Inheritance Build

[wslytoy]

The back story 1st...
I inherited this 3rd gen after I'd already owned my 4th gen 06 Sport Edition for about 2 years. Previously I had an 85' 4Runner w/ a 3RZ swap that I barely got finished before I had to end up selling in order to pay off my 05' Tacoma before I started nursing school. My sister bought this 00' 4Runner about 4-5 years back & it appeared to be in great shape, regardless of the 180K on the odometer. I went w/ her to look at it & it seemed to be in great shape. Well, shortly after her purchase, she began having some injector issues. After replacing 2 injectors & doing a timing belt/water pump, she was back on the road. Fast forward a couple years & then transmission was going out. She had the transmission rebuilt & since then, the 4Runner has accrued 217K miles. My sister was going through tough times from Oct 2014 until she committed suicide January 22, 2015. As some of you may know, rarely ever is it just **1** thing that leads to that decision. She'd actually gotten her 4Runner high centered the early morning she committed suicide. Some have wondered why I hung on to her 4Runner considering the circumstances. Well, my dad died when I was 16 & he had a brand new 98' Tacoma 4x4 that I wasn't able to hold on to & it's haunted me ever since. Plus, her 4Runner was there... so in a morbid way I can hang on to a piece of her. Plus the resale value kinda sucks compared to Tacoma's. She wanted to do a lot of stuff that she just couldn't ever afford to do. She was a cop, so keeping it on the road was about as far as it could ever go. Long story short, I've taken it upon myself to fix what's broken (figuratively & literally) & make it something that she would've been proud as hell to drive.

Not to be sexist, but you know how some women drivers can be... they don't do much preventative maintenance. They drive it hard as hell until something breaks & then ***** about how expensive repairs are. Well, my sister was very much like this. Other than the timing belt/water pump, I don't know that she ever did any PM. As soon as I got the truck, I started making a list of things that needed to be repaired before it could be driven on a regular basis.

1st was the ever present leaking valve covers. I found a pretty decent kit on eBay from a reputable seller.

It always amazes me to see how clean high mileage Toyota engines are when you crack open the valve covers.

I had some high temp red paint laying around, so I couldn't help myself.

Next up, shocks & LBJ's. I had no idea how old or new the shocks were on the truck, so I figured I'd get some Bilsteins & remove the 3" spacer lift. Well soon the outer passenger CV boot started leaking. So the job turned into new shocks, new LBJ's, new outer TRE's, 2 new CV axles... & I'll be needing new brakes when my next pay check comes.

I went w/ Autozone CV's b/c of the warranty. I seriously doubt I'll do much offroading w/ this truck, as it'll be primarily a back up vehicle/deer camp transporter.

Proverbial "progress pic" during the repair/install process.
IMG]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c388/wslytoy/Alecias%204Runner%20Build/IMG_20160116_085237_zpsen2kdpkc.jpg[/IMG]

Initially I wasn't going to worry w/ replacing the driver side CV axle, b/c the boots were fine. That is until I had the stock shocks removed & the suspension drooped... Both boots were dry rotted & cracked between each fin. Oh well, after 217K miles, they needed replacing.

Initially I ordered 4 Porsche 930 CV boots from Offroad Engineering. I was just going to keep the stock axles & replace the boots accordingly. Well, according to their site they generally ship by the next business day. After 9 days of no shipping updates & no responses via email, I called them to see what the deal was. The guy that answered was probably high, b/c he seemed to know less about my order than I did. Based on his lack of concerned, I just decided to cancel the order all together. After 4 days of no paypal refund, I submitted it to paypal for a resolution. They finally refunded me today. So yeah, Offroad Engineering is garbage & I'll bad mouth them til the day I die.

Of course there were casualties during the process. Thank God for warranties.

In the coming months, I'm going to order my rear kit springs/shocks to get her leveled out. Then after these tires wear down, I'm going to probably jump up to 285's on some 16x8's or 16x10's. Of course bumpers, sliders, a winch, & some audio/interior upgrades are planned.

 

[99Runnr]

Good start.. sucks the circumstances behind it though.

Makes me want to go work on mine and I just did all the crap recently your doing, haha.

 

[Mighty Buffalo]

Sorry for your loss. I lost my dad to cancer a couple years ago. He always wanted a luxury car, so he bought a Lexus ES330 after his last car's head gasket was about to let go. I didn't even like that car, but it was a hard thing to sell it.

As weird as it sounds, I can't want to hit 200k with my 4R. I've only had mine for 9 months, but already had a lot of good times. Looks like you've got some big plans for yours.

 

[MattJakobs]

Sorry to hear you came by this build in such a way. At least you'll have something you can build in remembrance of her and it looks like you already have some good plans and background. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Do you by chance have a build on your 4th gen?

