2Runner

Been a while so let's get caught up with the recent revisions to old Trudy over the last few months...

Back in March I found some used OEM side view mirrors from a wrecked purple 98 regular cab and installed those. I like the slimmer exterior look and the clean look of the delete of the handles on the interior to also save some much needed square inches in the cab!



Also in March that Addco front sway bar came in finally and that popped right in as well. It definitely is another notch stiffer and notable reduced body roll in the hard turns over the factory OEM v-6 extra cab sway bar, but I did get some slight rubbing on my meaty tires on full lock when making a U-turn. No issues during normal driving and rides just as nice as ever.



In May things got extra exciting as I installed another 2" suspension drop front and rear. In the front I used some 2" drop spindles, and also installed new bearings, rotors, and "Akebono" brake pads while I was at it. All OEM parts of course, even the spindle I had modified for the drop. For the rear drop I used Belltech 2" drop blocks. These fit within the factory u-bolt spacing, but I did need to bore out the center alignment hole with a 9/16" bit to get them installed over the center pin. Everything else installed without a hitch, and the truck is at a whole new level of handling stability with the lower center of gravity.



It worked out nice as I finished all the above work in time to bring Trudy out to my first ever Toyotafest car show yesterday, and we had a blast out there with all the fellow Toyota's and owners! I snapped all these pics of her looking all shiny and new at the show.



She got so many compliments I sure was proud of her, and had a great time sharing the tales and tricks with like minded enthusiasts!!

 

I cant believe it's been 2.5 years already since I have had the privilege of owning Trudy.. recalling how she looked when I first brought her home!

 

I installed some 3mm wheel spacers yesterday and went out to my local obligatory update photo shoot warehouse.



The sun was just setting and glistened across the gloss left in her 20 year old paint, as if the Tacoma gods were shining down on us to capture the moment in time..



Stepping back and realizing I was finally seeing and driving the truck of my dreams I had envisioned when I first set out into the world of Tacoma's with this fine old truck, I was elated to say the least!







I may be biased (for sure), but Trudy is certainly my favorite Tacoma in the "World"!!

 

love this truck buddy. looks great!

 

Let's get caught up here, shall we?

Spent the last month or two fine tuning and ironing out some tire rubbing issues since the recent 2" drop. The truck drove great on the streets and normal driving, but during my spirited canyon test runs with sharp off camber turns filled with potholes in all the wrong spots I was getting rubbing on the metal inner fender wells, the inner fender plastic liners, and even the Addco sway bar. It took multiple rounds of rubbing, fixing, and repeating but I was finally able to get it to where it does not rub in any of my harsh testing scenarios.

I picked up a fender dolly and hammer set at the harbor to help massage the inner fender well. I used it with the oem bottle jack to get some leverage and add clearance wherever I saw rub marks. After the pic I found duct tape worked to protect the paint and undercoating better while doing this:


A box cutter worked great to trim the plastic liners:


There was the body seam to deal with behind the front wheels too. I ended up trimming the plastic right along the metal tab, then bent the tab in with a hammer to hold it in place and up out of the way:


Ended up removing the Addco sway bar, it was rubbing during u-turns, but even worse it was scratching the inside of the rim during hard test runs:


After a lot of fixes, there was some rubbing on the drivers side inner fender right under the battery tray. Since I did not want to mangle and bend the battery mounting area, I thought it would be good to try a light weight battery.. this dropped 30lbs and actually worked to get rid of the rubbing issues on the driver side at last! I cut the oem mount and picked up a couple j hooks from the zone to get it secure.



All this work was worth while to feel the new found performance of the truck, and how fun it is to drive now! It still looks oem fresh under the hood as well since I did not cut away any inner fender:


Trudy is feeling so good now that I signed up for the autocross event this weekend!

 

Almost forgot to post some pics of the recent drop itself..

