RTZ's 98 4runner

[rushthezeppelin]

Housing side gasket remnants are finally cleaned up. Take studs out and hit it with a nylon wheel.

Diff all taped up to minimize the gasket dust getting in there. I'm going to give it a good bath right before install but less stuff to clean out this way.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Plan worked out great. In conjunction with shop vac I ended up with almost no gasket dust and bits in the diff. Cleaned up the surface with brake cleaner on a rag and finished it up with a light layer of oil to keep it from rusting until I get to fipg it all back together.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

You’re a better man than me. I tested mine. Resealed it, and added fresh oil and sent it. No issues in 6 years.

To be fair the limiting factor here is the aftermarket harness I ordered. It should hopefully be on the way in the next week or so, guy had a month lead time. If it wasn't for that I might have just sent it lol. Probably would have been fine too. This way though the diff might actually go to 600k+.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

All setup to paint now. I'm surprised how far ten bucks of drop cloth goes, nifty having a nice pro painting setup to do this.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

And all my supplies

And I'm setup on the garage door so I can open it a bit and put a fan there for ventilation

My only regret is a don't have more parts to paint ATM. Anyone have something that needs painted they want to sneak in here lol?

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Also my someone project yesterday. Wiring up some 3/4" LEDs in parallel for turn signal mod. Daisy chain on a 14 giraffe quite seems to work quite well and I'll know it's good as far as not too much current into any of the wiring. Probably overkill and I'm okay with that.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

All primed

And after 30 min initial cure painted

Now I'm just debating on a second coat. Went pretty thick and drippy on this one trying to get all the nooks and crannies as best I could do I'm leaning towards one coat.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

3rd is now reinstalled with fipg red. Never used that said before, man it's hard to squeeze out of the tube. Hope I did a good job with it. Did a solid 1/4" bread all the way around ringing around the studs. Nuts are torqued up to 18#.

Really hoping that flat spot on the actuator side is good. I must have laid the bead right on the edge of the mating surface for the third. That spot is round on the housing. Tried to smear it up against there just in case. Guess we will find out if it works .

Now I just need to install fresh axle seals in front and rear. After that time to slap it all on the truck, full up the fluids and wire up the harness and hook up the ADD.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Seals installed on both front and rear diff now. Fronts are tricky as you don't want to bottom them out. I've gotten pretty good at the rears now. Almost thought I trashed one of them, funny how they can go on so lopsided and then end up driving in without deforming as long as you keep the seal driver on the whole seal. Also got some 1/8" id hose to extend my actuator breather. I'm basically ready to slap it all in now

 

[rushthezeppelin]

This thing looks so sweet, can't wait to paint and mount it!

 

[DanTheMan]

This thing looks so sweet, can't wait to paint and mount it!

Addicted Offroad makes the best looking and functional bumper for 3rd Gen's IMO.

 

[Notyourmomslx450]

View attachment 122867
This thing looks so sweet, can't wait to paint and mount it!

NICE!

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Addicted Offroad makes the best looking and functional bumper for 3rd Gen's IMO.

The mounting system is also super duper bomber without having to chop the crap out of your frame horns. Just have to do a little bit of grinding.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Looks great on a test fit. Can't wait to get out painted up and winch mounted.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Well thanks to @RicardoJM I completed the lions share of the work. New front and rear diffs are in, new rear uppers are in. Just have to wire up the switch and run the breather for the actuator. Took 11.5 hours to do all that work. A good chunk of that was just spent on the front diff. That thing is a pain to snake out and back in. Companion flange loves to interfere with the bell housing and steering rack input shaft. Sadly the rumors about non locker swap bar interfering with the actuator shield (in my car severely binding on it) are true so I'm currently sans a sway bar in the rear.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

All that hard work for this red light

Still got a few things to work out. Tested it on gravel and with locker on my driveshaft balancing weight crashes into my stock gas tank skid when taking a right hand turn (fairly common issue with lifted 3rd gens). Scared the absolute piss out of me, I thought I had nuked my gears lol. Try bending it into the tank too get it out of the way bit don't think I got it far enough. Also my 4wd light didn't come on with the new front diff. I jacked it in the air though and ADD is engaging so it's likely the ADD engaged sensor. Old diff would do the same if the diff wasn't warm enough. Lastly both my damn full plugs front and back are weeping slightly. I even put new damn crush washers on both and torque the to spec ><

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Also the new gearing makes a noticable difference. Feels like it did when I was on 31.5s again which is sweet. Don't feel like I'm sitting in lower gears as much.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

4wd light finally came on for me. Starting to suspect that the switch just got sticky for sitting idle under the wrecked truck for a while and then sitting idle in my garage drained of fluid for almost a month. I could see that causing the switch to get stick but once it's been actuated a few times it goes back to normal. We will see if that holds true.

 

[On the RX]

My factory tank skid volunteered some space with no issues to the balancing weight.

 

[Notyourmomslx450]

Congratulations on a job well done. Your truck just became waaaay more capable.