KY: '99 Billy Goat 4Runner Build

[t4r92]

Hey there guys,

I had started a previous thread about a Runner I purchased out in Wyoming back in March. Here is the link to that thread: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/190755-bought-4runner-cross-country-driving-home-what-am-i-missing-2.html

The truck was previously owned by [MENTION=84681]white_n_slow[/MENTION], another member on the forum. Here is the build thread that he had started on way back when: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...lled-runner-k-grocery-getter-v-2-0-build.html

White_n_slow hooked me up on some parts that came off the truck before I headed back east. I met up with him in Denver and he was able to set me up with the factory tow package, a front differential, spare CV, and a couple other items. Even helped me throw the tow package up under the back with air tools in his shop. Cool guy!

The trucks is a factory e-locker 5 speed, with a partial SS 1.2 lift ,as some of the items from kit aren't present, like the Diff breather extension and some other small tidbits.

Here a few pictures of it since I got it. I'll make sure to post all the pictures I took of my trip back from Wyoming and since then once I get some time.

Parked at Mammoth Cave next to [MENTION=87942]Scotty_h[/MENTION] 's amazing rig after doing some riding around Big Hollow trail here in KY.

Since the purchase I have fortunately sold my '01, but not before swapping the split spokes with the fat fives that were on my '01 onto the '99. Between the two I like the look of the five spokes much better.

I found it here on T4R.org and so far it has held up amazingly.

So I went for a ride yesterday at our local MTB trail....

...and then this happened last night when I hit a small manhole cover on the way to dinner in the evening.

The shock had admittedly been blown since I purchased the vehicle, and I intended to replace it before now, but I have the addiction of spending money on another car of mine, and I gave into taking advantage of the reliability of the 4Runner until it popped.

So now I am at the juncture of deciding what to do to get it back on the road and I'm coming to the forum for recommendations. I am an individual who typically likes to replace broken things with more improved upgrades as time goes by, but at this time I'd be fine with trying out new replacement Bilstein 5100s. I have a good line on some King coilovers for the front, but don't know if I should spend the extra coin. Going with the Kings would necessitate going with either Camburg or TC UCA's also, so there is that additional cost to consider.

Thoughts ladies and gents? I need to order something today.

 

[Scotty_h]

To get this conversation going:

I would buy Kings- HOWEVER- it is because I want some more response from my front end than the Toytecs that I currently run. I am guessing that they might provide the feel I want. Maybe they won't. All comes down to use vs. expense. Maybe for a DD, a simple replacement is the way to go.

Other thoughts?

op2:

 

[jstim]

I have the Built Right UCAs from The Truck Shop out in Cali. Yes they shipped them all the way to NC for me, and those guys have been great. I think I paid $550? I don't quite remember exactly. They are great though, no issues that I haven't inflicted on myself.

If you are looking at King, I would suggest taking a look at [MENTION=114863]4RunningDaily[/MENTION]'s rig. He is currently running ADS. Before I came full blown into the 4Runner world and ended up with a 3rd and a 5th gen, I was a Tundra guy. EVERYONE around the Tundra world has been raving about ADS. Quality is just as good as King, slightly cheaper/on par with King. The biggest thing I have read over there is that they have superior corrosion resistance.

IMHO if you are talking about that kind of an upgrade, to me ADS/Built Right combo sounds near bulletproof.

 

[jaimesleo]

Bro i love your trek bike! It looks like a 4 series. Maybe a 3. Idk. Haha but anyways love that trek bike!

 

[t4r92]

It appears that member has been banned [MENTION=110387]jstim[/MENTION].

 

[t4r92]

Thanks for the comments on the bike [MENTION=128568]jaimesleo[/MENTION] . The bike is actually a softail Giant Anthem 650B though. I do however have an older Trek 4500 Disc from 2010 that I use from time to time.

You ride much?

 

[jaimesleo]

Thanks for the comments on the bike [MENTION=128568]jaimesleo[/MENTION] . The bike is actually a softail Giant Anthem 650B though. I do however have an older Trek 4500 Disc from 2010 that I use from time to time.

