Adventures in 4Runner'ing
- Thread starter DouglasVB
- Start date
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
I went out to Yoda Jim's today to pick up a few parts and met Squishy there. Now I have a top shift t-case, a new-to-me NipponDenso starter, and two seat belt assemblies out of a pickup. This was my first visit out to the yard and I suspect I'll be back many times more. What a fun place!
The t-case and starter. I'll see about ordering the right contacts from Roger Brown before I install the starter.
Marlin Crawler is backordered on 4.70:1 gears for the t-case. I thought that Inchworm had their own 4.70:1 gears but they are selling Marlin Crawler gears now so I guess I'll be waiting for Marlin Crawler to get back in stock at some point in the next few months. Hopefully they'll be back in stock before I need to install the second t-case.
These are the seatbelts that Jim's crew pulled out of a mid-80s (or maybe late 80s?) pickup. After having a few passengers this summer, I knew that the stock rear seatbelts are pretty miserable for anyone to use when 4x4ing.
Excuse the sideways picture. Yes, those belts do bolt directly into the existing mount points on a 4runner. They work great, too. I think it would be better to snag rear seatbelts out of a 1990 4runner because I think that they would retract a little further than these belts do. Not a big deal for me though.
Anyone need some stock rear seatbelts out of a 4runner?
The t-case and starter. I'll see about ordering the right contacts from Roger Brown before I install the starter.
Marlin Crawler is backordered on 4.70:1 gears for the t-case. I thought that Inchworm had their own 4.70:1 gears but they are selling Marlin Crawler gears now so I guess I'll be waiting for Marlin Crawler to get back in stock at some point in the next few months. Hopefully they'll be back in stock before I need to install the second t-case.
These are the seatbelts that Jim's crew pulled out of a mid-80s (or maybe late 80s?) pickup. After having a few passengers this summer, I knew that the stock rear seatbelts are pretty miserable for anyone to use when 4x4ing.
Excuse the sideways picture. Yes, those belts do bolt directly into the existing mount points on a 4runner. They work great, too. I think it would be better to snag rear seatbelts out of a 1990 4runner because I think that they would retract a little further than these belts do. Not a big deal for me though.
Anyone need some stock rear seatbelts out of a 4runner?
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
I'm getting ready to buy gears in the next few days for the differentials. I want to confirm that I'm going to order the correct things.
Does that all look correct?
- Front gears for high pinion differential that I'm getting from Dave
- Front seals and such
- Rear gears for stock 4cyl differential
- Rear seals and such
Does that all look correct?
Squishy!
Rising Sun Member
I would make sure to order new diff bearings front and rear. Pretty much all the bearings. Trunions wheel and diff bearings
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Are the Yukon master install kits that Marlin sells the right ones? This is the 4cyl 8" diff kit. This is the high pinion kit.
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Quick update: Just ordered the 4.70:1 gears for the crawler transfer case (Marlin just got back in stock today), the gears for the rear toyota 8" diff, and the setup kits for both the front and rear diffs. I'll be getting front gears for a high pinion diff from Squishy! at the next club meeting (totally blanked and didn't go last week) and in a couple weeks I should have my high pinion front diff from Old40Dog, too.
Still to get is the 63" Chevy leaf springs. I won't have time until early April to go out to the junkyard to pick those up.
In early April I'll be looking to start major work on the truck. First steps will be getting the differentials built (I recall that there's someone in the club who does this work?) and building up my crawler box. I'll do what I can myself but I will either need a "barn raising"-style party to help me get it done or will need to find a competent shop nearby. I'll worry about all of that in April though
Oh yeah... also still need half a set of front bushings. Minor detail
Still to get is the 63" Chevy leaf springs. I won't have time until early April to go out to the junkyard to pick those up.
In early April I'll be looking to start major work on the truck. First steps will be getting the differentials built (I recall that there's someone in the club who does this work?) and building up my crawler box. I'll do what I can myself but I will either need a "barn raising"-style party to help me get it done or will need to find a competent shop nearby. I'll worry about all of that in April though
Oh yeah... also still need half a set of front bushings. Minor detail
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DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Update:
Received the 4.70:1 gears. Received the front and rear diff rebuild kits (both high pinion and toyota 8"). Received 5.29:1 toyota 8" rear gears. Received tie rod ends (still waiting on the tie rods to show up).
