Brian's Maintenace and Mods thread

[Brian.]

Ok. Keep us posted. I saw your abs sensor. That is nasty, nothing coming thru rear brakes yet.. I wonder if you could pull the axles out and clean that up replacing the axle seal before it washes the grease out of your bearings.

Having done a little looking into this there doesn't seem to be a good answer other than "replace it all". I could pull the axles and clean everything up, but I risk damaging the seal. If the seal is damaged, or I just plan on replacing it, then I run into the issue where Toyota doesn't make the Exact same seal anymore.... it's a few MM "shorter" (more in-board) and thus doesn't ride on the inner retainer correctly. This could actually be worse than leaving it well enough alone.

The wheels spin cleanly, without grit or grumble, so I'm just going to leave it alone. I replaced the axle breather, which was original and seemed "stuck", so maybe that's the cause of the small volume of "gunk" in the ABS ring area between the axle seal and wheel bearing. Anyway, I'm in no rush to add more work, I have plenty enough of that in my life. :hand:

 

[brillo_76]

Having done a little looking into this there doesn't seem to be a good answer other than "replace it all". I could pull the axles and clean everything up, but I risk damaging the seal. If the seal is damaged, or I just plan on replacing it, then I run into the issue where Toyota doesn't make the Exact same seal anymore.... it's a few MM "shorter" (more in-board) and thus doesn't ride on the inner retainer correctly. This could actually be worse than leaving it well enough alone.

The wheels spin cleanly, without grit or grumble, so I'm just going to leave it alone. I replaced the axle breather, which was original and seemed "stuck", so maybe that's the cause of the small volume of "gunk" in the ABS ring area between the axle seal and wheel bearing. Anyway, I'm in no rush to add more work, I have plenty enough of that in my life. :hand:

I Thought the breathers only rusted shut.. I don't blame you the axle seals are around $10 a piece and your bearing are good at the moment. I doubt I can even get an abs sensor out on mine out without breaking to check... :/ Be glad your not in the rust belt..

 

[Brian.]

Just a simple thing, but so necessary... swapped out the 20 year old, cracked and failing rubber brake lines for some new stainless braided pretty. Opted for Stop-Tech after all the complains about Wheelers, and didn't really know any other companies out there that were offering them (other than Goodridge, and those are hard to come by in the US). All 3 lines had lots of cracks in the outer housing, but were still pliable... still, a little scary to think about a brake system failure:

StopTech 950.44510 for the rear and StopTech 950.44007 up front.

The rear line isn't Tight, but it's tighter than the stock line (truck is on a lift so the axle is at full droop), I'll probably get back in there and bend the bracket down... the other hose is my axle breather extension.

Fronts are fronts are fronts, exact same length, not that it matters. Fit was perfect, none of that wonky carp people talk about with Wheelers lines:

The truck has new pads and rotors up front, new pads out back... I would have thought they'd bled the brakes while doing that work. Nope, chunks of crud came floating on out while I was bleeding the lines, at least the fluid wasn't as bad as some I've seen.

 

[infamousRNR]

wow [MENTION=315156]Brian.[/MENTION] love the detail in your posts, the pictures, the humor in your narration and the shoutout to [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] and I...

you've really spent a lot of time giving this rig the makeover it deserves.

i'm impressed!

- Sean

 

[phattyduck]

The rear line isn't Tight, but it's tighter than the stock line (truck is on a lift so the axle is at full droop), I'll probably get back in there and bend the bracket down... the other hose is my axle breather extension.

Flexing puts LESS strain on the brake line than that - you have no worries there. If you get longer shocks, you'll need to deal with that brake line again, but for now you are fine.

I zip tied my diff breather to the brake line to avoid any rubbing together of the two.

-Charlie

 

[Brian.]

Guess I took a 2 month hiatus there... I have a good excuse though, I did a 2-week trip from GA to Niagara Falls, NY and back in search of fall colors (in my DIY camper-van):

And my wife decided she wanted yet Another car (she has 3 now, I daily drive the van)...

Kinda took up some time. But, back to the 4runner... This weeks projects were to address the leaking valve cover gaskets and address the timing belt, water pump type stuff. Not a whole lot of photo change in these ta... mostly from dirty:

to clean...er?

And the cam shot:

Getting back together again:

And new belts, no more wondering about their age/condition:

As usual, I leaned heavily on Tim and Seans videos, both the Valve Cover video:

YouTube

There's also info for the valve covers (intake info) in the fuel injector video that I found useful:

YouTube

And the Timing Belt video(s):

YouTube
YouTube

The videos are an amazing resource for anyone thinking of doing this kind of work. Parts info, tool info, walk-through on the actual work, etc...

