Connor's Long Travel '97 Build Thread

I wouldn’t drive without the panhard, personally. If the upper rear control arms were triangulated it would be fine but the panhard is the main left to right axle locator. Ratchet straps should get your panhard where it needs to be to bolt it up, even if it seems a little short. The panhard correction kit is actually the best way to fix the geometry from lifting your vehicle. Extended panhard is more of a bandaid that was previously considered an acceptable solution before the pck hit the market.

If u try to drive without a pan bar ur rear axle will violently move side to side at speed, if u dont lose control of the vehicle before the axle rips itself from out under the 4runner... pan bar is a must with stock geometry.

I do remember reading something by eimkeith saying you can remove one of the rear upper control arms (def not the panhard) and you should still be ok so long as you have beefier control arms. Never really seen anyone try it but a typical 3 link setup is 2x lowers 1x upper and 1x panhard.

Dezert4Runner said:

I wouldn’t drive without the panhard, personally. If the upper rear control arms were triangulated it would be fine but the panhard is the main left to right axle locator. Ratchet straps should get your panhard where it needs to be to bolt it up, even if it seems a little short. The panhard correction kit is actually the best way to fix the geometry from lifting your vehicle. Extended panhard is more of a bandaid that was previously considered an acceptable solution before the pck hit the market.

Click to expand...

clearock said:

If u try to drive without a pan bar ur rear axle will violently move side to side at speed, if u dont lose control of the vehicle before the axle rips itself from out under the 4runner... pan bar is a must with stock geometry.

Click to expand...

Yeah totally get that. The first (and only) drive back to my house after doing the work on it with no panhard bar felt super sketchy, even without going over ~20mph the whole time. I just had to make it back to my house since I don't do the work here, but once I got it back I parked it until I could order a new panhard bar.

I ended up going with a Front Range Offroad adjustable panhard bar. Pretty hard to beat the price at ~$150, and a super simple design too. It showed up yesterday and I got it painted & installed today. It feels good to be able to safely drive again, this whole project was supposed to take a weekend and I'm going on the 3rd week of not being able to drive it... Just leaves bump stops left on the list and the rear end is "done"!

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53056415626/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_0990"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53056415626_51f24cd68e_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_0990"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I also need to figure something out for extending the ebrake cable. When everything is drooped out the cable gets REALLY tight, so I want to get that taken care of so I don't rip it out or have it lock my brakes up on a trail. I've seen the Sonoran Steel bracket that moves it up slightly, but I don't think that will help in my case as when everything is drooped out the cable is fully taught with the bracket completely disconnected (pictured above), so I'd imagine that would mean having it bolted in (even if it's a little higher up) would make things even worse. I'm kind of thinking of just removing it entirely, as my bell cranks are completely seized so the parking brake doesn't work right now anyways. I plan on fixing that soon, though, and I'd obviously prefer to keep my ebrake over removing it entirely. Has anyone run into this before, and is there an easy way to get another ~2" of slack on the ebrake cable?

I had to cut and lengthen my e brake cable by welding on said and making a extension bracket/splits but that was short lived as about this point in mods (similar to where u r) I started snapping rear diff ring gear teeth, after the 3rd diff, moved up to a tundra 10.5" diff and had to redesign everything in the rear...

connorms said:

Has anyone run into this before, and is there an easy way to get another ~2" of slack on the ebrake cable?

Click to expand...

Those of us with stock(ish) length rear shocks have it easy - no worries there. It is still a good idea to relocate the ebrake guide. Easy to make out of whatever:



That won't help you though. Looks like you'll have to space down the cable up at the last location it attaches to the body. I haven't looked at that, but it does look like you can get some extra effective length by working up there.

-Charlie

I have a 94 pickup with dealers and ran into the ebrake cable issue on my pickup when I put the elocker tacoma axle under it. I ended up using T100 cables and cut them to length up by the cab and crimped new ferrules on.

My point is maybe like T100 or Sequoia cables will work?

Went camping/wheeling up on Bald Mountain last weekend with a few friends who have 3rd gens. This was kind of a shakedown trip for the 4runner, as it was the first time I've taken it on a trip since redoing the rear suspension. Overall she did really well, as I was able to drive out, wheel all weekend, and drive back with very few issues. While we were camping up there we got hit by a lightning storm, which was pretty cool. Overall it was around a 400 mile trip, so I'd call it a success:

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53118524989/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2281"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53118524989_56e5f54e51_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2281"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53118327671/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2467"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53118327671_15d1f943ec_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2467"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53117721237/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2583"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53117721237_31e807e170_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2583"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53117721257/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2591"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53117721257_596623dd2d_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2591"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53118524934/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2401"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53118524934_bac513d9d5_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2401"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53118333436/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2329"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53118333436_d8db555d9d_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2329"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53117727017/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2349"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53117727017_db893b5dac_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2349"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53118327411/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2230"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53118327411_7decaf8332_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2230"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/196437151@N03/53118844738/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_2200"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53118844738_c9f8e94691_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="IMG_2200"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Really the only issue I had was once we got up to the mountain my coolant started boiling over. It drove fine the whole way out, but once we took the grade up the mountain/to the trailhead I noticed the overflow tank boiled over and threw coolant everywhere. No overheating and my radiator stayed full the whole time, so I have no idea what caused it. Maybe there was some air left in the system? Or it's time to replace my radiator cap again? It's about 4 years old now so maybe the high elevation just gave it some issues? I was able to drive the whole way back down and top off the overflow tank at NAPA with no overheating, so I'm hoping it's not too big of an issue but if anyone has any ideas or has had that happen I'm all ears!