 

[T4R2014]

Definitely wasn't expecting a background like this to a build. Sorry for your loss. Keep up the good work on this build.

 

[wslytoy]

Sorry to hear you came by this build in such a way. At least you'll have something you can build in remembrance of her and it looks like you already have some good plans and background. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Do you by chance have a build on your 4th gen?

I actually bought my 4th gen as it sits during 2nd semester of nursing school b/c my daughter was growing out of room in the back of my 05' Access cab Tacoma. It's running the same type set up though, coils in back & Bilstein's up front. I just graduated from nursing school in May so I'm playing catch up on debt & trying to raise 2 girls. Luckily I have a wife that understands my Toyota addiction. I'll be getting new tires & rims for the 4th gen in the next 6 months, & I'll be doing some audio upgrades as well. It's expensive trying to fix up 1 truck at a time, 2 will take a while ha!

 

[Hepar]

What a great way to keep a memory of her around!

 

[wslytoy]

Welp, finally got her put all back together. I attempted to save the driver side outer TRE, but after getting it pressed out of the old LBJ... it's old age showed. I had a hell of a time getting the jam nut loose & it inspired me to get some bigger/badder crescent wrenches for future issues.
The new TRE in all her glory...

To be quite honest, I was kind of surprised that my CV angles were as extreme w/ the Bilsteins. My understanding is that the top ring gives you 2.5" lift, avoiding any CV boot rubbage. Oh well, once I get a winch bumper I'm sure the front end will dip a little bit. I'm sure once I run it around on these garbage roads that we have in Mississippi, it'll settle some too.

Next up, this guy will be getting replaced. It'll hold a charge for a couple of days & if I crank it every day, it's fine. But if I don't crank it daily, by day 2 there's just enough juice to make the starter make some racket.

I'll be digging into the brakes next weekend, b/c they're just about completely shot. The pedal is mushy as water logged bread & the driver side caliper is sticking. So I'm sure I'll be replacing calipers, pads, & rotors. Joy. Unfortunately not a lot of exciting updates will be had in the next few weeks, mainly b/c there's just so much maintenance to get caught up on. But I'll be ordering some Fuel Beasts for my 06' 4Runner, then I'll be forking out some $$$ for tires. So winch bumpers & new rims/tires will be later this summer. But it's all about the process & incremental updates that make this fun. Oh yeah... this ole girl will be getting some new paint this summer too. It's hard to tell, but there's quite a few "pin stripes" all over it.

 

[Stanley0910]

It's great that you are building the 4Runner. I think a lot of car/truck whatever guys see this as something you do, but for the majority of the public they'd have listed it on Craigslist. Anyway, good day and good wrenching.

 

[zgensler31]

You seem to be well backgrounded in toyota and mods, but just in case you didn't know, the tundra brake upgrade is something you should surely consider, answer you are already planning on replacing the whole front brake system already. Pricing should be about the same as original parts and you get way better brakes to boot!

 

[99Runnr]

As mentioned, Tundra brake upgrade (make sure you get the 13WL castings) is a big improvement.

I am running these rotors and pads, they bedded great and stop excellent for very cheap. Rotor quality looks excellent, chamfered holes, clean castings, I'm very happy for the money.

Front Kit Drilled and Slotted Brake Rotors Ceramic Pads Toyota Sequoia Tundra | eBay

 

[wslytoy]

After doing the TRE's, I realized that my steering wheel was off kilter & no longer centered when driving straight.
This is w/ the steering wheel straight...

This is w/ the tires pointing straight...

Needless to say, 1 is not like the other. I had to do some adjusting to each side to get it trued up, but it's a lot closer to center now w/ the tires pointing straight. I counted the threads on the old TRE's to make sure each new 1 installed had the same amount exposed. I had the steering wheel locked straight, but still ran into this issue. I'd say it's safe to say that counting your threads & measuring the exposed length of the TRE is a safer method to keep things dialed in. Live & learn.

In the braking dept, I decided to not do the Tundra brake upgrade right now. Why? Money. Sure it's not that much of a difference, but currently I'm just trying to get this truck dependable & driveable as fast as possible.
New calipers

From what I read on the Tundra brake upgrade, you utilize the same rotors that came on my truck... Just different calipers & pads. When I get to the point to where I'm satisfied w/ the rest of the truck, I'll start looking at that sort of stuff. It seems "wasteful" in a way, but at the same time, I need the truck roadworthy. This is a long term project, so there will be plenty of tweaking of things over time. I still haven't even had time to get the front end aligned & the brakes bled. Hopefully the brakes will be finished Sunday & an alignment will be done next week on an off day. Eventually maintenance issues will slow down & upgrades can begin.

