1/19/2022 200252 miles
-Installed Spiker Engineering hood struts $93
-Replaced spark plugs (90919-01192 $16), spark plug wires (Denso 671-6182 $30), and ignition coil boots (Denso 671-6248 $50) $96 Total
-Replaced pcv valve (12204-62010) and pcv valve grommet (90480-18001) $17

Spent several hours looking for the ac button and hvac backlights that I ordered in December. Gave up and reordered. I'm sure I "put them somewhere I would remember them" and then promptly forgot. Picture of spark plugs included. Cylinder 1-6 from left to right. I forgot how inconvenient cylinder #6 spark plug and wire are to get compared to the rest of them. Overall a really easy and quick job.

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Ah. You pulled one of my tricks.. hence why I have 4 extra exhaust flange nuts in inventory.. ;)

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Went on a roughly 500 mile round trip to south of Tulsa, OK for some GM training on Friday. Averaged 19.3 mpg on the way there and around town. Averaged 21.0 mpg on the way back. Full disclosure I didn't drive faster than 60 mph which did add about a half hour to my drive back which was fun when the speed limit is 75 mph lol

Pretended I was Inspector Gadget with my UV glasses and UV light. Verified the valve covers and cam seals were leaking as well as the rear main seal. My suspected transmission crack is wet. Not leaking enough to drip, but it is damp within about 5-6 inches of the crack. Not really sure what to do about that, but at least it's only seeping.

Any recommendations for a clutch and flywheel? I've heard good reviews about Marlin HD clutch, but their flywheels seem to be hit or miss on quality. Some people have had poorly cut flywheel teeth. Also considering LCE Performance pro clutch/flywheel bundle 5VZ 10" Pro Clutch + Flywheel Bundle Kit. Anyone have any experience with either of those? Anyone using a heavier flywheel? I'm not a high speed hotshot or drive with a lead foot so I'm wondering if a heavier flywheel would help with uphill starts and offroading.

I plan to use a marlin crawler clutch and probably a used oem flywheel turned down. I didn't put my 5 speed together yet so I can't give you how it goes etc. I expect the slightly modified asin clutch from marlin to be slightly better then OEM as I think it's 33% stronger then oem. Yet thecsame feel as OEM. That is if they are available when I go to put it back together...:/

As for heavier flywheel I can't offer any assistance on that.

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If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Driving to work this morning someone decided they wanted to share my lane with me in it. The other driver bent my driver front fender to hell and then drove away like nothing every happened. New body style Sequoia without any tags. I tried following them, but not surprisingly they sped away and lost me. I've put up a want to buy ad on facebook and classifieds on here, but if anyone has a left front fender from an SR5 or base model 4Runner in Desert Dune Metallic they want to sell me I would really appreciate it. I had to hammer the back edge of the fender more in order to open my driver door further.

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Bogus...

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Ugh! The only consolation is that Desert Dune is the most popular color.

Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market

Good luck on the search!

-Charlie

2/19/2022 201314 miles
-Removed Yakima roof rack rails (had to buy a replacement key to unlock it $35)
-Installed some OEM roof rack delete rails and cleaned the dirt/debris off the top. Added some silicone around the holes/threads for the roof rack rail fasteners. OEM roof rack delete rails $40 and silicone $10.
-Replaced the melted passenger inner tie rod boot that I melted last alignment. Set toe again. Moog K100183 $15
-Ordered/cut 2 replacement keys from Toyota dealership next door. 90999-00185 $15
-Replaced defrost 90010-01041 $5 and rear window 90010-01042 $5 bulbs. Replaced HVAC unit bulbs 90010-05152 $20. The off brand ac switch I bought does not want to go on there at all. I think I'll have to order OEM for that.

I had to reheat the passenger locknut again in order to get it to loosen. I made sure that I cooled it off this time before I tried installing the new inner tie rod boot! Luckily the Moog K100183 comes with 2 boots so I had 2 chances to get one of them on without melting. Luckily I only needed one shot!

Ordered/cut 2 replacement keys at the Toyota dealership next door 90999-00185. That part number is for a plastic handled key without the transponder chip. I'm not a fan of the all metal keys. The dealership cut the keys off the VIN and they were close, but the tumbler key closest to the tip was out instead of in and wouldn't work in the ignition but would work in the door. They traced my current key onto the two new keys and now I have 3 working ignition keys. I might try taking one of the keys and modifying it to only work in the door and hide it on the vehicle somewhere in case I lock myself out.

