nihkon's 4Runner

[nihkon]

If you don't mind me asking, how much was the steering rack and where did you order from? How did you diagnose that it was your steering rack as well and not the tie rods or another part?

Mine has about 167k miles on it and needs tie rod ends, but I was wondering if it might just be worth it to replace the whole rack since they come with inner tie rod ends. I think the rack is still in good shape though so I don't know if that makes sense to do so... I've got a little play in the steering, but I'm pretty certain that is the slip joint in the steering column...

I purchased the rack directly from Safari. I'm guessing that's the only place you can buy their rack? It was right about $500 shipped. During my diagnosing, I had pulled the inner tie rod boot back, and found that the shaft within the rack was moving up and down. From what I had read before, the rack is basically unserviceable, and once you get that kind of play or leakage (it was leaking slightly too), then it's time for a new rack.

A new rack from Toyota was going to run something like $575. The Safari rack is supposedly "built stronger" (whatever that really means? lol), it was cheaper, and it seemed to have some good reviews here.

If your rack is still good though, it would certainly be cheaper to just replace the inner tie rods. Maybe $300-ish with new boots?

That rex is beautiful and minty! JDM fronted rexs have a soft spot in my heart.

Thanks man!
Here are a couple more recent photos of the CRX:

A little over a year ago, I went off the track in it. It slid sideways through the dirt for a ways, popped the bead on the tire, and thought I was going to flip the damn thing over! It was one of the most scary things I've been through...and I haven't had the nerve to get back on the track since! lol

 

[Unner]

I purchased the rack directly from Safari. I'm guessing that's the only place you can buy their rack? It was right about $500 shipped. During my diagnosing, I had pulled the inner tie rod boot back, and found that the shaft within the rack was moving up and down. From what I had read before, the rack is basically unserviceable, and once you get that kind of play or leakage (it was leaking slightly too), then it's time for a new rack.

A new rack from Toyota was going to run something like $575. The Safari rack is supposedly "built stronger" (whatever that really means? lol), it was cheaper, and it seemed to have some good reviews here.

If your rack is still good though, it would certainly be cheaper to just replace the inner tie rods. Maybe $300-ish with new boots?

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. It sounds like it would be cheaper and better for me to just replace the tie rods then. I can do both inners for about $200 plus another $100 for the outers that I'd have to do even if I got a new rack anyway.

 

[nihkon]

i actually went from the Piaa 510's to the Vision X fogs because i coudnt get them to fit right with the Piaa covers on the lights. did you use the Piaa Covers? Pics?

I mentioned up above about how my PIAA 510's also didn't fit in the Outdoor Logic bumper with the covers on. I finally got a picture of how they're mounted without the cover. You can see that because of the position of the mounting tab on the bumper, the PIAA's sit a little high in the hole. And I even had to pull them back as far as I could. They definitely don't sit nicely inside like your VX-F55's.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. It sounds like it would be cheaper and better for me to just replace the tie rods then. I can do both inners for about $200 plus another $100 for the outers that I'd have to do even if I got a new rack anyway.

No problem man. Glad I could help. If your rack is still in good shape, then that's definitely the most cost effective way to go about it. Good luck with it dude!


I haven't had time to install my new Shrockworks bumper yet, but I did finally take a picture of it at least! lol Here is it, sitting in the back of my truck, with all of the mounting brackets and hardware:

Also....about the vibration issues I was having...
The steering rack replacement didn't change things. Neither did rotating the wheels/tires front to back. I have been running a set of Napa axles for about 2.5 year now. They were the "new" axles, not remanufactured. I figured it's easy enough to exchange them, so I swapped those out for a new pair (thanks again to my good friend for exchanging them for me!).....but they also did not affect the vibrations at all.

The reason that I had rotated my tires front to back was that the front/passenger tire had some uneven wearing on it (some tall blocks, some shorter ones.) When I put it in the rear, the noise it was making moved to the back, but the vibrations didn't change at all. So I had stopped thinking about the tire as a possible cause. Well, I swapped my full size spare on (with a brand new tire on it)...and the freaking vibrations went away! The simplest, cheapest solution! Uggh. lol

Well, I guess my steering rack did need replacing anyway. And now I have new axles again. So I guess it wasn't a total loss.

 

[absalom]

Did you road force balance your tires yet? 4runners need to be balanced with a Haweka adapter. Just before you balance em, toss 2oz of .20 gram airsoft pellets in each tire for maintenance. Regular balance won't do crap for our tires. Remember, unless your toe is WAYY off, vibrations are always caused by out of balance rotating mass. In our case this usually means tires.

 

[SIKHILUXSURF]

Oh gotcha. Yeah your VisionX's look like they're better quality than the ones I had. And yeah, mine were the ones that they had as part of the package with the bumper. Yours fill up the hole quite nicely. And I like that they actually sit mid-way in the hole, rather than all the way in the back like mine do. I'm sure the hole is cutting off all kinds of light to the sides on mine.

