Fignewton's 2wd to 4wd to twin locked build

[IsacFignewton]

1999 Toyota 4runner sr5
Imperial Jade Mica
3.4 5vz-fe



Recent Pix August 29,2021

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| January 6,2021 |
I bought this 2wd imperial jade for $3,000 in Prescott, Az with 275k. Stock with very clean chasis and decent interior.

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MODS AND UPGRADES

Suspension:
1" Toytec body lift
Front:
-Icon 2.5 extended coils
-SPC adjustable uppper arms
-Energy suspension steering rack bushings
-Durobump bumpstops
-removed front sway bar
Rear:
-Icon 2.0 shocks
-OME 890
-Second gen t4r sway bar endlinks
-Durobump 5.25 bumpstops
-t4r 4wd upper arms

Wheels & Tires:
-FN Wheels 16x8.5 5 star black
-315/75r16 KM3
Clearing 35's
-Custom washer bottle relocation (similar to sonaron steel kit)
-Caster set all the way forward, massaged pinch welds, trimmed bumper

Drivetrain & Brakes
-B&M trans cooler
Front:
-Tundra 231mm
-Toytec SS lines
-ARB air locker
-5.29 gear ratio
Rear:
-Toytec extended SS lines
-E-locker
-5.29 gear ratio

Engine:
-Airaid intake tube
-Port matched TB,UIM, and LIM
-Complete engine refresh (check clearances, and all new gaskets ect.)

Electrical:
-Blue sea fuse block 12 circuit w/ 100a relay
-Custom fuse platform
-ARB single compressor

Exterior:
-Spiker engineering hood strut kit
-Some generic roof rack
-01 Taillights

Interior:
-Sport alum. interior
-ARB toggle switches
-Custom Hi-lift mount
-MORE TO COME

Stereo/CB/HAM:
-COMING SOON

Future Mods:
-Coastal offroad armor
-Full length roof rack
-Supercharger
-Air tank
-Headlight retrofit
-37's
-Debating on rhino lining desert tan
-Larger fender flares (KM3's pickup everything :rockthrow

 

[IsacFignewton]

So first things first I'll start off with the first modification I did when I got the 4runner. The 2wd to 4wd conversion. I was very lucky to find a 4runner of the same year and color to swap everything over, and my parents also had a totaled 4runner sitting in their backyard they were pulling parts off of and didnt need anything that I would be using :banana:.
This swap was pretty straight forward requiring a little bit of wiring, swaping of parts (duh), and a couple welds. I used phattyducks's awesome write-up "Phattyduck's '99 4WD swap" as a reference for my swap. I dont know if he ran into this issue when he swapped, but on mine I had to swap the abs controller in the passenger side kickpanel.

PART 1

First order of bussiness... Pull out this oily mess of an engine.

Too make it easy just disconnect everything that is attached to the chassis and pull engine with the entire harness still attached.

Pulled engine w/ trans. It wasn't too bad w/ the 2wd transmission.

Next up is disassembly, inspection, and cleanup.

Found a nice little jumper the po installed

Time to reassemble

Engine bay coated and ready for axles and front diff.

Front diff. installed with solenoids for 4wd activation! Sooo easy without engine :laugh:

4wd Knuckle's, SPC upper arms, 13WL's, SS brake lines, axles installed.

END PART 1

 

[phattyduck]

I dont know if he ran into this issue when he swapped, but on mine I had to swap the abs controller in the passenger side kickpanel.

I didn't swap any electronics, other than adding the ADD relay, basically (and the 4WD wires to the engine bay harnesses)

The Engine and ABS ECUs are different between 2WD and 4WD, but it hasn't caused any problems (yet!) for me.

Looking forward to some pictures!

-Charlie

 

[IsacFignewton]

Part 2


Since my donor and recipeint 4runner are both 1999 SR5's the wiring was very easy. I used the full engine harness from the 4wd and plugged it all into the respective connectors. The only wiring that needed to be done was connecting two wires under the d/s dash for the vacuum solenoids to actuate the collar.

Engine Installed!
Later that same week (after I installed engine) I found a deal for front and rear lockers w/ 5.29 gears...

Measuring, cutting, welding time!
Installing the 4wd transmission requires trimming some of the transmission tunnel sheet metal. I just cut out a large portion of the donor vehicle's tunnel and used it as a template to trim the correct holes for the 4wd shifter. Then drill holes to mount the shifter assembly.

All primed and ready to go

Next up was the transmission mount. I chose to make it super simple and just weld a plate on the 2wd crossmember.

Wiring, relay, and abs control modules
These are the two wires that need to be connected to the harness. On my 4runner it was already pre-wired so I just needed to pull those two wires from the harness in the donor vehicle and connect them to my harness.

Module for abs

So the abs ecu in my hand is for a 2wd and when I had this installed the abs light came on and the speedo would not work. Easy fix was put in the abs ecu from the 4wd 4runner and bingo no lights and speedo was fixed. Also the add relay which you can kind of see needs to be connected to pre-wired connector.

And thats it. In my opinion buying a 2wd and converting to a 4wd is well worth it. 2wd models are usually in better condition and haven't been beat up offroad like most 4wd's. The 4wd 4runner tax is insane atm in az (for a decent one).

 

[cas5259]

Sounds awesome but all the pics are broken.

 

[IsacFignewton]

Sounds awesome but all the pics are broken.

Thx for the heads up. They were showing up on mine then just crashed... Should be fixed now.

 

[phattyduck]

Next up was the transmission mount. I chose to make it super simple and just weld a plate on the 2wd crossmember.

This may come back to bite you if you are want to use any off-the-shelf skid plates, but will be good if you ever go dual case (the crossmember will better support the second TC).

I still have a bit of the original 2WD frame horns left for the original crossmember... :caked:

-Charlie

 

[G_Raw]

your way cost less than mine and is simple enough. I ended up using the TG crossmember that acts as a skid for the transfer case as well. It does not allow you to use off the shelf trans skids like [MENTION=139000]phattyduck[/MENTION] mentions either. So I'll be making a custom skid at some point to protect the trans pan. Good work so far on your rig.

 

[IsacFignewton]

your way cost less than mine and is simple enough. I ended up using the TG crossmember that acts as a skid for the transfer case as well. It does not allow you to use off the shelf trans skids like [MENTION=139000]phattyduck[/MENTION] mentions either. So I'll be making a custom skid at some point to protect the trans pan. Good work so far on your rig.

Thx :thumb:. I have a decent welder and all the tools to fab a custom skid so shouldn't be too much of an issue.

 

[IsacFignewton]

This may come back to bite you if you are want to use any off-the-shelf skid plates, but will be good if you ever go dual case (the crossmember will better support the second TC).

I still have a bit of the original 2WD frame horns left for the original crossmember... :caked:

-Charlie

My original plan was to move the crossmember forward, but I was impatient and wanted to get it on the road.

 

[IsacFignewton]

Rear sway bar end-link swap.

Switching from the stock 3rd gen end-links to 2nd gen ones correct the sway bar alignment after lifting the vehicle. The 2nd gen links are about 2" longer. These can be found on 1989-1995 Toyota 4runners and can usually find a few at the local pick and pull yards for cheap.

Stock 3rd gen SR5 end-links

Stock 2nd gen end-links

3rd gen on left. 2nd gen on right

Sway bar aligned w/ the rear lower arm