JBurt's 97 Build Thread

[JBurt]

Thanks for the kind words. Maybe daycare was too strong a word. I've really wanted to go to Moab for a long time, but haven't ever put anything together. Yesterday was a really good day, met lots of great people (I think we had 27 people on the run), and got to see new things. There were a few decent obstacles.

I've been really happy with the 4Runner the last year. I started a new job last year and finally have some money set aside for upgrades.

The 4Runner always has been a vehicle to get out with the family and make some memories. And it has been very good at that. My son is 3 and a half and loves going on 'road trips'. My daughter is one and I don't know if she likes it but she's a trooper. Yesterday we left at 6:30am and got home at almost midnight and she did pretty good.

I've got a while but I need to get a few things checked off my list before the Addicted Jamboree. I've wanted to go for the last couple years, but it's about 16 hours away and it's never worked with my schedule. I'm trying to convince my wife to come, but she thinks it's too long and packed a trip for the baby. We'll see.

Almost forgot, thanks for the rear axle seal write up. Very clear and straight forward. I've benefited very much from several of your write ups. I'm just going to do the whole shebang. Not a job I want to do twice. I've had the parts to replace the rear shoes for a month or so and hadn't gotten around to it, so I guess this is a good as time as any. Plus I really don't want to just do the seals, put in new shoes, and then ruin them. I figure at 223k the old seals and bearings don't owe me anything.

 

[yinub]

I definitely drive like my grandma! I get passed all the time by pissed off people for driving too slow. I would love to turbo it and really put my foot in it but... I'm cheap.

 

[JBurt]

Well here's an update.

I ordered all the parts following BFAD's guide (which is awesome). When I removed the shafts I found RTV everywhere!

Didn't think too much of it since it worked well for 40k miles over the last 7 years. I figured it was just one of the 7 PO's who figured it was a good idea.

Took the axles to a local machine shop and they pressed everything together. First hiccup was that I had them reuse the outer axle oil seal, and outer retainer and c clip. I had to order new outer seals because they called me and said that the old ones were in very bad shape and one of them crumbled when they took it off. Not really bad news or expensive but the local dealership couln't get them in stock until the next day.

The inner retainer should only be ~4mm from the edge of the polished part of the axle shaft, and they had it about 15 or so. I told them it wouldn't work and they told me to go home and try it. I put grease on the old seal to see where it contacted the inner retainer, and it made no contact at all. Just to get an idea of how off it is, looking through the abs sensor tube this abs ring should be centered or on the other side.

The plus side is that it let me see huge gouges in both shafts from cutting off the inner retainers on a previous bearing job.

It wasn't the shop I took it to since the marks obviously were not fresh. I assume the RTV was to make it so gear oil didn't get through between the shaft and the retainer.

I took the shafts back to the shop but the guy I was working with left early for the day (last friday), and it was a long weekend, so I had to go from Thursday until Tuesday without axles.

That gave me plenty of time to replace the bushings in my auto shifter assembly, but more on that later.

When I got to the shop on Tuesday they heated up the abs ring and the inner retainer which let them move it up the shaft, cool off, then get pressed into the correct position. I wasn't too thrilled about this because if the inner ring is distorted at all then the inner seal will leak, but they warrantied their work and I didn't want to buy more parts to cover their mistake, even if the labor from this point on was free. No leaks so far.

Reassembly from this point went trouble free. I also replaced my rear brakes. My rear shoes were pretty worn down and I already had new brake parts sitting in the garage waiting for install.

No the q-tip wasn't used in my ear.

I couldn't find a write up on this site, but I found this one and it's fantastic.

https://mike-thomson.com/blog/?p=465

This just gave me a reason to do it. When cleaning up the reusable brake parts I found brake cleaner and a wire wheel on my bench grinder to be very beneficial. I've never done drum brakes before so it took a while but not too bad. Getting them adjusted properly was a pain, and I think I can tighted them up some more. I'm going to hit up my mechanic friend next week and have him take a look.

