Camping Truck 04 DC Build (4x4 Conversion)

Snag that locker

 

I mean, if they say so. Don’t really have anything more to go off anyways

 

WOW!! Andrew I just was creeping on your build I had no idea you did a 4wd conversion. Goodness gracious job well done dude!!

 

Thanks. I actually removed the "Pre" and kept the "Runner" letters on the tailgate and was hoping someone would notice at Hidden Falls. Had a bit of a horror story in January from a poor press job at a local machine shop. Had to replace one spindle, a hub, and both wheel bearings. But other than that it's been fun. Need to update this build thread once the semester ends.

 

I saw that but think 2x about it, but now it’s makes sense and is hella clever.

 

@04Pre_Runner , I've never seen a toyota runner before, you should post a pic of that rare truck so everyone can get a good look at this unknown species of toyota.

 

Bit of an update. I graduate with my bachelors in December so the build thread is pretty low on the list. After dealing with a machine shop's poor quality work in January I haven't really been doing any fun wrenching on this rig. I feel like I've been chasing every little thing someone else did on the vehicle, from the shortened driveshaft and poor hub press job during my 4WD conversion, to the stupid Toyota dealer in San Antonio that did it's final service for the original owner. If I didn't do it with my own two hands I no longer trust it at this point. During the first months of COVID I spent a lot of time working on bringing a 2003 Tundra to daily driver status. So it could be given to my brother. Glad to be back down to just my 99 and 04 Tacos. Managing 3-4 vehicles was too much without a shop to park them all in.

Rough timeline. Not very interesting but might edit the post later.

• Old Man Emu/ARB lost me as a customer in Summer 2019 due to my leaf springs basically collapsing. Have them mix and matched and an overload spring on now to sort of stop the extreme driverside lean and extreme loss of lift. They basically told me my camper shell was too heavy and caused it. Then stopped communicating with me.
  
• Did the Tundra brake upgrade in July. If I had to give someone advice I'd recommend avoiding NAPA eclipse calipers. Not worth the trouble. Rebuild some OEM ones or something else.
• My roommate found a $200 camper shell in gold off an old couples garaged 50,000 mile double cab. It proved extremely useful on longer trips.
  
• Bought a 1999 Tacoma on the brink of death. Slowly bringing it back to life.
  
• Truck drove to Ridgway, CO in August 2019. Did Imogene Pass, Corkscrew, and a few other trails. Nothing crazy but I got a wheel off the ground every now and then. I did this all with an improperly pressed hub/wheel bearing assembly. I knew something was up when my co-pilot got out to turn the locking hub and it almost burned their finger.
  
• Quit running XC/Track for my university. Drove to Oklahoma to buy an R150F for my new project truck. I still run, I just didn't like going into debt and not being allowed to have a job. And missing out on cheap Yota parts was a drag.
  
• Drove to New Orleans and delivered a low mile 2013 Tundra my father purchased to my uncle. My uncle gifted me his 2003 in return.
  
• When re-booting my CVJ axles in late December 2019 after the trip I discovered what had happened during my 4WD conversion.
• Ended up needing an entire new spindle. The old one was basically bored out by the idiot that did the press job. Might make it into a desk lamp or something like jeez. I easily spent over $1000 because I just replaced everything that shop had touched. Had the truck rolling again by late January, no thanks to a misplaced order from a certain Toyota parts department.
  
• Took the truck out to Marble Falls with the TTC squad. Cool guys. Had fun but wish I had sliders to join in on some rougher trails. Not long after that trip COVID hit full force.

• Installed a lighted key ring from my 96 4Runner parts truck, a dash cam, and a map light with a switch from an older 1st gen.
  
• Detailed the engine bay. Some good therapy as well as preparation for a large job I'm doing this weekend. Valve cover seals, cam plugs, cleaning throttle body, injectors, etc.
• Also installed an AIRAID intake tube, as the stock one was starting to show some wear. My flatbed's intake tube was disintegrating so it got a new home in that rig.
  
• Finally installed my battery tie down for my new Northstar. Couldn't do that with a dirty engine bay.
• Flushed the brakes. Still have a mushy brake pedal after doing the passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front, driver, proportioning valve method. Going to have to investigate further. I suspect the poor quality NAPA Tundra 13WL calipers.

 

Valve cover seals, throttle body/IAC/intake cleaned, and rebuilt LCE Injectors over the weekend. Truck is running much nicer now. Just need to flush my power steering, clean it's filter, and install an inline filter. Then charge my AC. Put UV dye in and while there is a leak, it's so small the dye didn't pinpoint it.

During the job I got to the last cam plug collar bolt on the passenger side and discovered Alamo Toyota in San Antonio had rounded it off in 2015. This was the only possibly scenario since I was already redoing the valve cover job from a leaky cam plug, and they had been the last ones in there. The previous owner had all work completed by them. When using a 12 point 10mm socket it spun on the bolt, then it spun on a 6 point socket. So I turned to hammering an old loose 3/8 socket my grandfather left me. My own 3/8 sockets didn't have the tolerances to do something like that. Got it out and replaced it with the only M7x1.0 bolt in town (middle silver bolt pictured below) with comparable threads and length. This was done since my local dealer didn't have the bolt and ordering online takes a while due to COVID.


Wanted to paint my 4Runner valve covers and install them, but something didn't sit well about installing 300K mile valve covers on this truck. Even though they're just valve covers I opted to wire brush mine. Maybe next time.

 

when you need a bolt ACE is the place.

 

You’re right about that. Our speciality bolt supply store, NAPA, and a few other places all didn’t have one. ACE had one sitting alone in the M7 tray.

 

Small update. I planned on doing retrofits, sliders, and some other fun mods on the truck this year. But a few roadblocks came up as usual Right now priority #1 is finishing the core support and front end work on my 99 so it's driving again. Then I don't have to rely on the 04 as my only vehicle. I graduate college next month so I'm sure that will slow things down too.

Back in early September my brother backed into me in his 03 Tundra that I fixed up for him. Wasn't entirely his fault as a girl swung up behind him and freaked him out, causing him to correct into my truck parked in front of the house. With the amount of hail claims in San Angelo lately it wasn't in the body shop until this Monday. Initial impressions are good on the insurance repair. If this were my 99 I would've laughed and left it. But I ultimately decided on pursuing the repair through insurance. I could've popped it out to make it better but it wouldn't have been a quality repair.


I've also swapped shells to a 2016 Snugtop cab-hi with side opening windows and will be getting the bed linex lined soon. With no air compressor available to me I can't go DIY there. I'd like to get sliders and a rear bumper on this truck somewhat soon.

Saying goodbye to the cheap mint condition (but mismatched) ARE shell. The new one is a 2016 SnugTop that has damage on 1 of 6 mounts from the seller getting a little too excited helping me attach it to my truck. Shouldn't have even let him help looking back on it.

 

Man I wish I would've known you when I was stationed in San Angelo at Goodfellow AFB. You know all about Twin Buttes just like I used to go there before COVID made me lockdown on base.

 

Wild. Don't think I saw your truck while you were here. I'm sure COVID lockdown wasn't fun for you guys. That base can get small real quick when you're stuck on it. I've yet to find someone to run Twin Buttes with me after my college roommates got married/moved. Currently getting my 1999 fixed so I can go rip it around with zero regard for cosmetic damage.

 

Awesome build.
What shop messed up the bearings so I can avoid them.
Who did you use for alignment, I find it difficult to find ones that understand spc uca in Nevada and Arizona
I also want to convert to manual hubs but keep abs, the press work scares me. I have a complete set of manual hubs.
What wrecking yards did you visit?
I just moved back to San Angelo after 12 years and first time with a toyota.

 

The 2004 survived my depression episode from September to April and is running good after the engine out head gasket job. The 99/flatbed keeps on rolling and was my daily driver from April 2021 to July 2023.

The camper shell on my 04 was mildly damaged and not easily repairable so I dropped it with a Guatemalan parts convoy last year.

I have no intentions on keeping this build thread updated.

The trucks as of July 2023.

 

Is that a 99 Tacoma with a 4 Runner grill and headlights? Didn't know that was possible.

 

You can mix and match the 95.5-04 Tacoma and 96-02 4Runner front ends any way you want really. Just have to make sure you're swapping in the correct core support. Or make your current core support work with the front end you want.

That's a really poor execution though because my 99 Tacoma's cab is destroyed and splitting at the rocker panel/floor pans as well as other places. Nothing lines up on it.

 

Short update. The truck has been to Big Bend NP, Big Bend Ranch SP, Palo Duro, and a 3000 mile road trip for an ultra marathon in Wyoming I did this month. That road trip could've been completed in a car, even with the mild off-roading in Rampart Range. But oh well, I don't own anything smoother to drive than this truck. Although I was recently given a 2001 F-150 5.4 4x4 Lariat.

I'm happy it's back up and running for these trips, even with it's driveline vibration at ~65-70mph that I can't seen to chase down along with a new exhaust ticking noise when warm after the head gasket job. I don't think it's anything catastrophic. I've thought it could be the poor welds on my O2 sensor bung repair, or maybe I did a poor job adjusting the valves. I added new Toyota exhaust gaskets to everything and have retightened all exhaust hardware to spec, the truck drives fine so it's hard to care that much at the moment.

As far as mods go I've added the new OME Dakar leaf springs, my old model ones will be reused on my 1999 flatbed Tacoma. I also ordered a GFC topper (non-popup camper) for the truck that should be ready in the fall. That will be a nice upgrade for trips. Then I have a parts pile of all new OEM door seals, window trim pieces, a driver window (mine is scratched to hell from a poor choice rolling the window down in a dust storm), and a CSF radiator with an internal transmission cooler. This will hopefully solve my issues with running the standalone trans cooler.

 

I also replaced my Aisan brown fuel injectors with Denso black ones after reading this PSA. Basically I couldn't confirm my brown injectors didn't have high mileage, since I sent my original OEM ones to MotorWest as cores. Who knows what the mileage was on the ones they rebuilt for me back when they'd still touch the brown Aisan injectors. I was (and still am) experiencing a hot start issue and was afraid of a tiny injector leak potentially could've been causing it. Like that one 300 page thread where it was all traced back to a mild injector leak.

I attempted to add a fuel pressure testing port to my fuel rail, although the chinese fittings I ordered all sucked and I couldn't find anything better. So I've sort of thrown this one on the backburner too. Could be the fuel pump but I'd hate to start the parts cannon approach.

 

You should cancel your GFC order and pick up my Vagabond Drifter…

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6RjHptgtLH/