What Did You Do To Your 3rd Gen Today?

[4Runner fun]

Plating the frame wouldn't be that hard but the rear frame is plenty strong without plate. I wheel my rig hard and the frame hasn't moved. Since it's fully boxed it adds a lot of strength from the factory.

What leafs are you running in the rear?

TG 3"
I guess I was looking at 300# basically hanging past the rear spring hanger. and with the swing out open 100# tire/wheel on the swingout. the frame moves more than I thought.

My first gen more than once has supported the weight of the rear of the truck. But I've never stood back to see.

I haven't made it to the scales to see what the gained weight is.
thanks for the info.

 

[theesotericone]

TG 3"
I guess I was looking at 300# basically hanging past the rear spring hanger. and with the swing out open 100# tire/wheel on the swingout. the frame moves more than I thought.

My first gen more than once has supported the weight of the rear of the truck. But I've never stood back to see.

I haven't made it to the scales to see what the gained weight is.
thanks for the info.

My frame has flex also. I don't know if there's a way to prevent that. I thought you looking at making the frame itself stronger not preventing flex. I've pushed the bumper up into the rear quarter even with the Sonora mounts installed. Flex happens. Especially if you wheel hard enough to drop the full weight of the rig onto a rock often.

Where are you located in Cali? I'm trying to get a trip together next weekend to wheel some of that hard stuff. I've thrown out feelers for the Rubicon but so far no bites.

 

[T.A.Kirk]

I appreciate the concern/warning, but I don't think there is an issue. There are no grind marks on this caliper, this is how it was cast. I've looked at a number of other calipers from different rebuilders, and there is quite a bit of variability from one to the other - I've seen others where the last few threads are showing, like they do on the photo I posted.

Here is a Powerstop caliper (which uses the same pins as mine does), you can see how much shorter their bolts are, and the bolt hole also cuts through the casting.



And a Centric caliper, also showing the bolt hole in line with the casting edge.



I think the bolts that were used in my rebuild are longer than stock, which is why the stick through and look scary. Toyota's original bolts are a good 1/4" shorter, and are hidden well inside the caliper.

Put another way, the portion of the bolt that is sticking through is not load carrying; the threads that are holding the caliper halves together are completely intact and well inside the casting.

Regardless of whether or not you're getting enough clamping force to hold the caliper together, the way the manufacturer made that set of parts argues to a certain insouciance towards "getting it right". In your case, with the bolts sticking out like that, it means that the threads are now exposed to damage, making it difficult to remove them if you ever need to in order to disassemble the caliper. Additionally, if they're taking production shortcuts like this, where else did they cheap out that you can't see?

Toyota does not do this kind of thing; if the bolt needs to be that long, then the castings are going to support it full-length. If the bolt doesn't need to be that long to provide clamping force and strength, then they'll go with a shorter bolt and modify the casting accordingly. What your castings show is sloppy engineering and manufacturing, typical of "value engineering" that we see in a lot of non-Toyota OEM products, and the sort of thing I've learned through long hard experience indicates a short service life and probable early failure down the road. If you hold up a part, and it matches Toyota, you at least know that the guys copying it were copying a good design.

Toyota does what it does with design for reasons; if someone aftermarket does it differently, I don't have the faith that they did the requisite engineering and testing to ensure that their design works just as well as OEM; little visual cues like your calipers show are indicators that would make me go "OK, you say this is adequate... Now, prove it to me...". With a lot of parts, you can do that by going the more affordable route and finding out for yourself if the "value engineered" version is adequate, but with <i>brakes</i>? Homey ain't taking the gamble.

And, before anyone says "Well, I've never had to take a caliper apart, and I'll just take the whole thing off and replace it... Let the reman guys worry...", well... I have had to take a caliper apart on another vehicle in order to remove it for replacement. Which was not a fun night, either...

 

[4Runner fun]

My frame has flex also. I don't know if there's a way to prevent that. I thought you looking at making the frame itself stronger not preventing flex. I've pushed the bumper up into the rear quarter even with the Sonora mounts installed. Flex happens. Especially if you wheel hard enough to drop the full weight of the rig onto a rock often.

Where are you located in Cali? I'm trying to get a trip together next weekend to wheel some of that hard stuff. I've thrown out feelers for the Rubicon but so far no bites.

I'm in So Cal, So the Rubicon would be out for me, But that's a trip I do need to make...