You ride much?

Yea i was talking about the grey and orange bike. I ride mtn and road. Ive been trying to look for a trek 4 series. Buying them new is kinda expensive. But i do love to ride.

 

[t4r92]

[MENTION=128568]jaimesleo[/MENTION] , forgot I posted that pic. That's my sister's latest outdoor purchase. She is starting to get into the swing of mtb.

 

[jaimesleo]

[MENTION=51495]t4r92[/MENTION] , thats nice! Mtb is fun! The adrenaline is what i like the most. Lol

 

[jstim]

It appears that member has been banned [MENTION=110387]jstim[/MENTION].

Here is the link. Page 93-95ish.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/105661-4running-dailys-build-thread-102.html

Better link with a summary.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/194720-ads-coilovers-shocks.html

 

[t4r92]

Thanks for including those links [MENTION=110387]jstim[/MENTION] , I really appreciate it. I made the call to order a couple of replacement Bilstein 5100 shocks for the time being. I called my contact at King and he said that if they didn't have them on the shelf already it would be a 2.5 week wait time, and I don't have the the luxury of time on my side.

When the time comes to upgrade to coilovers I can sell the Bilstein 5100/Tundra spring combo and reincur some of my expenses on the coilovers.

Amazon'll have them to me by Friday, and I'll have them on by that afternoon with the truck aligned in time for some kayaking on Saturday if all goes well!

 

[GSPRunner]

Same exact thing happened to one of my 5100s. I went with Kings immediately after and wish I would've just done that from the get go.

 

[diponyou]

Cool rig, man

I think a clean silver 4runner is my favorite color. Might have to find one to swap all my stuff into.

 

[white_n_slow]

This thread is gonna make me cry I also sold my fj62, and if I see a build thread for that truck too, I'm probably going to shoot myself


Sorry to hear about the busted strut. I gave them a pretty thorough inspection before re-installing but I guess they must have been weakened by the roll and didn't give any visual clues. I personally would probably just get a replacement bilstein and put it back together, but I'm cheap that way

Glad to see the truck going to such a good home!

 

[t4r92]

Cool rig, man

I think a clean silver 4runner is my favorite color. Might have to find one to swap all my stuff into.

I wouldn't be so fast to start that project [MENTION=108944]diponyou[/MENTION]. I was reading up on your build just last night here and there and you've got quite a nice rig! Plus I love the color. Always liked the dark colored 4Runners myself.

 

[t4r92]

Commence work

So last night after mid-week Bible study I got the truck into the driveway off the street, pulled the e-brake and got it up on some jackstands so I could start on getting it back on the road.

Amazon delivers two new 5100s tomorrow morning so I'll be taking off work to get it back on the road before the weekend.

It started raining a bit when I was working on it but I didn't care. I wasn't going to make Silvia (my other vehicular money pit) sit out in the rain so I could stay dry.....

I busted out my favorite tool (Milwaukee 18V impact and a 14 mm ratcheting wrench and started taking out the coil spring/strut assemblies. The broken strut removal was laughable. After taking the three bolts off the top mount it fell out all by itself into various pieces. The hard part was getting the bottom mount of the strut assembly that had broken off out because it seemed to have bonded to the bolt. A breaker bar and some backbone finally got it out.

Now we wait for the UPS man.

 

[t4r92]

New 5100s installed in front, onto the next set of problems

Hey everyone,

First off, this site is a wonderful tool to have for those of us who are just getting into tearing into our 4Runners for needed maintenance and upgrades. Glad to be able to benefit from those who have done the work ahead of me and save money from the stealership.

Anyhow, I digress....I took off work today (3 day weekend-WOOT!). Parts showed up at 9:00 a.m. from UPS, and I took them down to a muffler shop with a wall spring compressor and paid to have them swapped out ($40.00 and no risk to myself or anything in my garage was worth it to me). It looked like the old struts were set up on the third, middle perch so that's what I put it back on. Question for those experienced with the 5100s: Should I have gone with the second perch? I know it would lean a little in the front, but would it be THAT much better for the CVs?

