Rob's '86 4Runner -RETIRED-

Alrighty, I finally got my truck out here to Grand Junction last night. Unfortunately, the shipping guys decided to nuke my battery after claiming it wouldn't start in the cold when they put starter fluid in the air cleaner after disconnecting and not re-connecting the MAF sensor cable. Then they broke my hood support arm clip (the little plastic one). The heck man??

Anywho, here are a couple pictures of my rusty bolt bucket(Which I love dearly). These pictures were taken the day before it was shipped out. Ill take detailed pictures of the immense amount of rust later on heh. Click the links above for the full res pictures(They're big!).

You can see a little damage on the passenger door. Slid down a hill on the side of a curved road in NJ during a blizzard about 5 years ago and tagged a conveniently placed telephone poll :PIt flattened my fender flush with the tire and came to rest mere inches before removing my side view heh. I got lucky on that one! Oh yeah, and I didnt get hurt or whatever which is cool I guess. Im just glad the ol' truck was okay
Click me for the raw picture!


Driver side in fair enough condition (Needs to be sanded down and repainted but thats the entire vehicle heh)
Click me for the raw picture!


Wider angle on the passenger side. You can see my obnoxious CB antenna tucked onto the door frame for lower clearance.
Click me for the raw picture!




Currently has the stock 22-RE 2.4L I4. 31" tires. 5,000lb Ramsey winch. Good ol' Cobra 29LTD CB and an overkill 10' steel whip antenna. For both the winch and the antenna I had to make brackets from some scrap steel stock I had laying around.

Plans not involving repairs and in no particular order:
-Engine swap (6 or 8, still havent decided on anything at all though I saw someone said a 262 fit perfectly and powered it perfectly)
-SFA swap
-4 to 6 inch lift for better ground clearance and bigger tires (35s?)
-Rear disc brakes to replace the drums
-All new steel braided brake lines
-Swap the battery and the air cleaner maybe?
-Snorkel kit probably
-High idle switch (grab a cruise control system out of a totaled car somewhere)

That is a good looking runner bud. And welcome to the fun haha.

Nice truck, looking forward to meeting you on the trail. You saw the Moab trip scheduled for April, right?

Sorry for the huge delay in reply! Thanks for the comments! I think I did see that Moab trip planned. I'm really hoping I can attend. I still need to do a bit of work! I really need to do that SFA swap especially... I'm having issues though. I have an issue with my brakes to include parking brake. I'm 98% sure the problem source is at the drums in the back. I'll be scouring forums everywhere for suggestions. I might swap the drums out with rotors unless I find enough people suggesting against it.

Poor thing needs a serious once over... and then probably another one I need to get that whole employment thing going on now that I moved out here! Can't build up a beast without income!

I might end up asking suggestions and opinions from you fellas specifically since you know the environment I'll be in primarily, and are a hell of a lot more knowledgable than I am.

I hope everyones having a good start to their week so far!

Don't sweat the SAS until you start breaking CV shafts.  IFS can go lots of places if you drive it nice.

It'll be easier to service your rear drums than convert to disc.  I'd try that first.

Well my CV shafts are rather new (within the last 5 years or so) and can thus probably endure a beating still. My rear drums are in pretty bad shape anyway I think. I know I definitely want to do a rotor swap at some point and now that theyre giving me issues it's probably about time to do it! Who knows. I kind of want to open them up and see if they're an easy fix for now but Im just worried that once I open them up they'll just fall apart completely! Ill read up a bit more on the interwebnets and consult my Chilton's first

Your stock master cylinder and booster won't like trying to push the added volume of disk brakes in back, so you'll need to upgrade them while you're in there.  You'll also need to upgrade the front calipers, or install a proportioning valve, because otherwise your rear brakes will be too strong.  Then you've got to worry about how you're going to compensate for the lack of an emergency brake.

A rear disk swap is on my list too, but I haven't done it yet because of all that comes with it.  Unless you're ready for a comprehensive upgrade to your entire system, I'd just rebuild what you've got .

Well then... Thats some heck of a lot of extra stuff to do! Yep, I guess im just gonna stick with the ol' drums then It would probably take me a whole 2 weeks to get that done IF I had the money for all the extras! Can't have my DD out of commission for that long Thanks for that info! rotor swap is definitely at the bottom of my list now heh heh

I decided to change my belts because they haven't been done since I owned it (bought in 2006). Yeah I know, thats pretty freaking terrible. Anyway, What should have been a 10-20 minute job ended up taking probably a solid hour and a half. The hold up was that I could not find the tensioner on the AC compressor belt. Both my Chiltons and the interwebs all said "It's under the A/C unit dummy". Well I searched and searched and searched and could not find it. Then I noticed the slot where the tensioner SHOULD BE. The classy individual of a previous owner decided to delete it apparently. I swear the previous owner is the cause for 85 to 90 percent of my simple maintenance jobs gone nightmarish. The only way to replace the alternator belt was to unbolt the AC unit to remove that belt. I said "Eff that noise" and just cut the damned thing. Now I gotta find me a tensioner...
Anyway, heres the alternator belt... It was in the worst shape out of the three by a LONG shot(Full res is 3264x1840 if you want to look closely):


I also got bored and decided to clean up my transfer case a little bit... What started as a random impulse became an addiction... It's night and day!

