COB's 4Runner Timeline (Pic Heavy)

[BrianSD_42]

upvote for James!

btw, I never heard back from you about that sunroof motor. I will be in Mission Viejo near Alicia on Friday & Saturday, if it is possible to do a quick pickup.

:thumb3:

 

[ChildrenOfBodom]

I cast a 5 star vote for ya, James. I thought I had already voted on your thread, but apparently not. Either way, it definitely deserves to be a 5 star thread - and a lot more than most!

Question.. why did you buy new hub covers? Did the donor not have them or were they bent up? Just wondering since your wheel caps cover them anyways.

Haha sweet, thanks dude!

The hub covers on the donor truck were really rusted on. Getting them off meant destroying them.

I bought new ones to prevent any water from getting into the wheel bearings and rusting. I've heard some real horror stories. I don't know how true that stuff is, this is all new to me pretty much, but buying two hub covers seemed like an easy way to prevent huge problems.

upvote for James!

btw, I never heard back from you about that sunroof motor. I will be in Mission Viejo near Alicia on Friday & Saturday, if it is possible to do a quick pickup.

:thumb3:

haha thanks man. Sorry if i didn't reply, I get so many emails per day that I can't even keep track anymore.

Did we exchange phone numbers yet? I'll be available on Friday so I'll be more than happy to meet up with you.

I'll send you a PM

 

[4Runner8]

dont worry i just threw them 5 stars up

 

[99 sr5 highlander]

This morning, I installed the new hub covers.

It's floating!

 

[Stick Figure]

That's a good possibility, but I might be on hold for a bit if I can't find time to finish though brackets this week.

 

[JadatheRottweiler]

where do we vote for 5 star?

sorry for n00b question

found it!

 

[Kung]

I'm no stranger to electronics/wiring (having been an IT guy for the last 16 years, and an electronics technician in the Navy, as well as having done pretty much every wiring job ever regarding electronics for most of my friends and family).

This being said, I cried when I saw that harness and thought about having to recreate it. Wiring a vehicle like that takes one big brass set. LOL And I feel all proud whenever I get a new head unit installed.

Fantastic build, man.

 

[20034RunnerV84x2]

:drummer::drummer::drummer::guitar2::reddance::lookout::rant::boink::biggrin2:

James. Oh. My. Holy. Hell. lol

 

[20034RunnerV84x2]

BTW, I'm jealouis. Would you like a 2003 V8 and the complementary $386.66 a month payments that come with it? :lol:

 

[JadatheRottweiler]

bump for some updates!! hahah

you still sick james? I am free to drop by during week if you are free.

 

[ChildrenOfBodom]

That's a good possibility, but I might be on hold for a bit if I can't find time to finish though brackets this week.

sure, ill check if it's the same when I have time, still spending all my time on my 4Runner trying to finish up

I'm no stranger to electronics/wiring (having been an IT guy for the last 16 years, and an electronics technician in the Navy, as well as having done pretty much every wiring job ever regarding electronics for most of my friends and family).

This being said, I cried when I saw that harness and thought about having to recreate it. Wiring a vehicle like that takes one big brass set. LOL And I feel all proud whenever I get a new head unit installed.

Fantastic build, man.

Awesome, I think I might have cried a little bit, too... haha. John has taught me so much, I could not have done this without his help. Your job sounds pretty difficult, I respect the work you do. Thank you.

BTW, I'm jealouis. Would you like a 2003 V8 and the complementary $386.66 a month payments that come with it? :lol:

Hm... it's cool, I think I'm all done with 2WD Haha, but good luck with your new 4Runner, you kept your word when you said you'd get another one. Sure is better than that lame-o Highlander

bump for some updates!! hahah

you still sick james? I am free to drop by during week if you are free.

I'm better now, thank you for asking. I slacked on the update last night, sorry. I'd happily hit you up, but I'm so busy with the car every day that I haven't had any time. I should be done within the next week, definitely as soon as I'm done.





Monday Morning. It was weird... that was the last morning that I'd ever drive my 4Runner as a 2WD automatic.

Started the day by pulling the seats:

Goodbye, dashboard!

3RZ 2WD A/T ECU VS 3RZ 4WD M/T, notice that the part numbers are nearly identical.

Auto shifter out:

The inner trace is the shifter cutout for the manual transmission shifters. I'm going to cut about an extra inch around it.

Exhaust, driveshaft, and catalytic converter are removed.