Feels really good to drive it again. The 4Runner has the best AC I've got available and it's hot. I was very grateful to have a window ac in my garage. It's not perfect but 85 is better than 113.

 

[JBurt]

While I was waiting on axle shafts I replaced the bushings in my shifter.

I've been having my key getting stuck in my ignition. After research and digging around, the shifter had way too much lateral play which let the pin in the shifter not properly engage with the key lock switch.

This was due to the bushings being completely deteriorated.

Cobiker did wrote this up quite nicely here.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/766817-post18.html

I ordered some new bushings with the axle parts.

The top two are easy to get to and made the biggest difference. These aren't good pics, but I did this by myself in the middle of the night with poor lighting. One bushing goes in the red circle and then one on the other side.

To get to the lower ones it's quite a bit more work. You've got to unbolt 10 or so bolts that hold the shifter assemble to the body. The shifter linkages get in the way, but the c clip was too greasy for my cheap ring pliers to remove so I left it all together. This prevented me from removing everything where it would have been easy to get to. I wound up propping it up about 2 inches and working this way.

The nut circled in red needs to be removed and the bushing goes behind it, inside the tube and between the tube and the bracket, just like on the top. This way was a pain because your working blind, but I got it.

The shifter feels sooo much better. It's nice and tight. No lateral play, and very minimal play forwards and backwards. Haven't had the key get stuck once.

And here's the motivation for this.

I feel pretty certain the only reason the axle seals blew was because the diff breather was clogged with dirt and gunk. I couldn't blow through it at all. I had read about extending the breather but I always through "I live in a desert and don't ever go through water crossings, why do I need to do this?"

Well I figured since I was replacing it anyways I'd put it in a more sheltered spot. Even if it's dusty the gas cap compartment is much cleaner than under the car. With the new breather valve, the union fitting and the hose I think it was about $15, plus it took about 40 minute. Should have been shorter but I didn't have enough hose lying around. A little more than 4' is needed and I only had 3.5. Done earlier that probably would have prevented a $400ish repair job. Oh well. Live and learn and get new bearings.

 

[habanero]

Bearings only last so long anyway, one less thing to deal with.

 

[JBurt]

Bearings only last so long anyway, one less thing to deal with.

True, I just hope it lasts since they misplaced the inner bearing retainer/seal surface, then heated it up to move it to the correct place.

Just put 1500 miles on the 4Runner this weekend and no axle leaks so that's a good sign. Took an impromptu trip to help my Grandpa with some things. Wound up missing the July Socal trail run in Big Bear, which sounded fun. Those 2wd guys don't back down.

Pictures start on about page 27
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/so-cal/222061-july-2016-meet-run-27.html

The only hiccup on my trip was my alternator belt.

As luck would have it, it shredded about 30 minutes from my uncles house in St. George. Hadn't changed belts on the 3.4 before and it wasn't too bad. Made me glad that it's not a serpentine belt so I could drive still on whatever charge was left in the battery.

I think I've finally pin pointed a clunk/pop that I've had for a long time that has gotten worse recently. I've changed CV's, bushings, sway bar links, and rear LCA's, and I think it's the tranny mount. Heres a video where I shoved a pry bar between the mount and tranny and moved it around:



Not a great video but I won't quit my day job.

I was planning on going to the Colorado Jamboree this year, but found out the school year starts on Friday the 12th, not Monday the 15th. Admin gets really touchy about missing the first day of meetings, and I don't have tenure yet, so I guess I'll go another year. Kind of bummed I missed 2 trips. Oh well. Room for more.

Still can't decide on a paint color...

 

[JBurt]

Also got a bike trialer for the 3 year old and a toddler seat for his sister. Took it up to pine valley and got out of the heat.