I happened to buy my timing belt kit on ebay from https://www.ebay.com/usr/metero1969, was all genuine parts where indicated.

While in the valve covers, I checked my valve lash and found all but 3 to be within specs. those 3 were all exhaust and all just over the loose limit. Decided not to worry about it this time, I'll address it next time the valve gaskets start leaking, or if I opt for the high-lift cams in the meantime.

As always, have to complain about the PO and their work. Not sure what the heck they used as a liquid gasket, but they made sure to use ALL of it. I took out pieces as big as my little finger that were just barely missing moving components and it was rock hard as well.

Always nice to have it start back up Immediately after doing this kind of work, and mine sure did. Most of my hoses on top are cracked and brittle, so I ordered a silicone hose kit (Changed out my vacuum hoses with silicon- pic ~ coupon code is worth $5 off) and will swap things out once it's here.

Also noticed a miss at idle now. No codes/CEL, and it vanishes with just 1~200 rpm raise (AC compressor kicking on). Not going to worry about that till it develops into something else.

Next step is easy-ish... trans filter, and flushing all fluids. I think that'll be everything maintenance-wise, then it's onto that VW up there.... no rest for the weary.

 

[Brian.]

Tackled the 30k miles service for fluids a week back, doing the first oil change since buying the 4runner (hey, I've only driven 2k miles and it looked clean). Opted for my standard choice of Mobil1 in the high-mileage formulation and an OEM filter that came with my timing belt kit. Used Valvoline 75w90 synthetic gear oil in both diffs and the transfer case. Not much point to photos here (plus, oily hands and phones, just say no!). Timmy and Sean cover it well here though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81i1Cayf_I

I also dropped the transmission pan to swap the filter before doing a flush.

Other than the swaybar being in the way, it wasn't a big deal. Thankfully the original FIPG came off easily with just a plastic scraper and some steel wool. Again, Timmy and Sean have this covered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuGazNhuEtM

I let the new FIPG setup overnight before filling with Valvoline ATF (blue jug, couldn't stomach the extra $$$ for the Maxlife red jug at this time, though I'll start using that at my fluid changes). Had a helper to do the Timmy-style flush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RumPXivBlk8

Sadly, I found Chunks of "stuff" during my transmission flush:

The worst were these big chunks, which were decently hard but could still be smashed. Inside looked like dry red clay, with metal flakes on the outside:

Being worried about what this might hold for the future, I opted to installa Magnafine brand ATF filter (3/8").

I've got about 100 miles on the truck since the above, still shifting smoothly... hoping I managed to pull a Neo and dodge bullets.

 

[Brian.]

After tackling the valve cover gaskets, I knew that my vacuum lines were at the end of their useful life. they were cracking and crumbling, I was honestly afraid they wouldn't even hold together enough to start the truck back up after the job. Well, searching the forums I stumbled on this thread:

Changed out my vacuum hoses with silicon- pic

And opted to buy the "Shop Kit" (in black, I'm shy, don't like things that draw attention). Thanksgiving got in the way of shipping, but it made it from CO to GA in a week and I got to replacing lines:

I'm sure I've missed a few lines but got everything above the engine. Left the smaller lines below the fusebox as when I disconnected one the whole system sucked in air (was under vacuum still):

The odd thing is that the kit seems lopsided. It has 18' of 4mm and I only used 1'. 12' of 6mm and I used 5'. 6' of 8mm and I used 5' and 8' of 10mm and I again only used 1'. I don't even know where to use the rest of this stuff... maybe the windshield washer lines? Anyway, if you're on a budget and want to buy by-the-foot, there ya go with sizes and feet.



Sadly, I have developed an idle stumble. It's inconsistent, meaning that it only crops up randomly. It only happens at slow idle (about 680rpm for me), if the AC compressor is on with the associated 200rpm raise, the stumble doesn't present. Similarly, I find the engine runs smoother while under throttle and there are no codes showing (checked with both Torque Pro and Techstream). I cleaned the snot out of the IAC just last week, blew it out with compressed air, it moved smoothly. New plugs, plug wires, clean MAF and TB, etc... All the common stuff I can find, I've done. I had a rough idle Before the work, so it's an improvement, but I sure wish I could fix the stumble (felt like it was about to stall the one time it did it today which is the worst it's been).