Frame Rot!! Is this the end?

shahsmerdis said:

what did the tech say when he knew what you did?

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I talked to him after.

"Nice job, but you sure had a lot of Anti-Seize all over that thing."

He got that right. Need better weather to hit it with the pressure washer. Got nasty just as I finished up.

TheDurk said:

I talked to him after.

"Nice job, but you sure had a lot of Anti-Seize all over that thing."

He got that right. Need better weather to hit it with the pressure washer. Got nasty just as I finished up.

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all from the same drop of antisieze right? lol

TheDurk said:

OK, for you and others ( [MENTION=99565]kolelt[/MENTION] ) with the problem, and anyone that wants a preview of the DIY that will come, and for my future use, I created a public album with all the pics. Some pics I will use to put it all back together and some that show the drama of squeezing the old frame out from underneath the body. Tighter than frog *****.

You won't get them in context to my posts but at least you can see them. Eventually I may put them in order with captions.

Here is the link:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfa6KQhlNiiE4pakASzgib4NKnJdN2ysOqUf44dEPGt9j8X61dCNtjRzncVA97IA?key=N1ZpNTdvQWVLRVZzZzZjMkpnWVliVFVRS0JqQnVB

Let me know if it doesn't work. It's still missing a bunch I took with my tablet when I couldn't find the camera.

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Wow! This is awesome! I found the link to the pics using Chrome, as I too couldn't see any of your pics on the forum! Absolutely incredible! Subscribed.

Way to see the project to the end. Nothing short of incredibly impressive.

TheDurk said:

And now it is officially done. Clean alignment and truck is running great. A few weird settling in noises which I assume is the body accommodating to a new chassis. I'm actually quite impressed by my totally eyeball driveway alignment. I had caster and camber in spec, and wasn't that far out on toe -in. I could have done better, but I figured I'm paying these guys, right? I just wanted not to shred my tires getting there.

Thanks to all of you who provided moral support through a long and fairly arduous adventure far beyond anything I have done before. This forum and all of you are great.

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OK I have to put my .02 in here because, well...ah hell I don't need a reason I just like to bust your chops.

How does it drive? I would have liked to see more Caster on the right side then the left. Although he did leave it with more positive Camber on the left, so it might not get road crown drift. Both mine are almost perfectly symmetrical and they both drift a little right on many roads.

Kudos to the shop for using a John Bean aligner, not that I work for them or anything, or maybe I do. I hate that report though, too busy, just give me the numbers!

Also impressive that your thrust angle is less than .05, both mine are at .1 and .2 respectively, the 4wd needs trailing arm bushings, or new arms, badly.

:couch2:

IBallEngineer said:

OK I have to put my .02 in here because, well...ah hell I don't need a reason I just like to bust your chops.

How does it drive? I would have liked to see more Caster on the right side then the left. Although he did leave it with more positive Camber on the left, so it might not get road crown drift. Both mine are almost perfectly symmetrical and they both drift a little right on many roads.

Kudos to the shop for using a John Bean aligner, not that I work for them or anything, or maybe I do. I hate that report though, too busy, just give me the numbers!

Also impressive that your thrust angle is less than .05, both mine are at .1 and .2 respectively, the 4wd needs trailing arm bushings, or new arms, badly.

:couch2:

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Hey, that's worth at least a nickel, don't sell yourself short. I don't really know how it drives--only a few low-speed miles in heavy rain. I'll keep you posted.

I'll jump on the praise train. Thanks for sharing all your hard work. I'm really glad you decided to keep your 4Runner. It turned out great and with all your prep and rust prevention it'll probably last longer than me!

On a more selfish note, I'm also glad you kept the 4Runner because you are always very helpful and willing to share your vast amount of knowledge. I seriously don't know how you know what you know. You're a 4Runner guru and I'm glad and thankful you're going to stick around. You're invaluable to this community.

I wanted to follow up on a few things.

The CEL turned out to be the A/F sensor trifecta: P0125, P1135 and the out-of-range one. Heater tested dead and it had 90K on it so that was worth doing. It might have something to do with when the dangling sensor got hung up on the frame as pulling it forward. I put some serious stress on it so that may have broken the heater internally. The wire connections were good but the heater was open.

I was wrong above about ABS codes. On the '99 3rd gen (not sure about later years), nothing beyond a paper clip and a foot is needed to read the codes. Techstream can't find an ABS module. In fact, on my rig with a 5-speed, the only extra module it sees is SRS. It does allow some neat extra engine analysis functions as well.



The codes turned out to be for both rear sensors. They both ohmed out good at the connector by the fuel tank, so I think the issue is that the POR15 kept them from seating into the diff. I don't like the ABS in winter anyway, so I may leave this until spring.

Finally, when I had to use my heater on the first cold day, I thought the truck would explode when I turned the fan to high. It turns out the local beasties had been having a field day in my vent system while it was up on jacks. I opened up the fan and found this:



That was quickly resolved. No live or dead beasties, thank goodness.

Now onto another issue. I had picked up the driver's side headlight from the same carcass I got the frame. I was tired of the terrible pattern thrown by my Eagle Eye replacement. Looked like a nightmare Rorschach test.

Problem was, the OEM HL had a great pattern but would not adjust. As others have described in this thread, [link coming when I find it] I could turn the white nut/gear piece, but the reflector would not move. I compared the Eagle Eye housing to the OEM, and they looked almost identical. I started to think I could do a transplant.

First I took the OEM apart to see if I could identify the problem. It's not very hard:

-back off both white gear-nuts until the shaft is free on the inside.



