rky-n-sons build thread

[Mr. T]

So....weeks later I'm finally back from Europe and the boy and I dove right back in to the project. Love coming home to a project to work on with my son.

All parts had arrived....we finished the valve cover gasket job and started to button the motor back up. We moved to the '98 to start going through it and low and behold....we never noticed the set of headers that are on that motor. No idea who's they are but hey, a "free" set of headers is a free set of headers, right? We'll be swapping them once we get the "seized" motor out of the '98.

We will have to swap engine wiring harnesses over - the ECU connections are different between the '98 and '99. No biggie...just a little more work.

Ordered new upper and lower ball joints today as the existing joints on the '98 are not long for this world. We'll r/r those once we get the motor in.

Decided to swap the center console over from the '99 since it is in FAR better shape and we want to move the stock stereo over from the '99...that looks like it will take some effort.

Anyway...progress continues! too bad we have mountain bike races 4 of the next 4 weekends or we might actually be driving this by Halloween!

Are you Lee? If so, I am the guy who sold you the R151 transmission this summer. I am currently working on replacing the engine in my 96 4runner and I am at a similar stage to you in the process.

 

[rkymtnman]

Are you Lee? If so, I am the guy who sold you the R151 transmission this summer. I am currently working on replacing the engine in my 96 4runner and I am at a similar stage to you in the process.

Nice! I am not Lee - we have been sellers of parts lately as opposed to buyers Had a nice '99 that was in an accident that bent the frame so we picked up a '98 with a blown motor that we are swapping everything from the '99 in to....including the complete interior, center console, dash parts, steering wheel....and everything from the airbox to the eLocker.

The PO(s) of the '98 did some "wonderful" mods and electrical hacks that we are currently un-doing but overall, it should come out nice when we are done.

Our current problem is time - we ain't got none Once race season is over and we get through hunting season, we'll have more time to dedicate to finishing this up.

 

[TeamPez]

Suspension

I would bail out of the rough country personally based on my research. Haven't heard much good coming out of that camp. Not to mention Toytec is just a hop skip and jump down the road. I will be up there tomorrow morning purchasing my suspension components as well. Buy once cry once as they they say. Good luck.

 

[ladywolf]

sounds like yall have an awesome build going on!!

 

[rkymtnman]

Nice! I am not Lee - we have been sellers of parts lately as opposed to buyers Had a nice '99 that was in an accident that bent the frame so we picked up a '98 with a blown motor that we are swapping everything from the '99 in to....including the complete interior, center console, dash parts, steering wheel....and everything from the airbox to the eLocker.

The PO(s) of the '98 did some "wonderful" mods and electrical hacks that we are currently un-doing but overall, it should come out nice when we are done.

Our current problem is time - we ain't got none Once race season is over and we get through hunting season, we'll have more time to dedicate to finishing this up.

It is definitely on the list of items to address. We decided to stay focused on the swap - it is a big enough job for now and as phattyduck pointed out, the suspension issues won't get in the way of getting the runner back on the road. We have a complete interior to install, along with dash and center console, the the motor, trans, xfer case, rear elocker, new radiator, etc. Once that is set, we'll install the new u/l ball joints we ordered yesterday and roll with it until the spring. I am sure we will have some sorting to do once we get it back on the road...that will keep us busy until the kid can save up more money for a proper lift. When that time comes, we have our sights set on Toytec. All part of the process!

 

[Mr. T]

Nice! I am not Lee - we have been sellers of parts lately as opposed to buyers Had a nice '99 that was in an accident that bent the frame so we picked up a '98 with a blown motor that we are swapping everything from the '99 in to....including the complete interior, center console, dash parts, steering wheel....and everything from the airbox to the eLocker.



The PO(s) of the '98 did some "wonderful" mods and electrical hacks that we are currently un-doing but overall, it should come out nice when we are done.



Our current problem is time - we ain't got none Once race season is over and we get through hunting season, we'll have more time to dedicate to finishing this up.

I thought you might be this guy named Lee because he has a kid with a 3rd gen and they ride Winter Park too. I might be interested in a couple specific parts if you are parting one of your rigs completely. I assume you must be in the greater Denver area? I'm in Golden.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[rkymtnman]

I thought you might be this guy named Lee because he has a kid with a 3rd gen and they ride Winter Park too. I might be interested in a couple specific parts if you are parting one of your rigs completely. I assume you must be in the greater Denver area? I'm in Golden.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Small world! I am on the north side in Thornton. We will be taking the best parts from the 2 and making a solid 1 and parting out the rest. Only parts damaged were radiator/condensor/other front end miscellaneous stuff and body parts. Let me know what you are looking for and we'll be happy to work it out.