Check out these nice oem spindles modified for 2" drop without changing any factory geometry. Also a nice pile of oem goodies to replace while I was there (brake rotors and pads, bearings, upper ball joints):


A super trick oem part I found - I noticed 2 part numbers were listed for my truck on the oem parts site. One was labeled as being "Mark Sumitomo" pads PN 04465-04040 and cost a couple bucks more than other brake pads listed for the truck. I thought this sounded like oem high performance in my mind so I gave them a shot!


I got really excited to see the vintage style TEQ logo right on the pad, I knew these were going to shred at this point:


It may be in my mind, but it does feel like the brakes do have a bit more bite than whatever was in there prior at least. Here is the spindle installed, ready to put it all back together..


For the rear drop some good old Belltech 2" blocks worked out nice, though oddly I needed to drill out the alignment hole for it to fit (didnt need to do this on another truck).

I also removed the plastic tail gate liner leftover from the bed liner, along with the spare tire and carrier bars to reduce weight in the rear. This gives it a more nimble light weight feel, allowing it to change direction quickly without as much weight transfer. It was enough weight drop to actually raise the rear 1/4", so this will give me a bit more travel and tire clearance for the track too.


Cant wait to see how out feels on the track.. I need to relearn how to drive the truck again now it seems!

 

That's a very clean truck, In my opinion, the best body style Toyota ever made. Can't beat a Gen 1.

 

Finished the rest of the year testing the Tacoma out at a few more autocross events after the upgrades, and I am happy to report the truck is at the next level, definitely handles better and has so much traction thanks to the additional drop and limited slip diff!!

To quantify results I compare my lap times to our local national champ with a 911 GT3. Before the recent upgrades Trudy was running roughly 15% longer lap times than the GT3 but after the upgrades I can see her hovering just about 7-8% slower, so a pretty huge margin for not adding any power I would say!

Here is a video highlight with some action, in October Trudy took second place in the truck class in the Nitto NMCA AutoX World Finals.. missed first place by just .2 seconds...



Oh yeah there were a couple minor tweaks over the course of the last few months too. My 265's melted and I tried out some smaller 255/35/18 Bridgestone RE71RS that also seemed to up the ante in the grip department big time. A dash of fine tuning with 5mm wheel spacers were slipped in too. My rear 2" drop blocks were replaced with 2.75" to get as much weight back in the rear as possible for batter balance. Heck , I even removed the headrests so I can lean my weight back further and lower in the truck, while also being more comfortable...

Old Trudy just keeps getting faster and funner all the time, cant wait to see what the next year may hold for us!

 

Where did you source the 31 tooth speedo gear from?

 

i love this little truck.. i want one just like it to go with my mister 2 damnit. lol

 

Check out this link I came across to help you figure out which OEM part you need.

Once you garner the knowledge you will see this list:



Take these part #'s and shop at your favorite oem retailer. To answer you question directly here is where i got my 31 tooth once you know its going to do what you want!

 

I love this little truck too, I say you get one and have yourself some 5 lug high performance fun!!

 

Been looking for a cheap one to build a 24hr lemons racer with a Camry engine swapped in.

 

Wait... What! 2 inch drop spindles so I could lower the front without changing the stock front ride? How much does it move the tires out? Where does that come from? That looks like a good alternative to lowering springs and less suspension travel. Perhaps some 4x4 rear springs with the 2wd overloads and an overall mild drop? I have heard about the Beltech 4260 spring for about 1.5 inch drop on a single cab 2wd but was less than confident about giving up suspension travel -- I wouldn't want it to ride like an S-10.

 

The drop spindles are a great way to get the full 2" drop without affecting the ride quality. It does not move your tires out or change offset or any suspension geometry, and it does not seem to even affect the alignment hardly. I got mine from this gentleman Aaron, which you can reach on the gram here. You need to send him some new core spindles (I used OEM of course!), then he will modify them accordingly and ship em out. He turned them around I believe within a week or so when I got mine, super quick. They came out beautiful as you can see, though they will cost you a big bunch more than coils. You should also tackle ball joints and bearings while you're there if this has not been done yet of course!