I'll get it out and see how it does. Once I get it coated I'll do an install thread.
cause a bumper is not a build thread

:yawn: :yawn: :yawn:

 

[wrpsuite]

Some joker had a tire fly off his trailer at 60mph and land on my hood and bounce off my windshield. Happy to be alive. Considering having entire truck repainted.

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[4Runner fun]

Some joker had a tire fly off his trailer at 60mph and land on my hood and bounce off my windshield. Happy to be alive. Considering having entire truck repainted.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ouch, looks like loose lugs and finally sheared the studs,
glad to hear your ok, pics of your truck.

 

[theesotericone]

I'm in So Cal, So the Rubicon would be out for me, But that's a trip I do need to make...

I'll get it out and see how it does. Once I get it coated I'll do an install thread.
cause a bumper is not a build thread

:yawn: :yawn: :yawn:

I've been putting it off waiting for the summer crowds to go home. I need to squeeze it in before the snow starts flying. lol

I never made a build thread either. I just created a Trails and BS thread once my rig was mostly finished.

 

[Jayjayb96]

Repainted my hood. Not too bad using rattle cans.

 

[Mark_BC]

Installed the TBU. I went with 199mm instead of 231mm because I don't tow, and didn't feel like cutting the shield or having to upgrade my wheels (at least at this point).

Do you notice much improvement? I was thinking of going the 199 mm route too for the same reasons but I read it doesn't make much difference compared to 231 mm.

 

[4Runner fun]

I've been putting it off waiting for the summer crowds to go home. I need to squeeze it in before the snow starts flying. lol

I never made a build thread either. I just created a Trails and BS thread once my rig was mostly finished.

I'll check out the thread,
And when we head north I'll hit you up. it's nice to wheel with a local. Nothing like having home field advantage.

 

[4x4run4x4fun]

On my 98 4runner i replaced the fill plug in my front differential that was stripped by the previous owner. I did not see until I tried to check...( got to love it)....
I installled a bolt headed plug to be easier to fill the front differential. I was going to the local parts store where I decided to try the local u pull it and got exactly what I wanted. Also got some door light switches that always seem to practically not work when you need them. Not always does the u pull it yard work... this was good for this.

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[4Runner4Leon]

What your castings show is sloppy engineering and manufacturing, typical of "value engineering" that we see in a lot of non-Toyota OEM products

Maybe it wasn't clear in my earlier post - these are Toyota castings, not some aftermarket version. I've seen enough OEM Toyota castings to know that they do have a lot of unit to unit variability, and I've seen numerous castings with threads just like this one.

Here is a factory bolt removed form my original calipers - you can see that the threads end a good 1/4" inside the caliper. The load carrying portion of the bolt is even further inside the caliper. So the fact that the longer bolts used in my calipers stick out a bit is not a concern (to me).



I hear what you're saying, but I just don't agree with what you are projecting about the caliper based on the evidence. We'll just have to agree to disagree .

 

[4Runner4Leon]

Do you notice much improvement? I was thinking of going the 199 mm route too for the same reasons but I read it doesn't make much difference compared to 231 mm.

So far I only took it around the block and then parked it until I can do a proper break-in. I'll let you know how I like it compared to what I had - of course my old rotors were warped, so having that improvement alone is worth it to me .

 

[128keaton]

Got my tires balanced again, tightened my valve cover bolts (need to replace my passenger side VC seal), determined that I do have fog wiring AND relay available.

I want to rid myself of the cheezy wiring the PO put in, making it look OEM as possible.

Finally cleaned the truck again, fixed the fuel sending unit, replaced the fuel pump, unbent the fuel skid, detailed the rims (wow! huge difference) and fixed the rear hatch rattling noise (loose dust shield over the locking mechanism).

 

[Women_be_shoppin]

Full length rack

Bought me a low profile full length rack, and changed my oil.

 

[wrpsuite]

Ouch, looks like loose lugs and finally sheared the studs,

glad to hear your ok, pics of your truck.

Towed straight to shop I was so pissed. Hopefully body shop took pics.


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[T4topher]

Finally finished my steering wheel leather, didn’t come out perfect but definitely much better than it was..

 

[thatoneguy2-]

Finally got around to remounting the rack and put my awning on as well as the lights

 

[mrfrogdude]

Took her on an Elk hunt last week. For back and checked my LBJ's....barely hanging on by 3 threads on my passenger side! Too close! Threw a free replacement Moog in for now. Getting ready to order OEM and replace both Moogs ASAP.

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[Mark_BC]

You better be prepared to pull that Jeep out