Your AC still works?  I don't even know what that's like, I've never driven a 1st gen with working AC.

Nope, doesnt work hahaha. It stopped working in 2009 I believe. I'm 90% sure it just needs some refrigerant though... Maybe this would be a good time to switch over to R-134 heh heh

Nah, just yank it.  That's one less belt and pulley creating drag on your crank, and much better access to that side of the motor when you have to get the wrenches out.

Besides, convertibles don't need AC. 

Hahaha ya know I was actually thinking about keeping the compressor and using it as an air compressor or something heh heh. I'm actually a fan of using the smoker window as a fan when I open it ~230°. Makes a decent cooler on a hot day. It even has variable speeds(between 0MPH and 100MPH depending on availability of downward slope)!! Hahaha. Having that extra bit of room WOULD be nice though... hmmmmmm.

I dont think I wanna take the top off though... I've really grown attached to it being on there haha. Maybe later on down the road when I've turned it into my envisioned rock crawler

HDL_CinC_Dragon wrote:I dont think I wanna take the top off though...

Blasphemy.

Well, crap. Can't be a blasphemer now can I?? Guess I'm gonna have to make that beefed up roll cage ahead of schedule! Haha.


Also, why the heck are we all up at this hour?

Kevin and I both work night shift!! What s your excuse?!!

definatly got pull the top!! That;s on my list, to make my top removable, it;s way down at the bottom of the list but its there!!

Roll cages are for wimps.

My signature is my excuse I guess I'm going to have to give in to peer pressure on this topic, eh? hahaha. I'm paranoid some individual would see fit to remove something from my vehicle without my permission or foreknowledge >_<

Hey guys, sorry I've been inactive for the last ~3 weeks.

Just an update on me Runner: I ended up losing brake pressure completely while out in the desert and had literally zero stopping ability save for my parking brake which until 3 days prior was not functioning at all. Got lucky on that one! It was indeed my master cylinder that was to blame. The wiper seals on the pistons inside(Didn't realize front and rear had their own pistons) were completely shot. Bought a whole new shiny master cylinder assembly and now it's back to not being my cause of death

On a performance note: Last night I upgrade my fuel injectors to four port injectors from the one port super-soaker-size-stream injectors. Holy freaking hand grenades did it make a difference. A little more get up and go, smoother idling, less picky about starting when its cold. I can't believe how much better it is now that it can finally atomize its freakin' food haha. I got all four injectors for $100 on eBay and they got here very quick as they're sourcing from Denver (4 hour drive for me. Could have picked em up! )
Heres the eBay page I bought them from in case you're interested!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261228451440
and the resistor box delete connector for the new high ohm injectors:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191083273590

Looking good, Rob. Are you going to join us in Moab next month?

Thanks And I am most definitely going to try! Hopefully within the next couple weeks I'll have the rear springs replaced and mayyybe the front coils. We shall see!

Hey guys, sorry I've not been around lately. It's been insanely busy lately! I figured I'd give a little update on Sandy. The ol' gal drank too much Ethanol and took her top off. So unbecoming of an old lady!


So Sandy has definitely shown her age lately. The inner fender wall on the passenger side under the battery has become detached and is basically holding on for dear life elsewhere. I currently have the battery being held up some paracoord to give the fender a little bit of stress relief... Another issue is I discovered a leaky axle seal on the passenger side rear. I had the typical indicator of the spidered wetness but it became painfully obvious the leak was there when I flushed the differential and put new fluid in there (It needed it so badly...) and basically had a waterfall coming out of my axle... The picture below is the next day (twenty minutes ago) after I got back from an appointment. Still just pouring out of there. I put in the full ~2Qts after having less than 1Qt drain out of it.



Im thinking of pouring in some SeaFoam before I actually replace the seals just to get any gunk out of there that may have built up. Not sure if thats really necessary though?

Poor old truck So much work needed!

I love a topless hussy.

Hahaha yeah. This topless Hussy needs some love! Can't freakin' wait to be able to start doing all the needed maintenance and repairs before building her up! Gonna be a long road there haha

So there I was, minding my own business, just sitting there when all the sudden a pack of wild angry 10mm sockets and screwdrivers viciously attacked out of nowhere!



Barely escaped with my life! Also, I need to find different things to do when im bored...