To note, even though suspension travel is not impacted directly by the spindle this will still move your tires up in your wheel wells. So if you are running too tall of tire you may get some rubbing. My 2" drop I ran a 25.7" tire without issues for reference. The 2" coils may not get you as much drop as you noted, and dont worry there is still ample suspension travel as I used to autocross on a rough course with a full measured 2" coil drop. The coils will add to your spring rate too, which helps to minimize wheel travel as well while driving hard and improves handling a notch further than just the spindle drop. Another big difference you will notice is the spindles are quite a bit more expensive after all is done, so if budget is a concern (say you want my old high performance wheels and tires to go with it!) then the coils would be a fraction of the cost.

In summary, I bought both for some serious handling and would never go back! Here was Trudy in the old days, 2" front/3"rear drop running 245/45/17's on the 17x8 2012 Lexus IS250 wheels in action:



As for the rear, I would suggest to get the front setup first then get the rear as close to level or slight rake as possible. This really changes the weight balance and ride of the vehicle more than I would have imagined! To get your ride dialed in perfectly I found

$18 1" Aluminum Leaf Spring Lowering Block - Universal, Versatile for Ride Height Adjustment, 2.5" Wide x 5" Long, Up to 4" Lowering, Multiple Thickness Options, Sold Each

these drop blocks that you can stack to get your stance dialed to perfection.

 

You point out one advantage of using the Beltech springs. When lowering with springs I should be able to retain the stock size tire, in my case a +1 as I'm running P235/60R16. I really don't need better handling, these single cabs do better than most trucks in stock trim and plenty well for confident street driving (puts my VW beach buggy to shame). I have concerns with the ride quality if I give up an inch plus of wheel travel. That's what is attractive about the spindles.

I haven't touched the front ball joints, bearings, or brakes yet. Mine only has 69k miles on it and the pads look to have enough left to go to about 100k miles.

 

Awesome truck mate, just read your build thread. Appreciate your adulation for the OEM products, nothing really compares to the R & D the toyota factory puts into their parts.

based in australia, we have similar trucks but without a lot of the fruit you guys get on the tacoma spec.

do you know the overall diameter of your new wheel and tyre set up vs the lexus 245/45/17 (25.7) combo?

 

also, i was just about to order the Tru Trac centre you mentioned,

https://www.vpw.com.au/parts/EAT-911A644

can you elaborate more as to what the rear end was doing at long high speed corners? was it still spinning the inside wheel and not locking the centre up ?

 

G'day @jc968 ! Thanks for the compliments and always good to hear someone else that appreciates all Mr Toyoda has done for us with these little trucks!

The Bridestone RE71RS in 255/35/18 have an overall diameter of 25" even per specs. These are easily best handling tires I have ever tried, get some if you are looking to transform your.. is it a Hilux out there?!

The truetrac seemed to do absolutely nothing for me and wheelspin was so excessive I was told I need an lsd by an autocross ride along when it was already installed. Others have said you need to flip gears for it to work properly but my gear shop said otherwise, so you may be able to get it working better than I did if my local "pros" were mistaken. I started a thread for this to capture all my experience, read up here for the juicy details! Here is a video with it installed, listen to all the wheelspin coming out of the turns..



You reminded me, I got to stick that thing into the front of my 3rd gen 4runner.. Here is old "Freida", Trudy's older sister, she was my original classic "mini-suv" and she still gets a lot of love and action on the trails.. She of course is the inspiration for the "2Runner", I had her for so long and had so many great adventures in this truck that I knew exactly what I wanted when I envisioned my street truck!




If I didnt have the 4runner and was not able to find the mk2 Supra lsd, I would have gone forward with trying to flip some gears. Hope this helps, best of luck, and please let me know if you are able to get this working!!

 

thanks mate, i did end up finding your other thread on the true trac whilst searching for the correct part number/unit. i do wander if the reversed gears did have something to do with the performance of the LSD as i have heard nothing but good things on the lock up until now.

yes it is called a hilux out/down here.. all our 1st gens are basically pre-taco spec, so they take a bit of effort to get them right..

so the 18 inch combo was actually smaller diameter than the 17inch lexus? did you measure the lexus wheel and tyre or just go off the tyre size calculator?