I just got home from yet another business trip to the east coast, got a race tomorrow we are leaving for in a couple hours. Hoping to have the drive train pulled from the '98 on Sunday....then Vail all next weekend for a race then I am back in Italy for 2-1/2 weeks....then a rifle elk hunt when I am back in the US.....As much as I love watching the kids race mountain bikes, it puts a serious hurt on our spare time to get this project rolling! Hoping to have it back on the road by late November at this point since we'll have Thanksgiving week to dedicate to it.

 

[rkymtnman]

Well...back at it after a long time out due to more business travel. With most of that behind us for this year, we are elbow deep.

Motor is rebuilt and ready to be installed. Had to swap the wiring harness from the '98 on to the '99 motor - the connections to the ECU were different. The swap was super easy...and it is now done.

Started looking over the work done on the '98 we bought. HOLY LITERAL CRAP! We are pulling the entire front end from the '99 and swapping it in....front diff, steering rack, a-arms/rotors/calipers, everything. This thing was abused, torn up and leaking from everywhere. Luckily, we have a low mileage '99 that had impeccable maintenance by its one-owner to swap in! Just more work. Should have the front end done today and be ready to drop the motor in by the end of the day - we'll put that on hold for next weekend pending some last minute parts we still need and ordered yesterday. We'll still need to swap in the rear axle (locker) from the '99 but are planning to get this on the road first.

Regarding this lift - and we are planning to replace it very soon after getting this back on the road - the tie rod ends were torn up beyond recognition - as were the upper ball joints. LBJ's looked surprisingly good. Is this a fact of life with a lifted 4r? It is a 3" rough country with 32" tires on it. I have always heard that lifted trucks are hard on ball joints but the geometry of both the UBJs and tie rod ends looks really tweaked. Will be removing the rough country before Christmas and replacing with something yet to be determined. Will make a trip to ToyTec in the next couple weeks to research.

Been a hell of a fun project so far. My kid pulled the motor by himself when I was in Italy...found a 2" HOLE in the block (crank inspection portal) and all kinds of big metal pieces in the oil pan. BOOM!

 

[rkymtnman]

Well now we did it....the kid and I visited Toytec yesterday

Looks like we'll be undoing some of our front end work from last weekend to install the BOSS performance suspension kit. The kid has the cash from selling extra parts and from savings so now seems like a good time to tackle it.

Ought to be a fun rig when we finally get it back on the road.

 

[meeceboy78]

nice! i will be keeping an eye on this build!

 

[rkymtnman]

Another long weekend in the books.

Toytec lift is on...and while I tried really hard to talk the kid out of it, I have to admit, those remote rezzies look pretty damn cool. His money so his choice.

Swapped the entire rear axle assembly from the '99 - u/l trailing arms and all...then installed the rear lift. Put tires back on it so we can move it around and we should be all good to reinstall the motor in 2 weeks since next weekend is a last Moab weekend on the mountain bikes before we switch to pheasant season

Have to run the rear locker wiring and fix the hacked up shitty wiring the PO did then the interior should be ready to go back in. I think the only real parts left on this '98 that are orig is the body, frame, dashboard, electrical and headlights.

While we were working, my Son said, "So I guess this is why you don't want to buy anything modified unless you know who did the work!" Brought a tear to my eye. He has done 98% of it...I just get tools and hold shit for him. Every nut and bolt is properly torqued, diff's have been serviced....this thing should be a beast when it finally gets back on the road.

 

[rkymtnman]

Yet another long weekend....lol.

Pictures HERE

got a lot done this weekend. Saturday, we got the wiring for the rear elocker dealt with (thought I still need to finalize the connections), fixed the hacked up stereo wiring, worked on the center dash bezel swap and started getting the interior put back together.

Sunday was spent finishing up the motor and working to get it put back in. Installed the flywheel from Marlin Crawler:

Finished installing the Marlin Crawler clutch and the (PITA) OBX headers from the grenaded '98 motor and buttoned up the wiring,,,

And finally got the motor set on the mounts:

Cleaned up the tools and the garage and called it a day. Not sure if we'll get to work on it more this week or not but I took all next week off so with some luck, we'll be driving it by Thanksgiving.