 

[wslytoy]

Well, after draining the brake system & prepping to bleed the brakes I proceeded to connect my Motiv Power Bleeder to my master cylinder. I've had this thing for about 5-6 years, but I've used it literally 1 time on my 85' 3RZ swap. I didn't think anything of it. I figured it'd just work. Well, I fill up the canister w/ DOT 3 fluid & pump it up to about 15 PSI. All seems well & good as I start at the passenger rear drum, then the driver rear drum, then I get to the passenger side front to crack the bleeder valve. All of a sudden I notice brake fluid draining all down the driver side frame rail on to my garage floor, I look up & this hose

was giving my garage wall & driver side fender a brake fluid money shot. So now my power bleeder is rendered completely useless & a greasy mess. Needless to say, I was in a tight spot b/c I didn't end up getting the Speed Bleeder valves for each corner... so I was going to need a 2nd set of hands. Fortunately my buddy Jonathan came over & did me a solid. He not only pumped the brake pedal, but he entertained my 8 month old who was sitting in the back seat in a bumbo while daddy was cracking bleeder valves for about 20 min. Priorities, right? But hey, brakes are bled & she stops way better than she did before the new calipers, rotors, & pads.

Next up will be the starter. I was going to go ahead & do that this weekend, but once again life happens & we had a family friend pass so this weekend is going to be filled w/ non-fun stuff. Since the brakes are done, & the starter is next on the list, I should be done w/ "fixes". I will be ordering the rear coils & shocks in the next few weeks so I can get her leveled out. I can't make up my mind what my next move is going to be w/ this truck. I don't know if I want to go ahead & start gathering supplies for a respray, or if I want to go ahead & get some armor for her. If I go armor, I'll probably start w/ sliders & order a bumper for the post respray install. Still gotta long way to go, but she's finally driveable again.

 

[wslytoy]

Well my boss text me while I was at the gym tonight & told me that I didn't have to be at work at 0630 since we only had 4 patients in the unit & we have 5 nurses scheduled for tomorrow. That motivated me to yank the starter. Over the past several weeks I've gone from *click* *vrooom* to *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *vroooom*. Someone w/ my luck, I'll take my truck to get an alignment & it won't crank again & I'll have to pay someone to replace the starter. We've all seen a 5VZ starter replacement thread &/or video. Flat out, it's a pain in the ass to pull these starters. In hind sight, I wish I would've pulled it when I had the front end torn apart, b/c w/ the CV axles out you can drop the starter down by the axle w/o a problem. However against my better judgement, I didn't do it then. Oh well... live & learn.
Yep, my block is good & coated in oil. I'm fairly certain that most of the oil that my block is coated in is old oil from when the valve covers were leaking.

I decided to do a little trimming of the fender well to have more room to work.

And in her greasy glory...

I read, "you can drop the sway bar & boom, starter falls right out..." That's not true in my case. I also read, "just remove the bolt holding the brake line on the inside of the frame rail, take the passenger side tire off, boom it's out..." That's not completely true either. There's literally only 1 way that the starter will come out from the side between the frame & the fender well. Since I work the rest of the week, I'll be replacing this either Fri night or early Saturday morning.

While I was under the truck, I noticed some ATF on some of the trans pan bolts. I've previously sprayed the pan w/ brake cleaner see if ATF recollects. It did... Either I've got a leak coming from the input shaft, or the pan is leaking. My sister had the transmission rebuilt a couple years ago & it was by the best transmission shop in town. The problem is, literally not a single transmission shop in town does good work. At some point, I'm willing to bet I'm going to have to replace the transmission. I'm not currently having any issues, but that can change real fast if I don't stay on top of the fluid situation.

 

[wslytoy]

So I take the truck to get the front end aligned & the shop calls & tells me the front end hasn't been done b/c the driver side inner TRE needed replacing. They wanted $250, & a new inner TRE is $45... so I decided to just take care of it myself & take it back for an alignment later that week. No big deal.
This thing was floppy as hell & I'll probably be replacing the passenger side soon too.

So instead of taking my truck back to Gateway, I took it to Toyota b/c of proximity & my schedule. I know 1 of the service writers personally, so he shoots me pretty straight. He generally calls me from their land line but he called me from his cell phone so I was thinking "great, I guess the passenger side needs to be done too." Nope... He said it's aligned, but my alignment cams were "backwards". I'm trying to figure out what he's means, but when I get up there I see exactly what he means. I'm wondering how the hell I ever missed this. When I was doing all of the front end maintenance, I could've easily remedied this.

After further inspection...

All of the alignment cams on the passenger side have been (re)installed incorrectly. Now, my question is, why were they ever removed??? Who knows.. My sister bought this truck used w/ 160-180K miles, so there's no telling how or why this is the way this is.

