Hey everyone so this is my Gen2 1994 4runner. It's been in the garage for a good good number of months while I was getting all the parts for the front end work. I have actually had this bad girl for a while. While she has be relegated to utilitarian duties only and mostly mechanically sound there are a few issues. I do mostly driving around town and but I am out in the the desert a lot and weekly. So far I have only fixed things that have broken, of course the routine maintenance and fluid changes. I have done nothing in the way of upgrading or turning it into a rock crawler. I have done some thing in the past. I have done the big 3 upgrade, also put in a new rear differential when my ring and pinion exploded. Smaller things also. We get out there too, my family does do a bit of camping. We don't always camp in established places either. LoL

There is no lift. I have 31 size tires on there. I'm happy with them, I drive up to Phoenix often on the interstate so I like to maintain my ability to go 80 mph.

Recently I have decided to really start giving this vehicle the love it deserves and bring her back into tip top shape. I Named her the Red Baron. Yes she is a she, like a ship.

Need to do
Front end refresh
Power steering is out
AC fix
Hood issues

Fun stuff to do
Rear end springs and shocks
Locking hubs
Add more power outlets
LED
New headlights
Front Armor of sorts with wench
Paint

There is a multitude of other things I would like to do as well and I would like to use the many people threads here as inspiration and post my progress. I hope to learn cool stuff and document things to help others in the future.

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So first I decided to refresh the front steering and some basic suspension. All the boots were shredded and really bad plus the shocks were non functional. The shocks should have been addressed years ago. This AZ sun does a number to rubber after so many years. I can't complain because we don't have the rust and salts like others nor the harsh winters.

Both side where applicable, all the new parts I got
upper and lower ball joints
Inner and out tie rods
pitmen arm
Idler arm
CV axle shafts on both sides
Shocks KYB Mono Max
Break pads generic

Most parts were Beck-Arnley ordered from rock auto.

There were no real surprises. The passenger side was more difficult than the drivers. It really should drive like a different truck once I get her on the road . I am looking forward to it.

I am going to do the breaks also while I have her up on stands. Also going to tackle a nasty power steering leak.


How do most of you handle your zerks? Do you leave them in or do people just put them in for greasing? Some of the parts I took off the truck had some in but some didn't. I put in all 45 degree angled zerks, so far with my new parts they don't seem to be interfering with anything and I tried to put them in so that they would be easy to access to encourage greasing.

I really would have liked to have gotten new bolts for my Idler arm. I had a battery acid spill and as you gen 2 people know the battery sits right above this area so I have been worried about corrosive damage. They could have looked better, but I cleaned them up and put them back in. If I can source some new ones I will swap them out later. Anyway not a bad start I guess, its not total fabrication like some of the amazing work I have seen here but for me it's a big deal. I honestly got a lot of the info from these thread on this site and others like it. I dont know what I would do with out community's like this one.

Lol you can see in the photo where I had the bad power steering leak. That's the next task. Fix it so my daughter doesn't have to wrestle a bull to turn the vehicle when driving. Haha

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Im glad im finding your Thread when its starting. i just got my first Toyota 4runner. a 1995 and this is exactly what im looking at doing. I know the front end needs a refresher and i want to give this truck some Justice. Doing some of this basic stuff is more than most do so congrats! I was looking at the Moog front end stuff they sell a kit online for just over 300 and id need to get a idler arm and Pitman. How was the build Quality on the Beck Arnley?

I need to tackle my power steering it looks like its been leaking for a while too. just got the truck off a 19 year old whose been beating the piss out of it.

Hi @W4de_ thanks for commenting. Yeah you know I had planned on getting moog for a long time while thinking about doing this job. But after reading a lot of threads that covered this going back over the past few years about front end components, a lot of people have commented that Moog's quality has gone down, so I decided to go with the Beck Arnley as they were at a similar quality as oem. I hope that was not a mistake but the the componants do seem nice and beefy and do seem close to what I took off.

Also That pittmen arm bolt on the bottom of the steering box was a mother F'er lol I had to use a breaker bar with a 2 foot length of fence post added.

Here is the old one and the new idler arm next to each other. Just to compare. The arm of the BA is a little thicker and the head is a little fatter. Not much but a little.

I am doing power steering in my next update.

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