Still need to get the 63" Chevy springs. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have time to run out to one of the junk yards for a half day.
Still need to get half a set of front bushings.
I forgot to get the heavy duty shifter springs from Marlin Crawler for the t-cases. Dunno if that's really all that important or not.
I'll be getting the front high pinion 5.29:1 gears from Squishy! at the next club meeting (don't let me forget to attend again!).
I'll be getting the front high pinion diff from Old40Dog soon.
Soon I am going to spread out all of the parts that I have on my garage floor and go through everything to re-verify what I have and look to see if there is anything else I need or if I ordered anything incorrectly.
Received the 4.70:1 gears. Received the front and rear diff rebuild kits (both high pinion and toyota 8"). Received 5.29:1 toyota 8" rear gears. Received tie rod ends (still waiting on the tie rods to show up).
Still need to get the 63" Chevy springs. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have time to run out to one of the junk yards for a half day.
Still need to get half a set of front bushings.
I forgot to get the heavy duty shifter springs from Marlin Crawler for the t-cases. Dunno if that's really all that important or not.
I'll be getting the front high pinion 5.29:1 gears from Squishy! at the next club meeting (don't let me forget to attend again!).
I'll be getting the front high pinion diff from Old40Dog soon.
Soon I am going to spread out all of the parts that I have on my garage floor and go through everything to re-verify what I have and look to see if there is anything else I need or if I ordered anything incorrectly.
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Update:
Old40Dog and Company helped me weld on the sliders that I've had sitting in my garage for months. Now my truck is at least twice as cool as before! I'll post a few pictures later this week when I have the time to get some decent photos. These are 4xinnovations sliders.
I should receive the last of my order from Front Range Offroad (tie rods). Still need to find the rear 63" Chevy leaf springs. Hopefully this weekend I will have the time to track down a set. Still need to get the rest of the front bushings. Will get the 5.29:1 front high pinion diff gears from Squishy next week. Should see the high pinion diff from Old40Dog in a few weeks.
Later this week or early next week I am going to start planning out exactly how I will get all of the work done that needs to be done to get my truck all setup for summer. My current thought is to do the 63" leaf spring rear swap first along with the dual crawler t-case. That will set me up with the correct spacing and configuration on the propellor shaft for when I do the SAS swap. On the rear axle, I'm planning to move it back enough so that I can continue using the stock rear propellor shaft.
So basically:
1) 63" rear leaf spring swap and crawler t-case install
2) differential build-up (both front and rear)
3) SAS swap
4) Front propellor shaft
5) New tires
6) Trim fenders to fit new tires
Old40Dog and Company helped me weld on the sliders that I've had sitting in my garage for months. Now my truck is at least twice as cool as before! I'll post a few pictures later this week when I have the time to get some decent photos. These are 4xinnovations sliders.
I should receive the last of my order from Front Range Offroad (tie rods). Still need to find the rear 63" Chevy leaf springs. Hopefully this weekend I will have the time to track down a set. Still need to get the rest of the front bushings. Will get the 5.29:1 front high pinion diff gears from Squishy next week. Should see the high pinion diff from Old40Dog in a few weeks.
Later this week or early next week I am going to start planning out exactly how I will get all of the work done that needs to be done to get my truck all setup for summer. My current thought is to do the 63" leaf spring rear swap first along with the dual crawler t-case. That will set me up with the correct spacing and configuration on the propellor shaft for when I do the SAS swap. On the rear axle, I'm planning to move it back enough so that I can continue using the stock rear propellor shaft.
So basically:
1) 63" rear leaf spring swap and crawler t-case install
2) differential build-up (both front and rear)
3) SAS swap
4) Front propellor shaft
5) New tires
6) Trim fenders to fit new tires
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
I had a couple free minutes this morning to inventory all of the new parts that have come in the last month or two before putting them away in the garage. Here are some parts porn photos
Yes, I was up-sold by FROR to get the machined knuckles and slotted steering arms.
Steering stabilizer, bearings, etc...
More parts for the crawler box T-case. I think I'll start working on putting the 4.70:1 gears into the T-case that I got from Yoda Jim's a month or so ago.
