Replaced the spare tire hoist with a chain version from ebay. Getting the old one out was a little rough and in retrospect, may have not been needed after it was all said and done. Fail point seemed like it was where the stainless cable entered the housing. Could be wrong. Thing wouldnt budget and couldnt get to it until I cut the tire off the cable. (Sawzal with a bi-metal Milwaukee Torch blade cut through it like butter)

OEM hoist is threaded with six (6) bolts going in from the top side. The two outter bolts are for the "funnel" assembly and there are 4 more that are easier to access once the funnel is removed. Mine were pretty rusty so I ended up spending some quality time with my RA grinder to take the bolts down.

New hoist is in place with two bolts for the moment, which I dont love. The new hoist is also threaded but only two holes lined up. I'll get back under and deal with the other two in the very near future. The two bolts are threaded into the new hoist just like OEM, but backed with nuts so it's ok, just will feel better about two more bolts holding it in place.

Also, the 255 70R18 Falken Wild Peaks are a 32.06" tire and that BARELY fits. Barley as in I had to guide it in so it wasnt in contact with the pan-hard bar.

When mine froze I was lucky enough that it wasn't completely frozen. A couple of hours of persistence and a can of penetrating oil and I got it free. Now, every spring, I spray it again and crank it up and down.

When looking for how to get at the mechanism I came across a YouTube video of a guy with a GX460. On that SUV, made on the same line as the 4Runner, the cross brackets are bolted into the frame instead of welded. I was thinking of just cutting it all off and replacing those cross bars and bolting into the frame like the GX had it. Glad I didn't have to do that.

I was able to work mine free also. I try to drop the wheel spring & fall to lube it. So far so good.

Early maintenance I used waterproof wheel bearing grease on the wire rope to prevent rust and that seems to be working. For the crank mechanism I kept shooting Liquid Wrench white lithium grease into the gear box as best as I could. Then I'd work the crank back and forth (not hard) and eventually it started moving. I recall there was something else about the gear box, like it was trying to open when I was working the crank and I had to hold it closed or something. I don't recall what I did. The combination seemed to work.

I was also lucky that the spare was down to the ground when it froze. I was able to get the tire out of the way to work on the gear box. It was summer too, so I didn't have to do that in cold weather.