-use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the spring loose from the hole in the housing


-pop loose the little square engagement tab that anchors the reflector to the housing, Use a small screwdriver to compress the little tab on the side and push down. Hold while you push the second tab on the opposite side. Square tab pops through and reflector comes free.



Well, then it was clear what the problem was. There is a black plastic collar that needs to be on the plastic shaft part of the gear-nut thing that makes the reflector actually move. No collar, you can turn the thing all week and the shaft will thread in and out, but nothing will happen. Or more precisely, it will pull in, but it won't push out. Pic I took really didn't show it so you will have to believe me.

I figured the black plastic collar would break if I tried to transplant that. So I just put the OEM reflector on the Eagle Eye housing. The spring, the square plug, and the two adjusting shafts mated perfectly. Finally, an OEM headlight that works, except it didn't. Pulled it back out, and found another defect with the old OEM HL. The anchor to the metal shaft had also broken, so it was not held in place when pushed by the gear/nut thingy:



Here is the bad one:



Fortunately, this could be easily transplanted from the Eagle Eye POS reflector back to the OEM reflector. Here is a good one.



There are plastic tabs in the anchor of the bad one that had been totally crushed. Sorry, just too small to get a pic of with the camera I have.

So, finally, I was able to dial in a decent looking headlight pattern:



I wish I had taken a pic of the Eagle Eye pattern. The left side looked a bucket of paint had been thrown at the wall, no horizontal line whatsoever. You couldn't even aim it, because you didn't know where the center was. Hated it.

Wow, nice rebuild!
Is there a special tool to turn the plastic gear to adjust the headlights?
Thanks.

4runnerOregon said:

Wow, nice rebuild!
Is there a special tool to turn the plastic gear to adjust the headlights?
Thanks.

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Yeah, it's called a long Phillips screwdriver.

Like this:



See the channels molded into the can? This is the FSM approved method.

4runnerOregon said:

Wow, nice rebuild!
Is there a special tool to turn the plastic gear to adjust the headlights?
Thanks.

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I just got in there with a 1/4" drive and socket when I had to fix my headlight after a motorcycle crashed into the front of my rig. One of the plastic pieces the adjuster rests against punched through. Since the A-hole at the body shop that did my estimate wouldn't include the headlight because he quote "Couldn't see the damage", I went to a local Pick and Pull and found a broken headlight off a 3rd Gen and got the part I needed.

mtbtim said:

I just got in there with a 1/4" drive and socket when I had to fix my headlight after a motorcycle crashed into the front of my rig. One of the plastic pieces the adjuster rests against punched through. Since the A-hole at the body shop that did my estimate wouldn't include the headlight because he quote "Couldn't see the damage", I went to a local Pick and Pull and found a broken headlight off a 3rd Gen and got the part I needed.

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Both ways will work, except to get a ratchet on SOME of the adjusters, you have to pull some parts out of the way. The Phillips system works on all of them without pulling parts and you can dial back and forth without switching the ratchet from tighty to loosy which is sort of a pain. I prefer the screwdriver even where I can use a ratchet without pulling parts.

I just read the entire thread, great job. I have an engine hanging tool,made by Lisle that will hold the engine and transmission. I'm waiting for a guy in NC to sthe no me pictures of a rust free frame; you've inspired me to consider doing this; l like my LTD too much to give up on it.

Wjktdi said:

I just read the entire thread, great job. I have an engine hanging tool,made by Lisle that will hold the engine and transmission. I'm waiting for a guy in NC to sthe no me pictures of a rust free frame; you've inspired me to consider doing this; l like my LTD too much to give up on it.

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Well, if you try it my way, either another 1 1/2" height over what a HF 6-ton jackstands give you would be great, or find a true overhead hoist so the crane base is not in the way, would make the job MUCH easier. I almost couldn't get that sucker back in (that's what she said) and it made for a lot of extra work going up and down.

If you do all the PM and rustproofing of frame and all the other pieces, it turns into a BIG job. Like double just the frame swap.

You should get an award for having done this, and without a lift!

Amazing! :trophy:

I have a 50 foot tall tree on my property that's coming down. Im going to try and get some "jackstands" out of it. How tall were the logs you used?
My use of the 4runner sounds similar to yours. Fishing, camping and hiking trips; no desire to challenge big rocks or drive through deep water. I'm old and don't want to hike any more than what I plan to. I love my supercharger until I have to fill it with premium, but it's the 4th vehicle in the fleet so I don't have to daily it.

Impressive and tons of credit for this "repair". The knowledge you gained is huge. That being said...at this point in my life....it would have taken me years and lost 10's of K. I would have found a couple to look at in AZ, bought a ticket and bought a new rig.

Wjktdi said:

I have a 50 foot tall tree on my property that's coming down. Im going to try and get some "jackstands" out of it. How tall were the logs you used?
My use of the 4runner sounds similar to yours. Fishing, camping and hiking trips; no desire to challenge big rocks or drive through deep water. I'm old and don't want to hike any more than what I plan to. I love my supercharger until I have to fill it with premium, but it's the 4th vehicle in the fleet so I don't have to daily it.

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I had an 80-foot ash tree from Hurricane Sandy already cut up so I could choose whatever I wanted. I used a variety from 10" high by 2' diameter as a jack base to 3' high for back-up support. Shorter ones were very handy for supporting the new frame as I rust-proofed it since my jackstands were all in use.

Wow that was impressive. I am a die hard yota fan (many Supras and Celicas) but new to T4Rs and am in the process of looking for my first. I just passed up on a decent one but had too much rust for me (NY truck). Perhaps I am too critical of rust, but having dealt with it on previous cars I just wanted to get a cleaner one. Good to know things can be done even on something that bad off, very nice work.