Gears for the rear differential, rebuild kits for both the front and rear differentials, etc.
This came from FROR. You'll notice the green tape on the tie rods. I put that on there because metal chips started falling out as soon as I took the tie rods out of the box. And of course I took the tie rods out of the box in my living room. Whoops!
FROR had some trouble with a broken tap that caused some delays in production. No big deal for me since I won't have time to do the swap for another week or two. However, I did find it curious that one of the threads is a bit buggered up. I don't think that it will be a problem but I'm a bit surprised that I received a tie rod with some bum threads.
It's not great photo of the buggered threads but you can see them. Only one thread was screwed up. I might bring it to the Rising Sun meeting next week to get a few opinions if it will be a problem or not.
I managed to get all of the chips out of the tie rods.
Yes, I was up-sold by FROR to get the machined knuckles and slotted steering arms.
Steering stabilizer, bearings, etc...
More parts for the crawler box T-case. I think I'll start working on putting the 4.70:1 gears into the T-case that I got from Yoda Jim's a month or so ago.
Gears for the rear differential, rebuild kits for both the front and rear differentials, etc.
This came from FROR. You'll notice the green tape on the tie rods. I put that on there because metal chips started falling out as soon as I took the tie rods out of the box. And of course I took the tie rods out of the box in my living room. Whoops!
FROR had some trouble with a broken tap that caused some delays in production. No big deal for me since I won't have time to do the swap for another week or two. However, I did find it curious that one of the threads is a bit buggered up. I don't think that it will be a problem but I'm a bit surprised that I received a tie rod with some bum threads.
It's not great photo of the buggered threads but you can see them. Only one thread was screwed up. I might bring it to the Rising Sun meeting next week to get a few opinions if it will be a problem or not.
I managed to get all of the chips out of the tie rods.
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
And here are some photos of the sliders that Old40Dog and Company helped me install last weekend. I finally finished painting the welds today. They work great as steps to get up to the roof rack
With these sliders....
With these sliders....
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
They look like they stick out pretty far. Are there gussets on the top side of the frame legs on your sliders? They look to have a really long moment and I see 3 rocker dimples in your future. Some guys trim the seam to clear the tubes. On Imelda I didn't and they clearanced themselves, even with gussets.
That's why some sliders (like Roger Brown's here) use an intermediate rail that lines up with the pinch seam for support when they do flex.
That's why some sliders (like Roger Brown's here) use an intermediate rail that lines up with the pinch seam for support when they do flex.
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Yup mine has gussets. We forgot to weld them on before welding the tubes to the square plates for the one side. That took a bit of grinding of the gussets to weld on that side. Whoops They are all set now though.
These are 4xInnovations.com sliders. I suppose that we could have trimmed all of the legs down more?
They are all set now though.These are 4xInnovations.com sliders. I suppose that we could have trimmed all of the legs down more?
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Hmm... If I should move the sliders in, I think the easiest way to do this would find some tube steel that can act as a sleeve around the tube steel legs. Then I'd cut the legs, shorten them by a couple inches, slide on the sleeves, weld those at each end, and away I'd go. It would be difficult to get the weld on the top of the sleeves/legs under the body of the truck but not impossible.
Is it important enough to spend a day doing this?
Is it important enough to spend a day doing this?
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
Who's to say? Some people tuck them in, some not as snug to the rocker. Depends on their shape and what you want. Sticking way out makes them great steps but they get hung up more is all. I like the outer rail, the real slider part, not to be outside the tires is about all. The set I'm putting on the Tacoma don't have kick outs, plus they angle up and fit more snug to the sheet metal mainly because I didn't like constantly banging my shins on them. Yours look to be flat so adding decking or plates between the tubes would make them great steps.
Squishy!
Rising Sun Member
Right now they stick out a bit far, but once you've got your 35's on they'll match up much better
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
HoneyBadger
Rising Sun Member
I think they look perfect. I wouldn't change them. 
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
I think they look perfect. I wouldn't change them.
Me talking to my truck right now:
AxleIke
Hard Core 4+
Sent you a PM.
HoneyBadger
Rising Sun Member
Holy crap... Is thing gonna fly?
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!