My $760 T4R "Build" (2000 SR5 3.4 5 speed Desert Dune)

[CDNsldr]

Not so much a build...more of a repair thread! lol

So Ive been looking to replace my 2014 Ram Ecodiesel ever since it started spending more time in the shop getting warranty work done than on the road. No chance in hell I wanna own that thing after the warranty ends.

I had a 96 Tacoma that I did up with a lift and some other goodies, so I'm no stranger to the 3rd gen 4runner.

I ended up passing this truck on to my brother a few years ago.


I'd be cruising the classifieds for a while and stumbled across this 2000 4Runner with 302,000 km's (187k mi). 5 speed, No facty ECT, VSC, multimode crap, just a fully manual J shift transfer case. Nice and simple Buddy was asking $1500 on the ad.



The truck has a series of issues:

Front left LBJ
Front left tire wear
Was overheating in stop and go (rad just needed to be topped up, took a gal of coolant)
PS whining (low fluid)
Rear window track needs repair
Fog lights
Windshield
A/C needs testing/recharge
Filthy interior, but the cloth looks to be in good condition
PS leak near the rack

Some recent work done though:
TB
clutch complete (Aisen hardware)
Two rear tires damn near 95% (265/75/16 General Grabber AT2)
Front brakes
Some sort of rough country suspension..will be changing that out for quality stuff
Sunroof works!







After thoroughly inspecting the truck I offered him $800...wasnt expecting him to move past $1000. He had no problem taking $800 and even gave me $40 back to buy some beer because Im active army! $760 4runner FTW

Body is in really good shape for being from Ontario, Canada. Tiny amount of surface rust/paint bubbles. No real dings or dents. Frame is thoroughly rusted. Lots of flaking, but still feels solid. Couldn't poke any holes or find any soft spots.

I slapped a plate on her and drove this $760 beauty 250km's through 5 hours of long weekend traffic. Brakes felt great, engine runs very smooth, and overall it drove decent for having a toasted LBJ and severely worn tire.

The crappy part here is that I won't get a chance to start wrenching on her until October. Gonna drag her back home once Im done working here for the summer, then the fun starts.



Repair/build plans:

Gonna be tearing everything down and inspecting...she does need to pass an out-of-province inspection.

Safety items first obviously.
LBJ's
New front tire
ITRE/OTRE
Tundra brake upgrade w/ junkyard calipers
Strip as much rust off the frame/underbody as possible then POR15 everything underneath
HID projector retrofit
Eaton Truetrac for the rear

...eventually:
Front and rear bumpers (probably rear first as the stock one is rusting)
High end C/O's with near zero lift
Similar high end spring/shock in the back side. Minimal lift
LR UCA's
Tires all around (235/85/16)
Maybe sliders


My plan for this truck is to be an all around exploring machine. Some added offroad ability to get into remote shooting/hunting spots. Occasionally tear up gravel pits/mud holes, but most importantly be a reliable DD during cross country trips through blizzards and all the other wonderful weather northern Canada gets.

 

[cahaight]

Nice work got a complete rig for the same price I spent on tires,good luck with all those minor repairs to bring it back to life...

 

[CDNsldr]

Nice work got a complete rig for the same price I spent on tires,good luck with all those minor repairs to bring it back to life...

No way I could pass it up...pretty much equivalent to the monthly payment on my 2014 ecodiesel.

 

[CDNsldr]

Peeps, feel free to post up your favourite links for parts...OEM, off-road goodies...all of it please!

 

[RockyMtnPhoto]

Man can't believe you got it for so little. Best wishes to ya on your build.

 

[CDNsldr]

Was a busy busy weekend for me! All of my parts finally arrived.

From toyotapartsdirect.ca alll OEM:
Lower control arms
LBJ's and bolts
OTRE's
Adjustment cams and hardware
Guide rails for the back window

and from eBay I found a cheap rear window regulator with attached rails.

Picked up a local set of 4 265 75 16 General Grabber AT2's to replace my worn front tires, then gave the chevy rims they came on away in exchange for mounting and balancing.

And I finally got a chance to muck out the truck. Was pretty disgusting shape when I got it.












Gotta love northern vehicles...the guide rails that are bolted to the bottom of the window and attached to the regulator had almost completely rusted away.


LCA bushings were in rough shape









Snagged a *new* rack from a pick and pull for $50 WITH the high pressure line, to alleviate the leak mine had at the steering shaft input. On a side note, over tightening the high-pressure fitting WILL crack the casing. $250 mistake on the first replacement rack :frusty:



Out with the old...


...In with the new!





Did a rough alignment so the drive to the alignment shop wouldn't be as tire wearing.


Spent the better part of yesterday cleaning this beauty out. Varsol and a brush worked wonders.

 

[CDNsldr]

Took her for an alignment today.


That's what I like to see.


Then finished off the day with some maintenance. Fuel filter and oil change.


Cut open the old OEM filter. Not sure when it was done last. My truck has 302,000km's on it.


In case anyone is curious, there is 54" of folded (2 layer) filtering media in this Toyota filter. Maybe someone can cut open their off brand filter next time they change it to compare.





So I had some alignment issues the first time I took it in... (mostly because of the alignment monkey who couldn't think outside the box)


If you even replace your steering rack..especially if it's one from a scrapyard (you pull it with the rag joint attached)...than your steering wheel with never end up straight when you're finished. I suspect that the steering shaft isn't "timed" a specific way from factory, meaning all of our trucks steering wheels and rag joints are on different splines. This is a problem for a minimally training alignment monkey because they assume a centered steering wheel means a centered rack, which if you replace your rack it won't be.

