JZiggy's "Grown Up" 4Runner Build

Enjoyed some wheeling in the Sierras with some good friends this weekend.

I got tired of repainting the front-facing surfaces of my sliders after every high speed offroad run and also of the sliders getting completed coated in dirt and mud.

Trying out some "second stage" mud flaps. Started with a roll of 12" wide 1/16" neoprene sheet. It's nice and tough, heavy, and easy to cut and punch holes into. Some trial and error eventually led to a shape that worked.



The flaps use the M8 stud and nut left over from the running board and one nifty M8 boss in the frame that's there for some random reason.



Bolted up with some fender washers and then zip tied to the front of the sliders. A cleaner attachment method than zip ties may occur to me at some point







They don't look awesome but they're not obtrusive and ought to do the job. Being placed back from the flares a little ways and being lower will help them catch a lot more stuff the tires throw up. Since they're flexible they should just bend out of the way if I drag them over obstacles.

Turned out pretty good for a first attempt :third:

Looking good Jordan!

Greased up the rear driveshaft splines with Motorcraft XG-8 grease. I've been noticing a clunk come and go when taking off. I've wheeled the truck a lot lately so I figure the grease I had in the slip yoke had started to thin out or dissipate. The preferred solution it seems it to use this PTFE-heavy (looks like up to 25% if my resource is correct) stuff to help reduce the coefficient of friction and quiet things down. It's fun that it's blue!







We'll see if it helps and how long it helps for. I may get tricky and try to load some of this stuff into a small grease gun. If this doesn't work well then I'm thinking to try SuperLube EP grease which apparently has 25% PTFE as well.

Side note, the rear u-joint that Timmy and I installed last Fall is holding up great. It's had a lot of abuse but I do grease between wheeling trips. The motion is smooth in all directions without any slack.

Bonus mudflaps rev 2:

The thin neoprene sheet turned out to be pretty crummy and started to rip. It also doesn't have much structure so it doesn't hang down at all times. The goal is a flap that will stay put but be flexible enough to fold if it gets drug over something.

I found some heavy duty semi mudflaps that are a tough PVC rubber with fiberglass matting on the inside. Cut them to shape and punched holes and put some little nylon sleeves in the holes as compression limiters so I can crank down on the bolts a little more. I made a little bracket that I zip-tie to the sliders to support the outside.









These come off easily so I probably will leave them off and install them for dirt road trips.

Update: I installed aluminum covers underneath my sliders instead. Much better solution. Skip forward 10 pages or so to check them out.

AC evaporator cleaning project!

Acquired 2 cans of foaming coil cleaner


Removed blower motor


Starting point. Not too badly blocked but pretty cruddy.




Spray a bunch of cleaner foam in there


Extended tube shoved into the evap drain. After 5 minutes the foam liquifies and runs out


Starting to look a little better. Repeat every 5-10 minutes.




A little sample of the drain water coming out after a few rinses


Emptied two cans. Drain water starts to look like this


Rinse out with a spray bottle of clean water with a bit of rubbing alcohol in it


Dried out after a few hours, here's how it ended up vs. beginning:



Check out the vileness in the drain pan!!

After reading some thoughtful input from forum members ( [MENTION=138943]thegipper[/MENTION] ) about the slip yoke theory of operation I realized that:

- There should not be a slug of grease at the bottom of the cavity because it can restrict the shortening motion of the mechanism
- The zerk really shouldn't be used for greasing but should vent air instead

I removed the yoke again and cleaned out the grease at the bottom. I'll rely on the XG-8 grease to cling to the splines during use and plan to regrease occasionally.

I found an M6 sintered bronze muffle filter to put in place of the zerk. This allows air to enter and exit so the yoke can move freely but blocks water and dust ingress.

I've had a TrueTrac in my rear diff for about 25,000 miles. Recently the rear diff started making some strange clunking noises primarily when coasting in a low speed turn, like negotiating a parking lot. I spent a lot of time inspecting it on jack stands and eventually confirmed it was due to some backlash in when the unit is differentiating -- not backlash in the ring & pinion but between the two side gears.

