I got the T-100 anti roll bar mounts fabricated onto the outside of the frame so that will certainly help with calming down the rolling in corners with the Blazeland A-arms.

 

Hello, Where can I find a set of CARB legal headers? I also live in California...

 

Installed an electric fan to replace the mechanical one.

 

Getting ready to swap out my ratty interior. Picked up a nice low mile donor/parts rig.

 

Reunited with mine..!

 

Thought I'd tackle Cleaning the Engine Bay this morning..! Used Chris Fix's Video as a Guide / for Helpful Tips etc.

 

That looks good, I need to do that.

 

This is the Video I used as a Guide / Tutorial.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRSoRkM8GcM

 

Fast Forward to June, and the Love Affair continues..

Removed the Flares and Side Decals revealing a less than ideal Body requiring some Rust Treatment..! Bought a new set of Wheels and Tyres from 4x4Tyres too, went up to 17" to remove some of the Boaty Feeling..

 

Getting ready for a trip this weekend. Swapped in new brake booster and power steering pump. Replaced old coolant lines for the rear heater core. Brakes with very little effort now and now it doesn't have a squeaky pump bearing that I have to worry about seizing. This just about wraps up major maintenance work and now I can start on the fun stuff like suspension.

 

Replaced the Motor, Regulator and Runners on my Rear Window.. And wrote about it - https://kingroon.blog/2022/08/18/rear-window/

Works like New now..! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMRjus0BM0I

 

Hi,
It was more or less routine maintenance on my 95 4Runner over the weekend. I changed the oil, flushed the cooling system (thanks Chris Fixx), replaced the upper/lower radiator hoses, replaced air filter, fixed windshield wiper washer (all disconnected), degreased a little, upgraded to LED headlight bulbs, and gave her a bath, and a few other odds and ends. Nothing fancy but I think the vehicle runs better and a little cooler.

 

I found a split CV boot on Saturday. I looked at the Autozone boots and they had really mixed reviews, so I sprung for the kit from Toyota. Took the CV axle out on Monday. Picked up the CV boot kit on Tuesday, disassembled the inboard joint, took the old boots off, cleaned out old grease, installed new boots, reassembled inboard joint, packed with new grease, installed new boot bands, and put it all back in the truck. Not as painful as I feared it would be and now I've got a refreshed CV axle. I'll probably do the other side next month.

 

I replaced my wiper motor on the 92 I jsut bought, to replace my 94 that blew it's engine last week No problem pulling both for the exchange, but pushing the wiper motor back into the 92's wiper bushing was quite the problem. It completely disinegrated! No auto part store or ebay, or online store had a compatible bushing. SO I Macgyver'd it with a plastic cap from a protein shake. I cut a slit on two sides and six in the top. Works perfect!!!