How was the hid conversion with the VisonX's? The thread that I read made it look fairly easy. Did you use the DDM 35w 3000k kit?



Your 4Runner looks freakin' sweet dude!

Hey Bud sorry for the late reply work is owning me as we speak. Thanks its been a labor of love. i came from hondas my self and just needed to step away since my last build. these are fairly easy however i had to come up with a solution for the rear since the cover wou not fit with hid bulbs. i used retrofit source ballasts and bulbs.

I mentioned up above about how my PIAA 510's also didn't fit in the Outdoor Logic bumper with the covers on. I finally got a picture of how they're mounted without the cover. You can see that because of the position of the mounting tab on the bumper, the PIAA's sit a little high in the hole. And I even had to pull them back as far as I could. They definitely don't sit nicely inside like your VX-F55's.

i used a bolt to level them out to the ODL mounting tab both times. with the piaas and the visions. it is just the visions are smaller so they fit the 4" holes better. bit im still not happy and may just do somthing crazy in the future like a projector fog or something.

As far as your tires what load rance are they? i have C load on mine but they have cupped pretty back and i am presuming it is because i have my icons set high on dampening.

 

[BannisteR]

CRXcommunity brother! How's it going, nice 4runner!

 

[nihkon]

Did you road force balance your tires yet? 4runners need to be balanced with a Haweka adapter. Just before you balance em, toss 2oz of .20 gram airsoft pellets in each tire for maintenance. Regular balance won't do crap for our tires. Remember, unless your toe is WAYY off, vibrations are always caused by out of balance rotating mass. In our case this usually means tires.

Thanks for the tips. I hadn't actually heard of that before. I'll have to do a little more research on it.
While that certainly may have played a role in my abnormally worn tires, it looks like the biggest contributor are worn bushings. After the new tires and steering rack, I had taken it in for an alignment...and they told me that my passenger side lca bushings were shot...which happened to be the side that I had the most tire wear. Also, he pointed out that the lower shock bushings were failing as well.
So I ordered new shock bushings from Bilstein, and new Energy Suspension poly bushings for the lca's. Hopefully I'll have time to tackle that job sometime soon.

i used a bolt to level them out to the ODL mounting tab both times. with the piaas and the visions. it is just the visions are smaller so they fit the 4" holes better. bit im still not happy and may just do somthing crazy in the future like a projector fog or something.

As far as your tires what load rance are they? i have C load on mine but they have cupped pretty back and i am presuming it is because i have my icons set high on dampening.

Oh gotcha. I just finally installed my new bumper a couple weeks ago and haven't had time to install my PIAA's into it yet. So I'm not sure how they'll fit. But there are tons of photos out there with those fog lights in that bumper. So I'm feeling fairly confident that they'll fit ok.

For the tires, they're E rated.

CRXcommunity brother! How's it going, nice 4runner!

Hey hey dude! Thanks man! What are you doing over here? Do you have a 4Runner as well? I've run into at least a couple other CRXCommunity members that are also offroaders.

 

[nihkon]

Since it's been so long since I've updated this thread, I'll start out with a few pics from a recent offroading trip. It wasn't anything difficult. Just an excuse to get out in the dirt. It was really just a "test" trip for my buddy, who is trying to make his Yaris a little bit trail worthy. So far he just has All Terrains on it, but he's thinking about the possibilities of doing a small lift on it. It didn't do as well as he had hoped out there though....so the fate of his offroad Yaris is up in the air right now.

Also, our buddy joined us in his 2nd gen Tacoma.

On to the pics:

And these are just a couple screen caps from a quick video:
(and yes, I did have a fog light out that day. )

 

[nihkon]

I had mentioned a little earlier in the thread that I had recently installed my 1.5" body lift from member [MENTION=14772]shootmymime[/MENTION]. You can see the results from that in the previous photos. You'll notice a 1.5" gap at the rear bumper. The Outdoor Logic bumper actually had a second set of holes that accommodate a 1" body lift. So I was able to tighten up the front gap a little bit.

I also mentioned on the last page that I recently picked up a Schrockworks from bumper, as part of their groupbuy that they did at the end of last year. It showed up a couple months ago, but I haven't had the time to install it....so I've been driving around with it in the back of my 4Runner this whole time! lol

Anyway...I finally had time to install it a couple weekends ago. It was a little bit of an ordeal, since the brackets didn't play nicely with my radiator. There are 2 sizeable brackets that mount to the inner side of the frame rails. They are intended to slide between the radiator and the frame rail. But for some reason there just wasn't enough room. So I had to do a bit of cutting.

Here is the bumper, waiting patiently to be mounted:

Here are the brackets, bolted up to the frame rails (You can also notice the front body lift "pucks" in this photo):

So the cutting that I had to do was mostly to the mounting brackets on either end of the radiator. The "slot" that I cut out allows the bumper brackets to slide past. I had to cut it the way I did in order to retain the lower portion that bolts to the radiator and keeps it from flopping around.

