Picked up a full set of 5 LC80 wheels from a forum member. He had them painted this really nice dark grey color. The paint is unfortunately quite thin so well see how they hold up. However, its a set of five, with center caps, and sandblasted before paint. Even if I have to redo the finish I still feel like it was a great deal.

The dilemma I had was how to get them to clear the brakes. They rub slightly on the outside of the piston housing. A few options you will have if you're running either 199 or 230mm tundras. Stock calipers are non-issue.

1. Grind the area of the caliper where the wheels rub. For me this is unacceptable from a safety perspective.
2. Grind the back side of the spokes (not ideal)
3. Instal 1/4" wheel spacers. Very sketchy in my opinion. I have seen them fail and a tire shop generally won't touch a car with them.
4. Bolt-on wheel spacers. The safest and cleanest option in the list. My issue is that I have skinny SR5 flares. The LC80 wheels already have higher offset and will stick out more than stock. If I put 1.25" spacers they are going to stick wayyyy out.

Against my better engineering judgment I ended up grinding down the back side of each wheel just enough to clear. The area you end up grinding is extremely thick, and I only dished it slightly so I didn't add any extreme stress concentrations. It certainly is not the best thing to do but I guess I wanted the wheels badly enough.

Was noticing a slow to moderate leak from the transfer case. It wasn't either the input/out shaft seals as they were dry. Also, the case was wet from top to bottom so it must have been coming from up top. There is a plate/gasket that goes between the shift lever and t-case housing and upon inspection it was wet and pretty dirty.

Parts needed:
Toyota part# 36108-35060 (gasket). I read somewhere on here that 2 of these were needed. When I took mine apart there was definitely only 1 gasket, but the gasket was slightly different. Ill get into that below. I ordered 2 at ~$10 a piece but only used one.
FIPG or similar

Step 1: Remove center console trim to reveal this cover held on by 4 screws


Step 2: Remove said cover via the 4 screws


Step 3: Remove the shift lever from the T-case. There will be a breather hose attached. Slide that off so you can remove the whole part. Peel/scrape the old gasket off. I needed to use a razor blade.


Here is my old gasket. You can see it has the paper element on both sides.


Compare that to the new which has it only on one


Step 4: Clean it!! Take note of the spring location. Also make sure you reseat the boot if it comes off. It has a groove on both ends that it seats into.




Step 5: Install the gasket. I used the FIPG fully around the T-case housing gasket surface, as well as the areas show in the photo. From what I could tell this is how it was set up
originally.

Step 6: Reassemble. You will likely have to shimmy the lever around until it sits properly. Check that it's operating correctly before you button everything back up.

Parts collection

FRONT:

• ICON 2.5 coil-overs
  JBA UCAs
  Poly steering rack bushings
  Diff drop
  2nd gen rear sway bar links
  New OEM sway bar bushings
  1/4" spacers for bump stops

REAR

• ICON 2.0 shocks
  OME 890 springs
  Extended brake line
  eimkeith PCK
  3rd gen front sway bar links
  OEM sway bar bushings
  Home made bump stop spacer

Pre-install measurements:

REAR




FRONT

I started with the front. The process was straight forward.

Disconnected the sway bar and replaced the steering rack bushings.

Next I removed the upper ball joints. For this I used the "4x4 adaptor kit" from Orielly's. I rented 3 different kits but in the end this was all I needed. I cut the ball joint shaft and used the kit along with a steel plate to press out the bushing. The balljoint shaft was too long to fit any of the adapters over it. I recommend disconnecting the brake lines for this so A) you don't damage them, and B) you have more movement of the spindle. This helps fit the ball joint press in the wheel well.

After the balljoint was removed I pulled the UCA and then the strut.



Reversing the process got me here!



I used 1/4" bump stop spacers from wheelers to raise my stock bump stops on the front LCA. I was trying to save a few bucks after the sticker shock of the ICON gear. Seems like it will work well and the stock studs were plenty long enough.

The rear is less glamorous but I think more exciting.

Installation of the coils and shocks were standard process. I had a buddy help hold the stock shock body while removing. Luckily rust isn't an issue on this vehicle so the top nut was easy.

The biggest headache I ran into was the rear sway bar bushings to the axles. Rockauto sent me a set that were way too small in ID. Weirdly, every auto parts store that carried that part had the same issue. Way too small to fit the 19mm sway bar. I ended up buying a universal energy suspension sway bar bushing kit from Autozone that luckily worked out. I should have just ordered the parts from Wheelers in the first place because now I have a mix of new links w/ rubber bushings and poly bushings.



Next was to instal the panhard brackets (thanks @eimkeith !). They fit perfectly on both ends. I beveled the "raise" bracket to make for an easier weld. My Panhard bar now sits nice and level!

Some other odds and ends I forgot to mention: I installed a diff drop for the front, extended the rear brake line, and made a small Al bracket to raise the part brake cable to relieve the tension on it. Can grab pictures of any of this if desired.

I will grab some pics of the angle and end result as a whole when the sun comes up.

Cheers

Where in Michigan are you? I am in Toledo.

^^Curious to know as well. I live in Phoenix now, but will be moving back to where I'm from (Kalamazoo) at the end of the year.

I am in Southeast Michigan, just outside of Detroit

Looks like we need to get a few 4Runners together here!

Even with a diff drop, it took about 36 hours of test driving for the stock inner CV boots to start puking grease. Luckily there were no tears in the boots, they just seemed to be leaking out the ends. Given that I had a 2500 miles journey in the coming days, I decided to quickly pull them out to preserve them, and replaced them with cheap Autozone axles for the time being (~ $60/axle). I could have made it on the stock axles but they probably would have been shot after the trip. I plan to reboot the stock CV's and keep the cheap ones as emergency back-up.

Here are a few pictures from my journey

in 2576 miles I made a round trip consisting of:
1. Detroit, MI
2. OBX, NC
3. Albany, NY
4. Harford, CT
5. Detroit, MI

The 4Runner's parking spot in OBX for the week



Beach setup along with my Dad's jeep in OBX. Driving on the deep beach sand is fun. The cherokee would have been done for without the 4runner tracks to follow



We used the 4R to go behind the dunes. I told everyone else we were looking for wild horses (they are there) but really I was just cruising around!



A few glamour shots up at the lake in NY





A quick little trail near the lake





It was a really nice ride with the new suspension set up! I need to test it out more thoroughly, however. I kept it light considering the cheap axles that are in there now.

Nice build and restoration thread and clean rig, I like what your doing here

Thanks a lot! It's slow going but that makes everything I get don't that much more exciting.

I rebuilt the factory CV's using Toyota boot kits (boots, grease, and clamps).

I used the spare retaining clips to perform the "boot slide" mod on the inner boots. I am happy with the way they turned out. I will update over time on how they do/do not hold up with my 2.5" lift and diff drop. I decided to purchase the Moog boot clamp kit because the mod requires smaller diameter clamps on the small end of the inner boots
https://www.amazon.com/Moog-3401-Uni...=cv+boot+clamp

Also worth noting about CVs: I had a slow leak on the passenger side front diff seal after putting in the Autozone axles. I thought I must have nicked the seal or pressed it in when installing the axles. Turns out, the cheap axles have a groove right where they ride on the seal (right at the base of the spline). The Toyota axles are smooth. Once I reinstalled the stock axles the leak stopped. Of course I had already purchased new seals...

It took a while to figure out just how much speed I needed to get up these dunes. Once I figured it all out the 4Runner did very well