FloridaUnderground
Junior Member
Nice work, I always think the 3rd Gens have aged very nicely, still looks like a stylish vehicle yet, showing it's age well.
JZiggy's "Grown Up" 4Runner Build
- Thread starter JZiggy
- Start date
thezentree
Senior Member
That's a neat product, but they should strongly consider adding acetone vapor smoothing to their production process to try to get rid of some of those layer lines.
JZiggy
Senior Member
Caliper rebuild time! ~304k on the clock
I was inspired by Tim's caliper rebuild video and I also just wanted to learn how to do it. I got an OEM kit for the S13WE (Tundra 199) calipers and went to work.
A bit of background: these are OEM calipers I bought from a T4R member back in 2017 who stated he had rebuilt them. The calipers were working fine and would probably have served longer, but I realized that rebuilding them also gives the opportunity to clean all the sliding surfaces to prevent future issues and help the pistons stay nice and balanced.
As-is with Akebono pads, which amazingly have 70k on them and work really well
Boots seem intact, but nice and grubby
I used the compressed air method along with some carpenter clamps to get them all mostly pushed out, then popped em out with two large screwdrivers
The little nylon paddle-shaped pick tool linked in Timmy's video worked great for getting the old seals out
Pistons all cleaned up, calipers sprayed out with brake cleaner and dried with compressed air (including all the little internal ports), and new seals coated in the supplied red grease reinstalled
Pistons (coated in the red grease) popped back in quite easily
For the dust boots, I put a bit of red grease on the inner lip that meets the piston recess only. The boots slid onto the pistons easily when the pistons were sticking out a little as shown.
I found it was simplest to then push the piston all the way down, pop the outer lip of the dust seal onto the caliper, and then put the metal ring clip on. I also used some air and wood blocks to push the pistons out a decent ways to make sure the dust boots were working correctly.
As a bonus, a generous forum member had sent me a new OEM 199 double shim kit, so I installed those instead of the Akebono single shim. Sweet!
Sliding surfaces and pins got some Super Lube brake grease. After a bleed everything worked just as it should without any drama.
I was inspired by Tim's caliper rebuild video and I also just wanted to learn how to do it. I got an OEM kit for the S13WE (Tundra 199) calipers and went to work.
A bit of background: these are OEM calipers I bought from a T4R member back in 2017 who stated he had rebuilt them. The calipers were working fine and would probably have served longer, but I realized that rebuilding them also gives the opportunity to clean all the sliding surfaces to prevent future issues and help the pistons stay nice and balanced.
As-is with Akebono pads, which amazingly have 70k on them and work really well
Boots seem intact, but nice and grubby
I used the compressed air method along with some carpenter clamps to get them all mostly pushed out, then popped em out with two large screwdrivers
The little nylon paddle-shaped pick tool linked in Timmy's video worked great for getting the old seals out
Pistons all cleaned up, calipers sprayed out with brake cleaner and dried with compressed air (including all the little internal ports), and new seals coated in the supplied red grease reinstalled
Pistons (coated in the red grease) popped back in quite easily
For the dust boots, I put a bit of red grease on the inner lip that meets the piston recess only. The boots slid onto the pistons easily when the pistons were sticking out a little as shown.
I found it was simplest to then push the piston all the way down, pop the outer lip of the dust seal onto the caliper, and then put the metal ring clip on. I also used some air and wood blocks to push the pistons out a decent ways to make sure the dust boots were working correctly.
As a bonus, a generous forum member had sent me a new OEM 199 double shim kit, so I installed those instead of the Akebono single shim. Sweet!
Sliding surfaces and pins got some Super Lube brake grease. After a bleed everything worked just as it should without any drama.
Awesome post, curious if you still have the updated installer tool available? Interested in buying it off you if you do!
Prepping the back of the engine for the rebuilt transmission
After getting the old clutch and flywheel off I chased and cleaned the flywheel bolt holes and went after the old pilot bearing. The "bread method" works beautifully for pressing out the old bearing. Stuff soft bread into the center of the bearing until full then pound a 12mm bolt into the hole. Teflon tape on the threads to help it seal up. Keep pounding and adding more bread until the bearing begins to move outward and finally out.
New pilot bearing installed and old rear main seal pulled. Now what're we gonna do about this annoying groove in the crankshaft sealing surface?
Silver Seal sells a nice crank sleeve (part MS-333) and corresponding driver (MST-333). Shown here with a new OEM seal
**Side note -- I have an extra sleeve and this driver tool (modified to work better) and would be happy to share with a forum member in need!** Another side note - LCE sells this crank seal as well but NOT the driver tool so I had to get it from the manufacturer directly.
