46&2's 99 5 Speed SR5

[fortysixandtwo]

Hey everyone. Excited to be back in a Toyota 4Runner again. This will be my build/journal for my recently acquired 1999 SR5.

I am not new to Toyotas, I have owned several. But haven't driven them much for the last decade or so. Got really into Ford Panther platform (Crown Victoria) for a while. I still have my 1985 4Runner rock crawler (DOA Racing 22RE, Marlin Crawler Duals, 35s, etc) however that truck has been sitting for 7 years because of life.

After an unfortunate accident that totaled my last Crown Victoria, I needed a new vehicle. Where I live dictated I should get back into a 4x4.

Trying to find a quality Toyota in the middle of the pandemic wasn't easy. On top of the hiked Toyota tax, availability was limited. It took a while, and some frustration watching ads appear and disappear in the same day before I could even go look. A number of lemons. My persistence paid off however, and I found this 1999 3.4, 5 speed 4x4 4runner listed for a very good price. It was two hours away. But I was the first caller minutes after he posted it. I told him I'd give him a deposit to hold it so I could see it first, and drove up that day to look at it.

It needed a clutch master and slave cylinder, but drove pretty good otherwise. It was one of the cleanest I had been able to see and drive. He was the second owner. I drove it two hours home the next day for $5k smogged. Felt like a steal. Timing belt/water pump was done at 182,000. No E locker sadly. Truck had 218,000 miles on it when purchased. I am almost to 228k now. Aside from a custom roof rack, the dealer bug guard, and some KYB shocks, it was stock. I was stoked on the sunroof.

First couple months I had it, I did the following:

OEM master cylinder (I originally swapped it with a Duralast master because it was saturday night when I got the thing home and needed to be done with the slave ASAP - less than a month later it failed)
Duralast slave cylinder (this has held up but i don't have much faith)
Napa premium rotors/pads
Napa air filter
OEM Throttle position sensor
OEM coils
OEM wires
OEM spark plugs
OEM clock spring
Cleaned the idle air control valve & throttle body
Street max muffler (sounds like a magnaflow to me :shrug
Napa 5w30 Oil change and K&N oil filter (running Napa 1516 as of last change)
Changed the trans and tcase to Redline MT90

My main goals with this truck are a reliable but capable daily driver. Strong offroad capability without sacrificing too much comfort or drive-ability. Mild lift, rear locker, bumpers, sliders to begin.

The day I bought it. Last pic is after its first offroad trip:

 

[Dexter Morgan]

nice rig, sick username :rockon:

 

[fortysixandtwo]

After the initial run of new parts and maintenance, I just drove it for a while. Enjoyed some mild off roading. After driving cars the last decade or so I was impressed with how good this thing does stock without a locker. I have a 87 Audi 5000 AWD and ran Bridgestone Blizzaks on my Crown Vics to deal with snow. So maybe I got used to having to work hard to get around in winter? :suspicious:

Either way the move from cars to 4runner was a pleasant change. It hasn't gotten me stuck yet.

The 265x70x16 Toyo Open Country AT 2s had some decent tread but were pretty old so I started planning a new direction for the tires and wheels.

 

[Doc2012]

I’m assuming you’re a big Tool fan?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fortysixandtwo]

nice rig, sick username :rockon:

Thanks!

I’m assuming you’re a big Tool fan?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes I'm a Tool nerd haha. I was stoked earlier this year because I was finally able to go see them live again after 6 years and scored tickets to one of their shows. Then the pandemic happened. :crybaby:

This is one of the only non-parts related stickers on my truck

 

[fortysixandtwo]

I spent a while trolling classifieds for a simple set of 16" black steel wheels with no luck. None of the local tire shops could get the ones I wanted. I eventually bought a set of Pacer 17x9s from a buddy who got them in a trade. Couldn't beat $50 for 4 wheels in good shape. They were dirty but cleaned up nice! I gave up on 16s at that point.

So I bought a new set of tires to match the larger wheels. I liked the Toyo Open Country IIs it came with, so I bought a new set of 265/70/17 Toyo Open Country III All Terrains. So far really liking these tires. Road manners are quiet and smooth and offroad they have gripped great.

I was worried the 17s would look too big or goofy but it turned out awesome.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Couple more pics. I wasn't a huge fan of the dealer installed bug guard, so I removed it.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Up next was UBJ & LBJ. I started planning what else I was going to do when I did ball joints. I knew the front end needed a lot. Before I could get it all together though, I broke a passenger ball joint. :wow:

I checked the play on the BJs about 2 months prior. They seemed fine. However, the roads I drive regularly are pretty shitty. A couple days before the accident, I started to hear random intermittent creaks but couldn't quite tell where it was coming from. I now know that was the LBJ.

All things considered, I was pretty damn lucky. I was only traveling about 5-7 mph when it happened. The passenger side LBJ basically popped off the ball when I hit a deep hole in the road. It took the CV axle and a tie rod with it. Fender was damaged too, but not terribly. I was grateful that the accident didn't happen 20 or 30 minutes later, on the highway.

I was pretty far from any roadside services when it broke. Had to wait 6 hours for my buddy to drive up with a trailer to get me.

Since the truck was down hard for a minute I decided to go all out on the front & rear end.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Stage 1 Build

Since I was going to be tearing the front end all apart anyway, I decided it was time to go all out on the whole suspension. I had already been buying parts before the LBJ failure. But it took a while to get all the additional stuff I needed after the accident due to COVID.

After weeks of searching out and waiting for parts to arrive, I finally have everything needed to begin my "Stage 1" 4Runner build.