The crossmember for the transmission mount for my 2WD 4 cylinder transmission gets in the way of a transfer case, so my good friend Sawzall paid a visit.

ATF lines removed from transmission to radiator:

Transmission:

With the transmission finally out of the way, the wires for the speed sensor (for non ABS 4Runners only) needed to be extended with factory color wires from the donor harness.

The donor truck did have ABS, so the gear driven speed sensor on the back of the trans was not needed. It had a cap:

You can see the splines in the output shaft:

 

[ChildrenOfBodom]

John had two speed sensors laying around. One was just the right length and the other had a 29 tooth gear. We combined the parts to make one good speed sensor. We're not sure if this will work as of yet, as the 4Runner requires a 33 tooth gear. The speedometer will likely be way off.

One of the speed sensors:

Flywheel going in

Flywheel, bolts torqued to 19.5lbs, then turned 90 degrees. I used new bolts as mentioned when I purchased the flywheel. New pilot bearing.

Clutch disk and pressure plate installed:

Wiring!

So... many... wires...

Even took the harness to work with me. Testing continuity with a test light and a car battery. (damn right I have a Razor scooter, one of the original ones too!)

Most of the photos from here on out are of wiring. I doubt many of you want to see a bunch of wires with masking tape labels on them.
Basically, we had to trace all of the wires using diagrams for the clutch start cancel switch, the clutch pedal switch, remove the wires going to the dash cluster for PRND2L, wire up reverse lights, test for 4WD indicator light wires, test which wires go where, etc, etc... it's basically been encompassing my entire last week with the truck.

The back of the truck is crammed full of the rest of the interior.

Pulling pins and whole wires to swap...

Showing some removed pins, these specifically being L, 2, and R indicator lights to the gauge cluster. Instead of removing these wires completely, they will be used for other functions. For identification purposes, it is best to cut the tips of each wire and solder on a new, properly colored wire end corresponding to what it's being used for. These wires used to run to the automatic transmission, instead will be relocated to the front differential to run the ADD mechanism. No harness removal required

The engine harness for the V6 needed to be hacked up a little bit. I had to take the transfer case and transmission plugs with to complete the slave harness. This includes reverse indicator light, transfer case switch (tells the ECU what mode you're in), and all of the differential and ADD wires.

Back again tomorrow! Finishing up wiring and hoping to get the transmission bolted up...

 

[t4r4life]

this all looks very expensive, I hope your wallet is doing okay.

 

[20034RunnerV84x2]

lol, it seemed like there wasn't a single 4WD down here! Well they were ok but either they wern't in good condition or the dealer was a.....I'm not going to go there lol.

Well the Highlander wasn't bad, it was slow. If it was the Limited V6 AWD, there might have been a better chance of me keeping it. But a Base 2.4 FWD....uhh, no thanks. lol.

The V8 is a fing rocket....here's my accel. clip that's on YouTube. 2003 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V8 2WD Acceleration Demo - YouTube

I told everyone on Facebook I was going to get another....even tho it took me like what, 2 months? Oh well, it payed off in the end.

On another note, when do you forsee being done?

 

[JohnsD90]

lol, it seemed like there wasn't a single 4WD down here! Well they were ok but either they wern't in good condition or the dealer was a.....I'm not going to go there lol.

Well the Highlander wasn't bad, it was slow. If it was the Limited V6 AWD, there might have been a better chance of me keeping it. But a Base 2.4 FWD....uhh, no thanks. lol.

The V8 is a fing rocket....here's my accel. clip that's on YouTube. 2003 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V8 2WD Acceleration Demo - YouTube

I told everyone on Facebook I was going to get another....even tho it took me like what, 2 months? Oh well, it payed off in the end.

On another note, when do you forsee being done?

the 3rd gen base model is 2.7l RWD, all of the 4runners are RWD, some also have have 4wd...

 

[00_4runner]

I think he's refering to a Toyota highlander not a 3rd gen

 

[Hepar]

Man, this is awesome. Can't wait until it's finished!

 

[BigFishAllDay]

So let's just say... Working on 4Runners = Kung Fu

By the time this is over, you will be:

 

[LittleCaesar]

+1 with BFAD. No more grasshopper here.

How hard was it to pull the dash? Mine seems to be coming apart at the joining seems, due to the sun hitting it day after day.

I used to work all day with low voltage wiring. Wiring is the biggest PITA known to man.

 

[20034RunnerV84x2]

I am. It was a 2003.