The plastic driver supports the seal precisely. You can see how the end of the seal has a little fillet fold that stops it at the end of the crank once its installed all the way.
Problem is, the driver doesn't account for the boss that holds the pilot bearing so it will only press the seal on halfway. That won't do. Fortunately we have a highly competent in-house machinist to help fix it up. A little time with a 1-5/8" hole saw did the trick.
Now we can press that sucker all the way on without interference.
Once pressed on we have a nice smooth, hardened stainless sealing surface for the new crank seal. The install was super easy.
The driver tool makes short work of pressing on the new OEM seal as well.
Now we're ready to tackle the flywheel. I made a handy dandy tool out of a piece of square aluminum tube to hold the flywheel still. It captures one of the dowel pins and borrows two of the pressure plate M8 holes. Slip a breaker bar through and lean it against the frame. Again -- I'm happy to loan this tool out if someone can use it!
Ten new OEM flywheel bolts threaded in and snugged up in a few passes. FSM says to torque to 19 ft-lb and then tighten 90* more in sequence. I put some sharpie marks on to guide me.
Aisin clutch kit, alignment tool, and 6 new OEM pressure plate bolts
Torque to spec in a few passes and we're finally ready to put the transmission in
More to come!
JZiggy
Senior Member
Sure, PM me or email me at jziggyt4r at gmail dot com
JZiggy
Senior Member
Rear suspension project!! This will be a multi-post update covering:
- Eimkeith LLS and ULR
- OPT Offroad upper & lower rear control arms
- Upgraded bolts to accommodate the Eimkeith brackets
- Rockjock rubber washers
- Pinion angle adjustments
- All the details and finishing touches you've come to expect from JZiggy
First off, I scored a set of OPT rear control arms!
These are equipped with incredible Johnny Joints on both ends of each arm. JJ's are like a uniball but have a pair of greaseable heavy urethane bushings inside the joint that provide smooth operation and much better NVH than all-metal uniballs. Since both ends are adjustable each arm is infinitely adjustable, similar to how an outer tie rod works. If you have an adjustable joint on only one end the length can only be adjusted by half-turns and the joint has to come off to make the adjustment.
At my last alignment I found that my rear thrust angle was a bit off so the lowers should let me correct that. The uppers can be adjusted to dial in the pinion angle which should be corrected after a rear lift.
Here's one of the lowers on top of an old lower Rokmen arm. Similar level of overkill beef for sure.
The Eimkeith brackets
Painted with gray weld-through primer
Took it over to my favorite welder to burn the brackets in. He did a nice job in 4 hours which I thought was impressively fast.
LLS. On the driver's side the Lil Skip gas tank skid was dropped and trimmed to prevent interference with the new brackets. Sprayed with Rustoleum farm & implement paint
ULR. Note that the welder opted not to trim out the corner from the stock upper bracket since the OPT joints were small enough that they did not risk any interference. (The joint shown has some experimental rubber washers -- more on that later)
- Eimkeith LLS and ULR
- OPT Offroad upper & lower rear control arms
- Upgraded bolts to accommodate the Eimkeith brackets
- Rockjock rubber washers
- Pinion angle adjustments
- All the details and finishing touches you've come to expect from JZiggy
First off, I scored a set of OPT rear control arms!
These are equipped with incredible Johnny Joints on both ends of each arm. JJ's are like a uniball but have a pair of greaseable heavy urethane bushings inside the joint that provide smooth operation and much better NVH than all-metal uniballs. Since both ends are adjustable each arm is infinitely adjustable, similar to how an outer tie rod works. If you have an adjustable joint on only one end the length can only be adjusted by half-turns and the joint has to come off to make the adjustment.
At my last alignment I found that my rear thrust angle was a bit off so the lowers should let me correct that. The uppers can be adjusted to dial in the pinion angle which should be corrected after a rear lift.
Here's one of the lowers on top of an old lower Rokmen arm. Similar level of overkill beef for sure.
The Eimkeith brackets
Painted with gray weld-through primer
Took it over to my favorite welder to burn the brackets in. He did a nice job in 4 hours which I thought was impressively fast.
LLS. On the driver's side the Lil Skip gas tank skid was dropped and trimmed to prevent interference with the new brackets. Sprayed with Rustoleum farm & implement paint
ULR. Note that the welder opted not to trim out the corner from the stock upper bracket since the OPT joints were small enough that they did not risk any interference. (The joint shown has some experimental rubber washers -- more on that later)
2TH4IST
Member
Looking good jziggy! Some day I too will upgrade my rear links to the opt links. Same with the ulr and lls. Some day in the near future.
