Mstudt's SR5 Build & Adventure Thread

After a long couple weeks we've starting to get settled into our new location. That also gave me a little time to get some of our pictures uploaded to share. Here's a brief look at some of the things that we were able to see along the way. There were a couple days that we didn't take on any photos on, and that was from Montana/Idaho board to Idaho/Washington board into the Gorge.

The SuperFlex springs didn't like the weight we were carrying, and we limped to Washington with the bump stops around an inch from the axle.



Missouri



Colorado




 
Good luck with the sale. Wish this had popped up a few weeks back, may have driven down to take a look.

I was also curious where that water tower is. I'm familiar with most of the other Washington shots in the Long Beach area there, but the water tower is throwing me for a loop...
 
Good luck with the sale. Wish this had popped up a few weeks back, may have driven down to take a look.

I was also curious where that water tower is. I'm familiar with most of the other Washington shots in the Long Beach area there, but the water tower is throwing me for a loop...

It was right around Fort Canby at Cape Disappointment.

Not really sure what direction I'm going with vehicles at the moment. We may sell it to get an FJ80, or we may keep it and buy another 3rd Gen to swap parts over to.
 
We may sell it to get an FJ80, or we may keep it and buy another 3rd Gen to swap parts over to.

Good route either way... Coming from Northern MI and having a Tacoma with a factory replaced frame, I still find myself thinking about dumping it because of rusty bolts and parts.

If you decide to let it go and want to part it out, I am just north of you in Corvallis and may be interested in a few of your accessories if you want to let them go, not going to rob you.
 
I spent some time wrenching today on some much needed front end work. After a 5,000 mile cross country road trip with a saggy, and loaded down rear it was needed. Carrying the additional weight, and having some old springs that did nothing it wore out the front.

My upper ball joints were toast, and I'm still needing to change the inner and outer TRE's. Those will get taken care of with my alignment on Tuesday though. After that I should be in good shape, and hopefully won't have any clicking or popping.

I pulled my shaved UCA's to install some All-Pro UCA's. The shaved UCA's will be for sale if anyone is interested, and they only have about 7,000 miles on the new OEM bushings.






New UCA's in, and sorry for not getting pictures before the tires went back on.

 
Time to show old girl some love. This 4runner has taken us to some amazing places around the US, and she's in need of love right now. Over the next month of so I'll have my hands full fixing some long overdue issues.

Step 1: Replace the front passenger wheel bearing. Not much to this so I'm not going to document it at all. I will give a word of advise on wheel bearings though. As with many things, OEM is better on wheel bearings too. Not even three years ago I replaced both front wheel bearing, UBJ's, inner TRE's, and outter TRE's. ALL of those items have now failed with less than 30k miles on them. ALL of them where Sankei 555.



Step 2: Replace charcoal canister. I've been getting the good old P0446 quite some time now. I used to be able to away with just replacing the gas cap, but even that isn't working anymore. If the charcoal canister doesn't fix the issue I'll address the next steps when I get to the engine.

Step 3: Replace the water pump, t-stat, idlers, tensioner, and timing belt.

Step 4: Rebuild the top end of the engine. For the last couple months I've been having classic head gasket issues, and having been putting off the repair for good reasons. That reason being that I'm not looking forward to ripping apart another engine. I'm suspecting a cracked head, but really hoping for only a bad gasket.

Step 5: Replace my rear brake line, and have my local dealer bleed the entire system.

After that I should be good for a while.
 
The new bearing is in, and all is well for now with the front end suspension wise for now.

I recently ordered a new to me charcoal canister off eBay, and was expecting it to be delivered today. When I got home I arrived to this.


This is the first time I've come home to a package being hidden under my door mat. After seeing the box that the charcoal canister came I'm starting to get why.


I'm promise nothing fishy is going on here. It's just a charcoal canister.
 
I recently ordered a new to me charcoal canister off eBay, and was expecting it to be delivered today.

I've always been on the fence about buying certain used parts like a charcoal canister online or at a junkyard because of not knowing if it is a functioning part or defective. Were you able to discuss that with the seller in the event the newly purchased charcoal canister was bad?
 
I've always been on the fence about buying certain used parts like a charcoal canister online or at a junkyard because of not knowing if it is a functioning part or defective. Were you able to discuss that with the seller in the event the newly purchased charcoal canister was bad?

They have a 1 year warranty on it, and I can exchange it if there's an issue. That's the only reason I decided to buy it rather than a new one. Oh, and the price of course.
 
Not much going on with 4runner lately. I have some summer projects planned like fixing rust, running some new wiring, and repainting some items. Until that happens these pictures will have to do.

We were finally able to get the 4runner out over the weekend to hit up some paddling spots. This is the first time since September that it's been driven more than 10 miles, and we most likely put more miles on it during this trip than in the last 8 month combined.

Camping at Hills Creek Reservoir


Sparks Lake - Mt Bachelor view


Sparks Lake - Camping


Hosmer Lake





Waldo Lake

 
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Not much going on with 4runner lately. I have some summer projects planned like fixing rust, running some new wiring, and repainting some items. Until that happens these pictures will have to do.

For some reason I was thinking you got rid of that 4runner and got another 3rd gen. Glad you still have it, the black is a good look ;P That water looks amazing, great pictures!
 
For some reason I was thinking you got rid of that 4runner and got another 3rd gen. Glad you still have it, the black is a good look ;P That water looks amazing, great pictures!

We had talked about it, but then decided not the purchase the low mileage 3rd we found. Those talks have come up again due to not driving it much.

We'll see what happens this summer.
 
This past weekend was only the second time in nearly 2 years that I took out the 4runner. With long commutes for my job, and my my wife biking/running to work. The 4runner has been a lot of sitting, and not much driving.

This past weekend we take a 3 hour drive to the Cascade Lakes area for a couple nights of camping, and some good paddling.

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Out with the old. I started working on the front suspension last night for some much needed work. I was able to remove the sway bar, brackets, bushings, and sway bar links in about an hour. Took me more time to sand the sway bar to bare metal than to remove everything.

Today I'm picking up parts from the dealer, and will hopefully get everything put back together by the weekend (if parts show up).

*Note: these are the very first set of sway bar links I ever made! Been on for over 4 years, and still going strong.

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In with the new.

I'm very fortunate to have access to a powder coat line through my work, and it makes powder coating quick and cheap. The sway bar was sanded, acid sprayed, and powder coated flat black, and the link were painted a custom color called tri-smoke. I went with all new OEM parts including mounts, bushings, bolts, and nuts.

OEM parts numbers below:
Driver Bracket - 48829-35120
Passenger Bracket - 48824-35150
Bushing - 48815-35100
Bolt - 90119-08C26
Nut - 90182-08003

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These are OEM bushings (bottom) vs bushings from Wheelers (top). You'll notice the difference in size, and quality.
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