Took them home and popped them on, making sure to use some anti-seize in prep for the next time I'm down there working on something. Yellow/Yellow to driver's side and Yellow/Blue to passenger and then put it back down on the ground.

Drove through the neighborhood and over some potholes to see how it feels and I'm glad to report we're in business for a while.

The unfortunate thing is that when it rains it pours...yesterday I ran into something I should've been expecting. While under the truck I was checking out what it was going to take to redo something I didn't like about the truck. Some Bilsteins had been installed that aren't for a 4Runner necessarily and a U bracket/eyebolt mount was installed to fasten the strut to the top of the frame. I want to return the truck to the original OEM design and so I wanted to snap some pics of that. I also discovered my front sway bar endlinks are trash, both being broken. Time to pm MStudt to resolve that!

Here's what we're looking at...

Then I looked over at the passenger side wheel and to my dismay......

So this morning I went to Toyota on the way to get the springs installed on the struts and ordered everything needed to redo the bearings and seals/orings in the rear axle. Thankfully I've already got the Redline to put in the rear end from when I purchased some to change out the transfer case when I came into ownership of it.

Pricing was right on to what [MENTION=44220]BigFishAllDay[/MENTION] 's thread reported, costing about $350 for everything, not including the Harbor Freight tools or the rear drums I'll have to redo.

So, at this particular moment, here is my list to myself of items I need to rectify on this truck in the immediate future.

-Take delivery of all rear axle bearing/seal components and install....
-Cut off eye bolt mounts, grind down, and paint those areas, purchasing and installing appropriate Bilsteins.
-Purchase Mstudt sway bar end links for front and rear and install
-TBU brake upgrade -my brakes are starting to shudder under braking at speed.
-Repaint wheels flat black.
-Repair damage to passenger side quarter panel (already on the truck when I took delivery).

 

[Kanoe]

So this morning I went to Toyota on the way to get the springs installed on the struts and ordered everything needed to redo the bearings and seals/orings in the rear axle. Thankfully I've already got the MT-90 to put in the rear end from when I purchased some to change out the transfer case when I came into ownership of it.

Hey,

Maybe just a mistype. I don't think Redline MT-90 is what you want to be putting in a rear diff. It's GL-4. I think you want a GL-5 for that application. Or perhaps I am misreading something....

 

[t4r92]

Hey,

Maybe just a mistype. I don't think Redline MT-90 is what you want to be putting in a rear diff. It's GL-4. I think you want a GL-5 for that application. Or perhaps I am misreading something....

You are most definitely correct. My bad, and thanks for caring enough to say something!

 

[t4r92]

Well folks, the axle seal/bearing replacement on the '99 is well under way at this point. I've got the axles here at work and a co-worker of mine that knows far more than I are going to use some machinery here at work to get the old components off of the axles and press the new ones on. New OEM parts pictured here:

Here are some photos from the teardown. Sorry I didn't take a ton. [MENTION=44220]BigFishAllDay[/MENTION] 's axle thread already exists and is much more complete so please go there if you're looking for a step by step tutorial type post.

I brought in all of the drum components in also and cleaned all of the axle grease off in the parts cleaner. I picked up new shoes from Toyota today for 20% off (#connections). The only things I'm waiting on at this point is a stupid clip that shot off when I tapped the emergency brake line pin out and hit it a bit too hard.

The other thing is I unfortunately punctured the rubber boot on the wheel cylinder on the passenger side so I had to purchase a rebuild kit for one of those also. Let's just say the second side came apart much easier as it wasn't as slippery with gear oil (should've cleaned it with brake cleaner earlier, hindsight being 20/20).

Not sure if I can get this to embed properly but here's a short video of how bad of shape the current bearings are in:



Should have those parts in on Friday. I'll be able to button up the rest of it before then.