For those of you that have gone to long travel or ever replaced the lower A arm bushings... I'm thinking that I can correct these cams w/o actually removing the A arm mounting studs. The nut side, I was going to break loose but keep the nut on the stud & try to hammer the stud forward so I could flip the cam & then hammer the stud head back & re-install the cam correctly on the nut side. Toyota wants to charge $200 for it. I feel like I could do it w/o pulling the coilover, but I want to be safe. If I have to pull the coilover & remove all tension, then I'm going to just wait until the front end needs alignment again. Which, could be much sooner due to the cams being upside down.

 

[wslytoy]

Update:
Updates have been slow for a couple of reasons. One being that work has been pretty chaotic the past couple of months. But also, my wife & I decided 1400 sq ft on a .5 acre lot was no longer enough room for us & the girls. We got to experience the joys of the home buying process. Fortunately for us, we found 3100 sq ft on 2 acres for $25K below our max budget.
Old:

New:

Well 1 of my spare keys broke at the key ring loop so I got crafty & wove some paracord together. Nothing too fancy...

Now the fun stuff... Prior to the start of this build, I'd replaced the power antenna b/c it was bent & wouldn't completely retract. Well the new 1 lasted all of about 3 months before it sounded like grinding gears every time I cranked the truck & the antenna extended. I decided to swap out the power antenna for the fixed antenna. For those that need the part #:

Here she is outta the box

As you can see, nothing fancy... but that cord is certainly long.

We've all got some sort of version of this, so start popping off plastic trim pieces. I began w/ removing the shifter trim piece & moved north & removed the radio trim next.

Next, remove the screws holding the radio in order to access the antenna cable (which plugs into the back of the radio, duh).

Here's the entrance into the vehicle, you'll need to reuse that grommet.

Disconnect the power for the motor. Naturally this won't be necessary anymore, but don't hack it all up.

This is the nut that secures the top of antenna mast. I loosened it w/ a flathead & some elbow grease.

These screws will need to be removed to route the new cable into the stock locations. W/ that being said, I ***HIGHLY*** recommend tying a shoelace or paracord to the original to have something to attach the new cable to snake it back through.

These clip to the back of the plastic panel. You'll need to detach them to get the panel completely outta the way.

Of course, the passenger side kick panel needs to be removed.

Fish her in...

Bought a 1 of the cheap stub antenna's off eBay, & I haven't had a single reception issue.

 

[wslytoy]

Finally got around to ordering some OME 906's

W/ moving & prepping our old house, I haven't had time/energy to install them. I still need to get some new shocks for the rear, so that'll be the next purchase.

Since my b-day & went, I asked for some Husky Liners for the ole gal.

After I finally get the suspension where I want it, I'm probably going to go w/ some 285's & some wheel spacers. At some point I want to upgrade the wheels, but I'm not set on anything just yet.

 

[wslytoy]

Finally got some shocks for the rear so I could get the OME 906's installed & hopefully leveled out. I sincerely LOATHE the forward or rear raked look. Locally, the front high look is popular, & I rode around like that for a couple months & it drove me nuts. I decided that the RC Nitro's were a better option for me simply b/c they were less expensive. If they don't work out, I'll get some Bilsteins next time.

So I haven't driven the ole girl in a few weeks, & it looks like someone decided to take up shelter on the rear axle.

Since we all know how this install goes, I didn't think it was necessary to do a step by step deal. Plus, I live in Mississippi & the heat index was 105* that day, on top of the humidity level. That wet spot on the drum was sweat... my shorts, socks, shoes, & shirt were all soaking wet by the time I was done.

Anyone need some sagging old springs & some busted shocks? So glad to have these out...

My driveway is pretty slanted, so it's kinda hard to tell, but she's pretty damn close to level.

 

[Colorado buff]

Condolences on your loss
Congrats on your house
Truck looks great! You are doing a good thing by keeping it and fixing it up. I think that's very noble. Plus these trucks are awesome!!

 

[wslytoy]

Condolences on your loss
Congrats on your house
Truck looks great! You are doing a good thing by keeping it and fixing it up. I think that's very noble. Plus these trucks are awesome!!

Thanks bud. I love my 06' 4Runner, but driving this older 4Runner is just more fun. I can't wait to get some bigger tires & rims on it. It's gonna be a slower build than most, since this is our 3rd vehicle & not a daily driver. But small progress is better than none at all. I'm saving for armor right now, so the next mods may be smaller things until my armor fund is maxed. I'm gonna try & get a few more thousand miles outta the tires that are on it, unless I find a deal on CL for some 285's. Unfortunately, CL tire deals aren't deals at all around here. Most folks think halfway used tires are still worth what they paid for them brand new.