I drove an hour each way a few weeks ago to the closest Yakima dealer that had a full set of keys in order to buy the key I needed to unlock the Yakima roof bars to remove them. I'm sure they would have been functional, but to me they were just loud. All the wind noise they made above 45 mph was enough to make me think I had a bad wheel bearing when I was driving it after I got the exhaust semi fixed. Talk about loud! I went ahead and remove the OEM roof rack rails and support bars and installed some OEM roof rack delete rails making sure to silicone the retainer holes/threads to prevent water leaks. I had to track down a leak from there on my last 4Runner which was not fun to say the least. There's some color fading and hard lines left from the OEM roof rack rails/supports, but I'm not tall enough to see them all the time so I'm not gonna worry about it.

Took another look underneath at my current leaks and noticed that I have either a transmission output shaft seal leak or a transfer case input shaft seal leak. I'm leaning more towards it being the transmission side due to the "adventure" it had before I bought it.

I'm still debating buying a replacement transmission or trying to have the crack repaired. I suffer from "might as well" automotive condition where I want to replace things that may not technically need replacing because I'm already there. The longer it takes to get to where I'm at the more likely I am to preventatively replace a part.

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Looking good!

Nice work..

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Same thing happened to me about a year ago in my Corolla. A meth head in a stolen SUV wanted to share lanes going down the interstate at 75 MPH. Did about 8K in damage to my car. Some how I spun him around backwards and I managed to stay straight and slid into the ditch. Of course he drove off but I already had the vehicle and plates memorized. Cops caught him a little bit later. And a week after I got my car back, I hit a buck the size of a moose. I am really surprised the insurance in didn't total my car. LOL

3/9/2022 201707 miles
-Replaced left front fender with one from a junkyard in central Oklahoma $90
-Removed clutch pedal assembly, removed weird coil spring, replaced bushings (90386-13007 x2), reinstalled clutch pedal assembly and installed linear spring (90507-14030) $12
-Replaced AC button (84660-35030) $50

Finally got around to installing an ac button so I can finally have AC again. I tried a couple aftermarket clones but they just would not fit! Very frustrating! I ordered 2 because I put the first one somewhere I would remember. Clearly I didn't do a good job. I'm sure I'll find it one day. Moral of the story put 4Runner parts in the parts drawer and aftermarket ac buttons look close but aren't close enough.

Luckily I managed to find a fender in good shape in the right color for a good price. A couple minor scratches on the top of the fender, but I'll live with it considering an aftermarket fender was $150 and then to paint just the fender was $300 or $700 for the fender and to blend it into the hood and door. My brother was nice enough to pick it up from the dismantler in Oklahoma when he wasn't rock crawling in Clayton, OK.

I read a few posts regarding fender replacement and one of them claimed you could get both the fender bolts hiding behind the bumper with a ratchet wrench. I had enough clearance for one, but not enough for the other so off the bumper came. Replaced the fender and went to put the bumper back on. That's when I discovered that the passenger side of the bumper was pushed back and in about an inch in each direction. I used my rack and a ratchet strap to pull it a little closer, but didn't really move much. Just another excuse to get a nice offroad bumper to replace it with. I'm hoping @rickashay will be willing to put me on the prototype test list for his sweet minimalist bumper!

Leak Update
-Valve cover and half moons leaking pretty bad. That's next on my to do list.
-Pretty confident the rear main is leaking as well from what I can see with an inspection mirror and boroscope.
-Transmission crack is leaking, but not enough to be concerned with yet
-Transfer case input or transmission output is leaking. I'm going to add uv dye to the transfer case and see which one it is.
-Exhaust is leaking somewhere between the first catalytic converter and the catalytic converter to crossover pipe flange. Not surprised considering how destructive the previous transfer case left the discussion.

Did you replace your oil seals on the rear main when you had the transmission out?

When we did the 1997 limited. Inteplaced all engine seals along with the transmission and transfer input and output seals. I left the driveshadt output seals alone because they are easy to deal with.



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I haven’t had the transmission out. I removed what was left of the old transfer case and installed a used one. Everything was covered in oil so there was really no way to know what was leaking at the time. Still debating on trying to find someone to weld the case crack or buy a lower mileage used transmission. The current transmission has a noise coming from the input shaft bearing.