And I had to take a corresponding notch out of the lower portion of the fins on the ends of the radiator:

Here is the bumper mounted, and bleeding the cooling system after reinstalling the radiator:

And a few "mounted" pictures (I haven't reinstalled my PIAA fog lights yet though) (also, you'll notice that my lower skid plate is not mounted. It's off for doing an oil change and some other maintenance):

And lastly, a couple pics with the new bumper out in the dirt:

 

[BannisteR]

Hey hey dude! Thanks man! What are you doing over here? Do you have a 4Runner as well? I've run into at least a couple other CRXCommunity members that are also offroaders.

Yeah man, picked up an '09 in March when I came back from Japan

 

[Unner]

I thought it was some sort of a joke with the Yaris until I saw the pictures... The bumper looks good. I really like the looks of the shrockworks one and the addicted offroad one. If I get one it will be one of the two. What's with all the GTR's in the background of the one picture? Looks like a cool place haha

 

[GSPRunner]

What are you doing with the old ODL bumper?

 

[coopakaskip]

This is an awesome build up. Love the CRX as well. Subscribed

 

[EatonKyleH]

I've always kind of wanted to try wheeling a small car like your buddy with the Yaris just for fun.

Neat to see someone just going for it.

The new bumper looks great man!

 

[BannisteR]

This is an awesome build up. Love the CRX as well. Subscribed

Another NWP/Honda friend, what up man?

 

[nihkon]

Yeah man, picked up an '09 in March when I came back from Japan

Oh kick ass! Do you have some pics of it online?

I thought it was some sort of a joke with the Yaris until I saw the pictures... The bumper looks good. I really like the looks of the shrockworks one and the addicted offroad one. If I get one it will be one of the two. What's with all the GTR's in the background of the one picture? Looks like a cool place haha

Lol, yeah I thought it was a joke too when my buddy first thought up the idea!
Thanks man! I hear ya though. For me, it was between Shrockworks and OutdoorLogic. I only went with the ODL because there was something like a 6+ months wait at that time for Shrockworks....and ODL was only about 30 days. And at the time, I had no front bumper (accident), so I couldn't wait. Plus I was able to pick it up in person and save on shipping since ODL was local. So glad I have the Shrockworks now though. It was what I really wanted from the beginning.
But thos Addicted bumpers really area starting to grow on me. I think you'd be good with either one man.

As for the GTR's....That's at my brother's shop. And you're only seeing a couple of them. I think there are 4+ in the shop right now. It's always cool to work on my truck there, and watch him tear down GTR engines down to bare blocks.

What are you doing with the old ODL bumper?

Actually, within a day or 2 of posting up that I picked up the Shrockworks bumper, I had like 4-5 people hit me up about the ODL bumper. lol
I ended up giving dibs to a local member who's bought some parts from me before. I sold it to him a couple weeks ago.

This is an awesome build up. Love the CRX as well. Subscribed

Thanks dude!

I've always kind of wanted to try wheeling a small car like your buddy with the Yaris just for fun.

Neat to see someone just going for it.

The new bumper looks great man!

Im sure you can imagine, but it's not very practical vehicle to try to offroad with. It's more of a "prove them wrong" kinda project. lol
I can tell you it was fun to witness out on the trail though! I was helping spot, and people would drive by, window down, and I'd hear "holy shit, it's a Yaris!"...and then their truck backed up, parked, and watched. lol
Another person stops, "Holy shit, that Yaris has AT's!" Good stuff!

 

[BannisteR]

Oh kick ass! Do you have some pics of it online?

Yeah it is in the 4th gen TRD PRO wheel picture thread and I also posted them on my CRX thread lol.

 

[daniresch]

new bumper looks x10 better!

 

[Cody3395]

Hey! I saw your 4runner and it is exactly what i'm trying to do to mine! Im new to the 4runner forum and honestly don't know if i'm posting to the right thing or not but I live in the Santa Barbara area and I go offroad past Winchester gun club. Do you have any other good places to go offroading near SB?

 

[nihkon]

Yeah it is in the 4th gen TRD PRO wheel picture thread and I also posted them on my CRX thread lol.

I checked it out in your CRX thread. I dig the wheels man!
Do you have many plans for the 4Runner?

new bumper looks x10 better!

Thanks dude!

Hey! I saw your 4runner and it is exactly what i'm trying to do to mine! Im new to the 4runner forum and honestly don't know if i'm posting to the right thing or not but I live in the Santa Barbara area and I go offroad past Winchester gun club. Do you have any other good places to go offroading near SB?

Thanks for the kind words!
I'm not sure where Winchester gun club is and, unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the trails in your area. But if you head about an hour and a half East/North, you can hit up the Gorman area. There is some fun stuff there.
Otherwise, if you drive about 2.5 hours East, you can get to Cleghorn and the Big Bear area. And just a little bit North of there is the Johnson Valley area...if you want to do some more desert-based wheeling.
Beyond that, you've got a mountain range that sits right in your back yard. I'd imagine there's gotta be something interesting there? Hopefully?
Check out Dirtopia to see what else might be closer for you man.
Good luck with it!