Seems like you went the hard route? You can pull the harness into the bay and remove the metal piece, I believe... This is what i did when wiring in my 4WD wires:



-Charlie

Ha, I was wondering about that! I looked under the dash, even pulled out the glove box, but could not get anywhere near the connectors. I decided it must require some significant disassembly for the HVAC ducting to get the to the connectors. No?

The open heart surgery approach wasn't all that hard, just tedious.

At least you didn't do what my po of a 1991 camry did. They decided to cut the harness and then connect all the wires back together, crossing a few. That was fun to trace and fix....:/



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Pulling the harness into the bay itself is harder on the gen2 Camry (I've done it a bunch...) but getting the dash apart is just a touch easier. I've seen people completely unplug the engine harness rather than pull it out from the interior, which is also a bit crazy. The main fuse box has plugs for all the wires on the bottom, so removing the engine with harness attached isn't too bad.

On the 4Runner, you just have to remove the upper panel at the top of the glove compartment to access all the connectors. It is a bit of a pain to find remove some of the clips, but it isn't too crazy. Then just 3 of the 4/5 connectors at the ECU and two to the dash to pull it into the bay

The previous owner of my 4WD parts truck cut the harness there at the firewall too, which was annoying...

-Charlie

I actually did that. My first engine camry. I completely unplugged the engine harness off the engine and dropped it over the passenger fender.

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I finally received all the parts I ordered to finish the project. Looks like enough parts to open a Toyota dealership:



I also picked up the plated fasteners from the plating shop:



Some parts came out great:



Others I'm less than happy with:



I'm not a plater, but comparing what I received (left) to some new zinc plated nuts (right), I'm not happy. So I'll be taking them back to the plating shop to see what they can do.

I don't blame you. Quality is important..

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How are you keeping track of what goes where? Did you just take a million photos along the way?

Pretty much - I tried to take a photo of every fastener as I removed it, like this:

Lots of ways to keep track of where hardware goes. Photos and video are awesome. A little work up front in the process saves major time on the back end.

Trays or muffin sheets with labels are great too. Tape with writing, locate tabs, anything really all works well to help you remember where things good.

Good systems and good organization is key.

Agreed. Since I took all the fasteners in for plating, I couldn't take any of the usual organization steps like trays, labels, or tape. So I will be relying on the photos I took during teardown to put it all back together.

I dropped off the fasteners back at the plating shop, they said they'll try to make them look better, but also said that I may need to go to a different shop.

In the meantime, I cleaned up the alternator a little bit, and threw in a new brush set, PN 27370-35060.

I got the re-plated parts back from the shop. Second time was the charm, apparently, the parts came out great.





I asked them what they did differently the second time, they were a bit cagey, just said that they "worked at it a little more". I suspect the reality is that the first time I got the "give 'im the usual" job, but when I came back complaining, they put the "oh this guy is picky, we better get this right" guy on the job.

Anyway, I think I can start putting things back together!

Well after much delays and chasing an issue with the IAC, it's (mostly) done! Still have a few parts on order, but this is the gist of it: