99nmtaco's 4Runner build

Got the fuse block mount installed today. Now to get the new battery in and I can start running all the wiring.

 

Finally got the 4runner in the garage so I can keep going on the electrical stuff, so today I installed the new battery and SDHQ battery terminals. I gotta say these things are super nice and provide plenty of connection options to run auxiliary wires to the battery.


I need to look at other options for my battery hold down since the factory one doesn't quite hold the new battery as snug as I'd like.

 

So to help hold the new group 35 battery in place I decided to fab up a new battery tray.


I'm hoping that the taller sides on this will keep the battery snug when the clamp is on top.

 

I wasn't completely happy with the initial battery tray so I took a stab at fabricating another one.


Painted and installed

 

Back in October when I tried installing the front ADS coilovers I ran into a problem with the resi hose fitting on the shock body hitting my All-Pro UCA's.

Because of this I held off installing them until I could figure something out. A few weeks ago I ended up pulling the trigger on a set of MCM Fab UCA's and recieved them this week. I got everything installed today and they work perfectly with the ADS shocks. I need to get an alignment now but my initial test drive felt great.

 

Went for a drive today after getting the alignment done. Everything feels great and I can't wait to get back out on the trail after this quarantine is over.

 

Knocked out another install project this weekend on the 4runner. Finally got the winch mounted and wired up. We ended up going with a Smittybilt XRC 9.5 gen 3 with synthetic line.


The led light over the spool will be nice for any night time recovery situation.

 

Met up with the local TW group today for another trail run. Had a blast exploring new places and testing out the new ADS front shocks. There was definitely a noticeable difference over the bilstein's we started with.

 

After yesterday's trail run I remembered why I hate mud so much, because it gets everywhere lol!

A little before and after under the hood.

 

It's been a while since my last update, but I've been slowly plugging away on my accessory wiring. Finally drilled out a hole in the firewall and installed Daystar's universal wiring boot and wired up the relay's and blue sea fuse block.







Now I just need to wire up my OTRATTW switches and install some fuses.

 

Got all the switches wired up today and the new RC LED pods installed in the front bumper. Next up will be the install of the LED bar and rock lights.


The new RC LED pods are a huge improvement over the ones that came with the bumper from Addicted Offroad and they have a cool amber DRL feature. If I knew how awful the light output was going to be with the pods from AOR I probably wouldn't have ordered them in the first place.

 

Patrick! Hope you, Ruth, and little Natedawg are doing good! How's the quality on the new winch from first impressions? Pretty impressive from the videos and paperwork.

 

Whats up Nathan!? We're all doing great here man! We've been staying busy getting things ready to move back west in the next couple of months. Hope you and Megan are doing well.

The quality of the Smittybilt has been great so far, granted we haven't had to use it for any real recovery yet. Its seen its fair share of mud, rain, and heat out here since its pretty exposed on the front bumper. I've been cycling it at least once a month to keep everything lubricated and it hasn't had any issues yet. The little added features like the overload indicator on the remote is nice to have as well. My only complaint about it so far has been the locking mechanism on the plug in port for the remote. Mine was a pain to release when I got it so I emailed Smittybilt about it and had a new solenoid box delivered in about a week at no cost to me and have had no problems since.

 

Over the last two months we haven't had much time to get out and wheel but I have knocked out a few projects on the 4runner. First off, I finally made some brackets to mount the rock lights.


Once I had them painted and mounted I was able to get them wired up. These pictures only show the output on the passenger side prior to wiring up the driver's side. I need to get out and take more pictures of them all on.


Overall I'm really pleased with the output of these lights. They will add plenty of auxiliary lighting to see wheel placement on the trail at night if we need it. I also had a bit of maintenance to do since the front wheel bearing on the driver's side went bad.


From what I could tell during disassembly, this was still the original Toyota bearing which I found impressive as it had close to 230k miles on it. For peace of mind I went ahead and replaced it with another Toyota bearing and pressed everything back together.

 

Well the 4runner finally hit 230k annnd the water pump decided go out. After doing some research I ended up ordering an OEM parts kit and the SST's needed to complete this install.


The p/o had the timing belt replaced with a gates belt at around 179k and it looks like a remanufactured water pump installed at the same time. It's hard to say if they also did the camshaft and crankshaft seals when this service was last performed but I plan on replacing everything while I have it opened up. Upon initial inspection, the timing belt appeared to be in good shape besides being somewhat dirty and probably would've lasted until the service interval if the water pump hadn't failed.



Luckily there are tons of write-ups out there for the timing belt replacement which make this job relatively straight forward. The most difficult part is just ensuring you keep all of the hardware organized as you remove it which will make reassembly much easier.

 

So far 2021 has been the year of maintenance for the 4runner. Sticking with that theme the rear axle seal decided to start leaking....again.


If you've looked over this thread you'll know this isn't the first time this has happened. I know for some 3rd gens this issue can be a constant problem and unfortunately mine appears to be one of them. After several rounds of replacing bearings, seals, and the diff breather I am puzzled.

Before diving into the repair this time I had to really think about what I wanted to do. I'm really tired of dumping money into it only to have the oil seal fail again a year later. So this time I started off by pricing out building an aftermarket axle to replace my factory axle but, unfortunately it's just not in the cards right now. Ultimately I came to the decision to replace everything on the drivers side minus the backing plate to see if this resolves my issue.

In the past I've had to take the axle shaft to a shop in order to have the bearing and retainers pressed/cut off. I think this is the first part of my problem. Looking closer at the axle shaft this time I noticed scarring under the inner most retainer from being cut off by someone. The second problem I've run into is being able to ensure the retainers were pressed on the right distance in order to mate with the oil seal. It's not fun having to waste time running the axle shaft back and forth to a shop just to have the retainers adjusted.

Luckily, I had recently picked up a 20 Ton press in order to replace the front wheel bearing. So I decided that I would handle the repair from start to finish this time on my own. I ordered up the SST to remove and install the rear wheel bearing and retainers. This was a great decision because having the tool made removing and installing everything a breeze!


As for parts, I ordered up a Dana SVL axle shaft and went with Toyota for everything else which included the bearing, bearing cup, retainers, wheel studs, and oil seal.


I had thought about ordering chromoly axle shafts from Marlin Crawler however, due to shipping times and overall use of the 4runner right now I decided against it. Maybe once the 4runner becomes a dedicated trail toy someday I'll upgrade to chromoly shafts.

Once I had everything torn down I cleaned up the backing plate and installed the new bearing cup and bearing.


Then I got the backing plate and retainers all set at the correct depths and tested them to confirm the seal was mating correctly.


Once I had the axle shaft done and bolted back on I threw a fresh set of brake shoes and drums on the rear and called it good.


If I still have a problem after all of this then it will definitely be time to seriously think about swapping out the entire axle.

 

It's been a few months since I finished up the repairs on the rear axle and I'm happy to say it's showing zero signs of leaking gear oil! Since that was good to go I decided to move on and knock out a few things on the front suspension that I've been wanting/needing to do.



I ordered a new steering rack, outer tie rods, cam bolts and lower ball joints from Toyota and also picked up a set of Whiteline bushings for the LCAs. The factory steering rack has been leaking for a while now and the LCA bushings were starting to show some serious signs of wear. The lower ball joints were also starting to leak a bit of grease so I thought it would be a good time to change them out as well.

Once I had the old LCA bushings pressed out, I cleaned up the LCAs and gave them a fresh coat of paint.


Here's a comparison of the old LCA bushings and the Whitelines. It's hard to see in the pictures but the old bushings were cracked and worn.


Before installing the new steering rack I decided to replace the factory toyota bushings that came on it with some Total Chaos poly bushings I had sitting in the garage. I'm sure the factory bushings would've been fine but I figured I may as well "upgrade" them while I had good access to the rack. Once I got everything back together I could tell that the alignment was way off just by looking at it. This was expected since the old bushings were so worn out and the fact that I changed out all of the steering components. I did mark all of the cam bolts so that I could get everything as close as possible when I put it back together.


Based on the drive to the alignment shop I can already tell that the front end feels way better even with everything out of wack. I can't wait to get it back later today to see how it drives once it's all straightened out!