So how do we fix this?

Easy.

DISCONNECT THE BATTERY AND DRAIN RESIDUAL POWER. IF YOURE NOT CONFIDENT SCREWING AROUND WITH AIRBAGS THAN DONT!

First pull the steering wheel. So simple, easiest one ive ever done. There are a few write-ups floating around, but in short pop out the screw covers at 3 and 9 on the back of the steering wheel, next use a T30 to loosen the bolts (they are captive so they will not come all the way out), next wiggle the airbag out and disconnect harness. Disconnect the harness from the clock spring as well. Use a 22mm (I think) to remove the main nut. Wiggle the steering wheel free.

Centre the rack by either A: Counting turns from lock to lock. 3.5 turns on my truck...meaning you turn it back 1.75 turn and there is center

or B: measure from the housing of the rack to the ITRE on both sides and make those measurements equal..for me centered was just over 2" on both sides.

Now leaving the rack centered, you now need to center the clock spring and steering wheel. On the clock spring you will see it written that I will do 5 turns. GENTLY with your finger rotate it full left then full right...the moment you feel ANY resistance STOP or you might break the spring. 2.5 turns back to center and voila, the arrows will line up. Next, install the steering wheel as close to centered as possible. You might be a spline left or a spline right, but that can be fixed during alignment. Reassemble in reverse order

 

[CDNsldr]

Just waiting on stabilizer links from [MENTION=98153]MStudt[/MENTION] and she will be pretty good to go. Still some other issues to sort out, but as far as drivability goes, she's golden.

So far I think I'm in for just over $2k including 4 used tires. (Only needed two). Gotta love the inflation on prices up here. Im supremely jealous of some of your prices down south..not to mention the rust thing haha.

 

[fightman80]

Nice purchase man! Thank you for your service as well! Coming from Northern Ontario, I totally understand the rust demons! lol!

I've been fighting them for years... but my 98 seems to be holding up well. Good luck with mods... and congrats are snagging that 5spd!

 

[CDNsldr]

Nice purchase man! Thank you for your service as well! Coming from Northern Ontario, I totally understand the rust demons! lol!

I've been fighting them for years... but my 98 seems to be holding up well. Good luck with mods... and congrats are snagging that 5spd!

ahh Cheers! It was 5speed or bust! Anytime I get "Limited w/ factory locker Envy" I look down a that stick shift and it's all worth it. :dancin:

Im originally from NW Ontario (Thunder Bay)...army has had me in Edmonton for the past 4 years, but working around Belleville, ON for the summer. Hoping to sell my Ecodiesel before I head back out west at the end of the month. Needed to make this 4runner roadworthy just incase she needs to make the 3700km drive. lol

 

[fightman80]

Nice! I'm living in Hearst.... been here 3 years now...

 

[Kbuch1]

Awesome find. Somewhat doing the same for a second soon to be driver.
Maybe it's just me, but before putting all that new hardware on the front end of the truck, seems like an opportune time to address the rust and clean up the areas of the frame accessible during the replacement of the LCA and around the rack.
It does look like a lot of surface scale around the welds.

 

[CDNsldr]

Awesome find. Somewhat doing the same for a second soon to be driver.
Maybe it's just me, but before putting all that new hardware on the front end of the truck, seems like an opportune time to address the rust and clean up the areas of the frame accessible during the replacement of the LCA and around the rack.
It does look like a lot of surface scale around the welds.

That's the plan in the upcoming months. Unfortunately, timing and circumstances prevented me from being able to do all that work while I had those components out.

 

[CDNsldr]

Big morning for me! Finally found a buyer for my 2014 Ram 1500 Eco-diesel. Feels great to have this monthly payment gone.

 

[CDNsldr]

Installed Marlins Short shift kit today! Very simple install and appears to be nicely made.

My only gripe is that I'm hearing more transmission noise now. This trans has been pretty noisy from the get go, but Im hearing lots more noise now. As far as I can tell all of the boots are installed correctly. Im curious if Marlins designs allows for more noise to escape.

Anybody else have a similar experience??

On to the good stuff!







Shiny!!

 

[hour]

So Ive been looking to replace my 2014 Ram Ecodiesel ever since it started spending more time in the shop getting warranty work done than on the road. No chance in hell I wanna own that thing after the warranty ends.

:bigok: See sig, F Chrysler.

 

[Mark_BC]

Awesome find, that is exactly the rig I would be looking for. Less than $1000!!! I want manual transmission.

 

[Mark_BC]

Just a couple questions: how easy / practical is it to put a manual transmission in an automatic? Is it not worth it, better to just get a different truck?

 

[smerhej]

First of all: jesus christ you lucky SOB I'm so god damn jealous. Anything NEAR that quality is at least 2.5 - 3K in Berta'.

Second - not sure if you've touched the rear LCAs yet, and this is kind of a cheap plug on my part - but if you want some replacements I had some stupid mix up at a shop and am now stuck with new left and right rear LCAs (w/ bushings). I saw you put the odo in KMs so I assume you're also Canadian!

Oh also for the steering rack - do you think a 99' 4Runner rack on a 2000 would work?

Great find dude!

 

[pdsutton]

Nice to see a 4runner finding a new home and being nursed back to health!