We also ended up moving a fuel line from the '99 over to the '98 since the line on the '98 was frozen to the point we had to get on it with vice grips and that naturally jacked up the threads. Ended up changing the fuel filter in the process so it was pretty easy in the end.

Coming along nicely but holy crap has this been a lot of work.

 

[rkymtnman]

Decided to spend some time on the 4r last night...mostly because it is fun and we are addicted to working on it it seems....and Mama wants her garage spot back!

Got the transmission and transfer case back in, bolted up and all connected. Only spent a couple hours but now the kid can keep moving without a second set of hands.

Actually went super smooth...for once. It helps that the motor was not bolted to the mounts (still on the hoist) so we could tilt it back and using the transmission jack, we were able to line it up nearly perfectly so it slid on the spline super easily. Also because of this, we could access the bell housing bolts pretty easily.

Getting closer to being able to turn the key. Hopefully by the end of this coming weekend!

 

[rkymtnman]

IT IS ALIVE!

I'll be damned if it didn't start right up with no issues. Even backed it out of the garage and drove it around the block! Got temp tags today - headed for an alignment at Toytec tomorrow, emissions on Wednesday.

Shocked we actually seem to have pulled it off. Still need to work out some kinks and debug some electrical issues but overall, everything seems to actually work.

Did I mention I am shocked it actually all works? :bounce:

 

[rkymtnman]

Reasons I love this forum....

1. after a search, found that turn signals won't work without the hazard lights being properly connected.
2. searched and found how to repin the connector to the hazard lights since we swapped the '99 console in to the '98 - turn signals now work
3. researched leaving sway bars out - put front in and drove it....felt like a death trap. Added rear sway bar in (after a lot of messing with broken bolts) and it drives fantastic now.
4. there is not a chance we could have done this without the help of the folks on here!

Still need to debug the stereo and wire in the rear elocker (something else I learned how to do on here) but other than that, she is ready for service.

 

[ajordan1975]

arty:arty:arty:

Great work guys!
I'm in Westminster, so when you're ready to go wheeling let me know.

 

[rkymtnman]

Guess I spoke a leeeeeetle too soon!

Alignment yesterday couldn't complete - frozen cam bolts on passenger side and frozen TREs. And since we added the lift - and used the CVs (with the old/original boots) from our non-lifted '99 - the boots tore and tossed grease all over I knew this was going to happen - just didn't think it would only take 100 miles.

Got new inner/outer TREs for both sides last night. Those will go on today.

Hoping CVJ will have a set of axles we can pick up this afternoon (nice to live 20 minutes from them!). Since we will have the front end apart again, might as well deal with the axles now.

The frozen cam bolts might be more interesting. We do have a complete LCA from the '99 we can swap over...IF those bolts aren't frozen and IF we can get get it off. That might be an adventure.

This thing will be solid when we are done with it

 

[rkymtnman]

Holy crap what a tremendous PITA those lower control arms turned out to be! The inner/outer TRE's were a snap to change and needed to be done due to them being seized and unable to be broke lose for the alignment. No big deal...they were simple. The stuck cam in the LCA was a completely different story.

We tried everything....to no avail. Just after noon we came to the conclusion that we'd have to cut it out and since we have no press and did not have the replacement bushings, the quickest path to getting this back together would be a new LCA. Luckily, there was a napa about 15 miles away with one in stock. Finally got the old one out, the new one installed and everything buttoned back up. Eyeballed the alignment as best we could...use a string and some garage floor dirt to assist and it is pretty dang close. Have an appointment to get it aligned on Monday.

One note - we were able to just take the steering rack lose to get the bolt out of the cam on the passenger side. We had to take all 4 bolts/nuts off it to get enough movement out of it to get the bolt out. Not a big deal...just 4 more bolts to torque.

Too bad we'll have to take it all apart again once we get the new axles from CVJ - hopefully tomorrow!

 

[rkymtnman]

Emissions passed!! Was more than a bit concerned as the Evap and Catalytic "systems" showed "not ready" on the scan tool but I figured i'd try to run it through anyway. They either didn't check or didn't care (more likely) but we weren't even close to the limits.

Headed to get plates, then a final alignment on Monday morning.

Only some small electrical issues to sort - the stereo doesn't work but I am guessing that has something to do with the '99 center dash bezel we swapped in - or the 18 wires I had to splice because of the POs "craftsmanship".

Then we have to wire in a switch and connect power to the rear elocker.