The basic goal is to overhaul the front and rear end, lift it and add a ARB bumper with a Warn 10,000 lb winch. I daily drive this truck, but also have to deal with some moderate offroad conditions and lots of snow in the winter. I wanted to keep it comfortable but capable. I plan to add a E locker down the road, but this is where I am starting with my 99.

Stage 1:

SPC upper control arms/bushings
SPC upper ball joints
Toyota OEM lower control arms
Toyota OEM control arm bushings
Toyota OEM lower ball joints
Bilstein 5100 shocks
Old Man Emu 883 front coils
Old man emu 890 rear coils
(2) Napa lifetime warranty CV axles
New dif seals
New outer tie rods
New sway bar links f&r
New sway bar bushings f&r

ARB bumper
Warn EVO 10 10,000 lb winch
Master pull synthetic winch line
Poison Spyder aluminum fairlead

(4) Hella 500 Offroad lights (not pictured)

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Ran into a few snags that held me up. Fed Ex lost my emergency last minute parts packages twice. Toyota sold me two left tie rods and I didn't notice until I was putting them on at 6 pm on a Saturday. There was a nut on the passenger side lower steering rack that was supposed to be welded to the frame, but wasn't. So when I tried to loosen the nut on the other side to slide out the cam bolts, it just spun. There was no way to secure it because it was tucked up inside the subframe. The nut I could access had green loctite on it and was a bear to get off even after I could secure the backside. I ended up having to cut a small hole to get a box end on it so I could get the other loctited nut off.

It felt like someone had issues here and did a "won't have to deal with this for a long time" kinda fix on it.

It took longer than expected but I finally got it done. Fixed the minor body damage from the ball joint accident as well.

As soon as my friend that welds is free we are going to install the ARB and Warn 10k winch. Weld the broken weld nut, and reweld the small hole I cut to get the wrench in.

Overall it was quite an extensive project but I learned a lot about third gens. Thankfully my awesome girlfriend was able to lend a hand and drive me around while I had this thing torn apart.

It definitely sits a bit higher now! But the ride is so smooth and nice. A thousand times better than it was before. My old suspension/steering was definitely tired. Got her aligned no issue. And now have put over 1,000 miles on the new suspension. Definitely recommend the OME and Bilstein 5100 combo. Do all your sway bar links and bushings too while you're at it. Mine were all toast.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

More pics.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Fresh out of alignment!

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Took the 4Runner for a cruise to a hiking trail to do some RC crawling. My girlfriend got me a Axial SCX24 C10 for Christmas so we both have a backpack crawler now.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

I ended up noticing a vibration in the steering wheel between 55-65 mph. I took it a tire shop and it turned out my front wheels needed balancing. After that was done, the vibration went away. Smooth as glass and straight as an arrow on the highway. Its a huge change from how worn out it was when I got it.

I also scored a 97 4Runner e locker rear axle housing in great shape for cheap. Next I need to find a 4.10 elocker differential. If anyone has one near Sacramento, CA, let me know!

 

[fortysixandtwo]

I finished one of my quarantine projects I have been working on for a while. A 1:10 scale 1980 Toyota Hilux on Dana 60s and 49s.

The vehicle is Axial Wraith based with a Tamiya Hilux cab on 2.2 RC4WD Baja Claws.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Here is a current Before and After:

Hoping to install the ARB bumper and Warn 10k winch soon.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

My 1999 next to my dad's 2000 that he has owned since it was new. When I was a teenager I thought it was the coolest new car ever. I used to fantasize about owning it one day. 20 years later I ended up getting almost the same one, just a manual. Mine has more miles than his. 230,000 vs 217,000.

That is probably why these still seem new to me. And modern styling. Because when I learned to drive this was a brand new truck.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

I joined a Land Cruiser club recently. We went on a snow run about a month ago. It started off good but got chaotic. The snow was fine at first but going up a narrow section the road quickly turned to more packed ice and slush than snow. The lead truck got stuck and in the process of getting him unstuck, several more trucks got stuck. It ended up being a several hour adventure to get everyone unstuck and turned around before it got dark. We all made it back without breaking or injury though.

Most of the club has 40, 60, 62, 80 & 100 Series Land Cruisers. They call me the "Honorary Land Cruiser" :happy:

Stopped to help a guy with his kids who got stuck in his Dodge diesel

 

[fortysixandtwo]

This is where the problems began. It was already torn up from someone else, and very narrow. The lead FJ80 got stuck. Which started a chain reaction of vehicles getting stuck in the same spot trying to get through and each other out.

Three rigs got through and moved ahead to find a turn around spot. But they encountered issues, which tore up the road even more. By the time I got there, it was really bad. The pictures don't really convey how steep and sloshy that section is. I ended up sliding into some super soft slush ruts on my passenger side.

The group still with me decided to back down to a spot where we thought we could make a turnaround. It took a while, and more vehicles getting stuck and unstuck. But eventually we made a turn around spot. And waited for the other rigs to return.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Eventually we rounded everyone up and got moving back down the mountain again.

The biggest lessons I learned: regularly check the accuracy of your tire pressure gauges! Mine evidently didn't work accurately below 25 psi. I discovered it half way through the trip. But probably would have made things easier if I had actually been at 15 psi when I thought I was. :laugh:

And traction boards work pretty awesome in the snow! I was seriously impressed. They saved us a lot of digging time on numerous occasions. Definitely going to get some just based on how well they actually worked.

Overall, we only went a few miles offroad, but it was a still a lot of fun and great practice for winter extractions.