Can you do me a favor? Can you measure the distance from the axle to the tip of the bump stops? Assuming your using C59-210v springs and perry parts bumps w/1" spacer? Thanks friend!
Can you do me a favor? Can you measure the distance from the axle to the tip of the bump stops? Assuming your using C59-210v springs and perry parts bumps w/1" spacer? Thanks friend!
JZiggy
Senior Member
Thanks, yo! You don't need some Rokmen lower arms in the meantime, do you?
Rear springs are C59-131 (linear) actually. The bumpstop is the standard not long travel Perry with 1" spacer. Distance from the bumpstop to the axle is right at 3". Here's how it looks under compression when the bumpstop just starts to touch (shock still has about 1.5" of uptravel left):
JZiggy
Senior Member
Perfect for my needs. I don't run super heavy, but even loaded with people and gear they don't sag.
GhostRing
Member
Thanks, yo! You don't need some Rokmen lower arms in the meantime, do you?
My issue with my Rokmens is the bushings are now wallowed
and I don't know if they need a proprietary "Enduro" bushing from
a company out of business, any old replacement poly, or if I can get new, oversized sleeves turned to match the worn bushings to buy a little time.
I REALLY want Opt's set, but the cost of entry is a steep one!
Looking forward to the ride report. If JJs are truly the magic bullet
for ride quality, flex, and bushing longevity, I'm in.
2TH4IST
Member
This is where I'm at now. Let us know about the JJ's ride/flex and what not.
JZiggy
Senior Member
That's interesting about the Rokmen bushings. A few months back I realized mine were squeaking and discovered that the center sleeve actually rotates freely inside the bushing and needed to be greased. It has one of those "permanent" cross-hatched PTFE coatings but it was worn down. I had originally thought it was just a solid bushings.
Here's the ride report: the OPT arms are great! The ride quality is not reduced vs. OEM. If I were to nit-pick the only thing I'd add is that there is a *very slight* vibration under medium-to-heavy acceleration that I can feel in the body. I can feel it in my heel when it rests against the floor - only there, and it is minor and easy to forget about. As far as flex, with my simple lift setup I'm nowhere near maxing out the total articulation of the joints.
JZiggy
Senior Member
Let's talk about bolts. One of the issues with the Eimkeith brackets is that they widen the joints where they are installed by 3/8" or so. The images on the site appear to show the factory bolts being reinstalled but they are NOT long enough.
The big issue is with the upper rear mounts. The factory bolt has a long unthreaded pilot at the end. Without the nut we're looking at this (with OEM washer):
With the nut we're only getting half of the threads on the nut engaged
When torqued to 64 ft-lb spec this happens
I sourced some longer M12 bolts, and sanded a little taper on the end to help with alignment
Full nut engagement, with a few threads on the free end like you want in a secure bolted joint
The lower fronts are not so bad, but the thread engagement could be better for sure. The OEM bolt also has a pilot end so the nut is not fully threaded
I got longer M14 bolts, cut the captive washer out of the OEMs and overdrilled the hole slightly to get it to fit on. That's much better. Spec is 107 ft-lb
The smaller M12 is a 90mm length and the M14 is 100mm. Here's a side by side
I sourced these from Belmetric.com. They are 10.9, similar strength to OEM, with a nice yellow zinc coating. The M14 is non-JIS so it has a larger 22mm head, but that's kind of an upgrade I guess!
[MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION]
The big issue is with the upper rear mounts. The factory bolt has a long unthreaded pilot at the end. Without the nut we're looking at this (with OEM washer):
With the nut we're only getting half of the threads on the nut engaged
When torqued to 64 ft-lb spec this happens
I sourced some longer M12 bolts, and sanded a little taper on the end to help with alignment
Full nut engagement, with a few threads on the free end like you want in a secure bolted joint
The lower fronts are not so bad, but the thread engagement could be better for sure. The OEM bolt also has a pilot end so the nut is not fully threaded
I got longer M14 bolts, cut the captive washer out of the OEMs and overdrilled the hole slightly to get it to fit on. That's much better. Spec is 107 ft-lb
The smaller M12 is a 90mm length and the M14 is 100mm. Here's a side by side
I sourced these from Belmetric.com. They are 10.9, similar strength to OEM, with a nice yellow zinc coating. The M14 is non-JIS so it has a larger 22mm head, but that's kind of an upgrade I guess!
[MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION]
Last edited:
JZiggy
Senior Member
JZiggy
Senior Member
Probably not a big deal, but the bolt will develop the intended clamp load when it has the correct washer underneath. I expect running the washer would be more ideal.
thezentree
Senior Member
Do you need to drop the fuel tank to burn in the driver's side LLS?
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