To start off, my 4runner is almost entirely stock with 210k miles on it. I would like to eventually make it more off road capable, and would like to learn a lot about it all along the way. A few weeks ago, I changed the gear oil in the rear diff, transfer case, and began to get to the front when I snapped a bolt on the infamous rusty radiator support. Now that I have all this quarantine free time on my hands, I would like to pick back up on that project and get some maintenance done.
So looking underneath today I notice that that I have a torn cv boot on that passenger side. Thank goodness I didn't do the front gear oil as that would have come out when changing the cv. Looking into Rock Auto or NAPA since the Toyota ones are pretty expensive for someone that drives mostly on road and occasionally off road to the beach or bike trials
This brings me to my main question: my cvs have negative angle to them as seen below. Instead of angling down like when lifted, they angle up. Does this indicate that my springs or shocks are worn, or is this normal for stock height? Springs don't have any cracks and appear to be in decent condition. Admittedly I don't have enough experience to determine if shocks are worn by feel, but doesn't bounce around too much even on rougher roads. If they do need replacing, hoping to tackle cv replacement and bilstien 5100s in one swoop.
Featuring my crude POR 15 work. Used the drivers wheel well to do an experiment on surface prep techniques, since I couldn't really find a straight answer. Definitely going to do a better job once brake caliper, knuckle, and everything else is off.