Now the TT ought to have some backlash since it is geartrain but the noise had me worried. Some googling brought up horror stories of TT carrier bolts backing out and causing diffs to blow up. It seems Eaton remedied this more than 10 years ago by changing from cast parts to machined and utilizing fine thread screws. But I was unwilling to take the chance that this noise might be a bolt falling out!

So, out it came.



Everything looks beautiful... 4.56 gears had been set up by Zuk back in October and were pristine. Pinion preload still felt good. No worries for the R&P or bearings.



Plugged the axle shafts in to see if I could replicate it by hand. Nope. It was a fun experiment though.

Time to dig into the TT unit. I made a diff holding bracket with some thick plywood.



**Before tearing into it I confirmed that all 12 bolts holding the TT unit together were tight and none were backing out. So the problem is not loose bolts but something else**

Unbolted the four 17mm headed bearing cap bolts and the carrier with ring gear still attached came out. Popped out the six 3/8-24" (7/8" long) bolts and took one side of the carrier off. Kind of a pain with the bearing still installed -- you can see in the image how the bolt wants to interfere with the bearing. Side gear remains installed in the second picture.





One of the spiral gears removed. Very little wear is evident.




Side gear looks good too




So the surgical inspection did not reveal anything strange. I repeated the process with the opposite side and found the same story. Since the bolts had to come out I took the opportunity to upgrade them. There was enough thread depth to allow a 1" rather than a 7/8" screw. These 12 point "grade 9" bolts (similar to ARP) have a 170ksi strength vs. 150ksi for grade 8.



Torquing to 45 ft-lb was a trick due to interference from the carrier bearing. I adapted a wrench to be my crows-foot and adjusted the setting on the torque wrench to match. Bolts went in with red loctite




When reinstalling it I decided to try out the LubeLocker reusable gasket rather than FIPG. So far so good on leaks.

JZiggy said:

After reading some thoughtful input from forum members ( [MENTION=138943]thegipper[/MENTION] ) about the slip yoke theory of operation I realized that:

- There should not be a slug of grease at the bottom of the cavity because it can restrict the shortening motion of the mechanism
- The zerk really shouldn't be used for greasing but should vent air instead

I removed the yoke again and cleaned out the grease at the bottom. I'll rely on the XG-8 grease to cling to the splines during use and plan to regrease occasionally.

I found an M6 sintered bronze muffle filter to put in place of the zerk. This allows air to enter and exit so the yoke can move freely but blocks water and dust ingress.

Click to expand...

Good idea on the muffle filter, I've never seen one of those before. Where did you find something like that?

I called Eaton to get their ideas about this issue. At the time I felt the response was unsatisfactory. In essence they suggested 1) the unit is starting to wear in and a bit of slack is normal 2) conventional gear lube will make the noise go away.

There's a superstitious idea over there that synthetic gear lubes (or, more accurately, anything but conventional Lucas) cause noise and premature wear in differentials and TrueTracs. I know that's not true and it begs the question if the original TrueTrac unit was tested during development using only Lucas. Lucas as a product has always bugged me as they feel more like a marketing company than a lubricant technology company but hey, they gave us plenty of wonderful "top end lube" products and stop leaks, right? :caked:

I had been running Redline 75W-90NS. The NS means it doesn't have limited slip additives, which are designed for clutch-type limited slips. Eaton recommends gear lubes without "limited slip additive" to control the slipperiness. I had about 10k miles on this fill when the noise began. It's worth noting that there was extremely minimal metal fuzz on the magnet and the Redline was clearly doing its job of protecting the gears and bearings from wear.

So get this -- after reinstalling the diff and filling with, *sigh*, Lucas 80W-90 conventional the noise appears to be gone. I've driven it a few hundred miles and all seems good. I can't seem to replicate the noise.

Let's see how long it holds up and if the noise comes back or not. But so far so good.

thegipper said:

Good idea on the muffle filter, I've never seen one of those before. Where did you find something like that?

Click to expand...

I searched a few obscure hardware catalogs and eventually found the right part # on Amazon. I have a few extra if you want one. I bought the last item in stock and then the price went up like 3x for some reason.

Go Amazon :third:

Another mini update:

Still running the Uni foam pre-filter. Here it is with 2500 miles of use. I think it can easily go 5000 except if there is a dusty wheeling trip involved.


Also the truck turned 250k this weekend

JZiggy said:

I searched a few obscure hardware catalogs and eventually found the right part # on Amazon. I have a few extra if you want one. I bought the last item in stock and then the price went up like 3x for some reason.

Go Amazon :third:

Click to expand...

Actually, that would be really cool. Right now my yoke doesn't have any zerk in it and it's probably a good idea to use one of those things instead of leaving it open.

JZiggy said:

I called Eaton to get their ideas about this issue. At the time I felt the response was unsatisfactory. In essence they suggested 1) the unit is starting to wear in and a bit of slack is normal 2) conventional gear lube will make the noise go away.

There's a superstitious idea over there that synthetic gear lubes (or, more accurately, anything but conventional Lucas) cause noise and premature wear in differentials and TrueTracs. I know that's not true and it begs the question if the original TrueTrac unit was tested during development using only Lucas. Lucas as a product has always bugged me as they feel more like a marketing company than a lubricant technology company but hey, they gave us plenty of wonderful "top end lube" products and stop leaks, right? :caked:

I had been running Redline 75W-90NS. The NS means it doesn't have limited slip additives, which are designed for clutch-type limited slips. Eaton recommends gear lubes without "limited slip additive" to control the slipperiness. I had about 10k miles on this fill when the noise began. It's worth noting that there was extremely minimal metal fuzz on the magnet and the Redline was clearly doing its job of protecting the gears and bearings from wear.

So get this -- after reinstalling the diff and filling with, *sigh*, Lucas 80W-90 conventional the noise appears to be gone. I've driven it a few hundred miles and all seems good. I can't seem to replicate the noise.

Let's see how long it holds up and if the noise comes back or not. But so far so good.

Click to expand...

This TT issue has my attention. I've also got one (with only about 1000 miles on it) and it's interesting what you're experiencing. As you know, ECGS recommends dino oil in 85w-140 (I'm using the recommended Lucas brand), so I'm wondering if the thicker oil would maybe help? I don't know enough to really provide much input, but I'll be watching your experiences on this.

Cheers

weekendclimber said:

This TT issue has my attention. I've also got one (with only about 1000 miles on it) and it's interesting what you're experiencing. As you know, ECGS recommends dino oil in 85w-140 (I'm using the recommended Lucas brand), so I'm wondering if the thicker oil would maybe help? I don't know enough to really provide much input, but I'll be watching your experiences on this.

Cheers

Click to expand...

Interesting, I didn't realize that was ECGS's recommendation. It makes intuitive sense that a thicker oil would dampen shock better. But that's only part of what we want the lubricant to do, so it might not be the best choice overall.

This makes me want to put thicker oil on my Toyota OEM rear Torsen in my Alltrac... though I don't really get much clunk, I get gear whine at high speed unloaded operation (not coasting, not powered). That diff was also rebuilt (new bearings and pinion sleeve) by Zuk fairly recently too, without much improvement.

-Charlie

Now that the 4Runner is on pavement pounder duty I figured a proactive LBJ service was in order. The previous ones had seen a lot of offroad and had been uninstalled multiple times in the process of sicmods. They were still in fine shape but were a lot looser than the new ones.

JZiggy said:

Now that the 4Runner is on pavement pounder duty I figured a proactive LBJ service was in order. The previous ones had seen a lot of offroad and had been uninstalled multiple times in the process of sicmods. They were still in fine shape but were a lot looser than the new ones.

Click to expand...

Jordan,

Is the 4runner "on pavement pounder duty", just due to the season, or did you get a dedicated trail rig, and I missed it?

thanks

Durwin

owyheerat said:

Jordan,

Is the 4runner "on pavement pounder duty", just due to the season, or did you get a dedicated trail rig, and I missed it?

thanks

Durwin

Click to expand...

Just due to some different life circumstances and commuting in the 4Runner much more now.

awesome

looks great!