 

[habanero]

Agree on the belts, separate is very nice on rare occasion. I haven't messed with mounts yet though I think the 99's has issues. Haven't had a chance to get under that one.

Biking with kids can be lots of fun. Mine took his 24" bike on our CO/UT trip this year and did excellent! All those years on the back of the tandem have apparently paid off in handling skills. Here's to your adventures being just as cool as ours!

 

[RockyMtnPhoto]

4Runner looks good man. I love how unique the color is!

 

[MACT4R]

4runner looks good! You've done a lot of work. It's very inspirational having recently bought a 97 4wd 4runner with e-locker. Now I can hang with the big boyz! I'm gonna have to hit you up for some knowledge sometime. Keep up the mods! Hope to see you on the next run.

 

[JBurt]

Wish something would work out for wheeling Mac. August and September weekends have been slammed for me. So far only the 1st weekend in October is reserved. I need to get out.

Still no axle leaks (after a couple months and few thousand miles) which is good.

There has been stuff done to the 4runner, and weird boxes showing up for it. Good stuff is going to happen soon...

 

[JBurt]

So it's been a long time, but I have lots of updates, but I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Didn't make it to the Jamboree. I had the first day of Fall Semester wrong and I had to go back to work Friday of the Jambo instead of the next Monday. Lame.

Strange boxes

Some new parts

Thanks [MENTION=98153]MStudt[/MENTION]

A good trip

 

[JBurt]

Then the work starts

http://i806.photobucket.com/albums/yy349/jeffdb/New 4Runner/IMG_0740_zps2smry1ai.jpg

No more trim

Things started disappearing

Then I said goodbye for two weeks...

 

[JBurt]

I went to visit

Then yesterday she finally came home

And my favorite

Little stuff needs to go back on. I'm getting a few small things from DeathCougar and others in classifieds, but its really nice. I only painted two wheels as I only have two spares. The other two will get painted tomorrow and spend a week curing before I put them back on. I really wanted SCS F5's but after seeing what they look like I think I can wait a while.

I went back to Evergreen Pearl, although it seems very dark. I had them do a single stage paint, so it is not a glossy and mirrorlike as a clear coat would give, but there is also no clear coat to go bad and peel or flake. The shop is local and did a great job. Stans Autobody if anyone is interested. Their customer service and workmanship were fantastic. They should be sending me some in progress shots of the paint job. Plus they have a life time warranty (but not for rock chips or tree branches).

I never thought I'd keep this 4Runner as long as I have. It was a cheap slavaged title Toyota 4 door 4wd I bought in college to take my family out and explore. I have no plans to get rid of it, and since it turns 20 next week (manufactured 11/96) I figured it was worth two coats of paint.

I was on the fence about the scooped hood and thought "well if I'm having it painted why not?" I showed my wife several 4Runners with and without scoops and she said that the only problem was that the scoops look funny without winch bumpers. I love that girl. Just have to wait for black friday!

 

[JBurt]

One other little thing. While I was at Oreillys getting my father in laws Taco rotors turned (they were so badly warped they had to run them through the lathe 3 or 4 times, but he still doesn't want the TBU) I borrowed this thingamiggy

This has been like this since I got it (and I think I've made it worse)

But now it looks like this

Not bad for free while I waited.

 

[amalik]

Smurf blue, no more!

Nice, man. Congrats on the 20th year and good b-day gift for the rig.

I also drive a 97 and I didn't realize our 20th year is this year (I was thinking 97 is next year, but I forgot and just realized from your post the manufacturing is a year before).

I don't think any of us plan on keeping our 3rd gens as long as they have lasted.

 

[MACT4R]

Nice update! Loving that paint job, sport hood and satoshi grill. Also, thanks for the brake gift Jeff!

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[AZBub]

Looks like a brand new 4Runner!


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[fourfive]

whoa, new paint makes your 4runner look great!

 

[habanero]

Wow! Nice upgrades and I like that the green is darker, looks super good.