97 4Runner Crawler

Went wheeling a week ago and did some tough trails with no breakage just smarter line choice and a little more backing up to get in a better spot. Did both sections I broke the last two shafts on so I'll call it a win.

Suspension feels great but I am thinking about pulling it again to stiffen high speed just a bit and close up two bleeds. I figure closing the bleeds will help body roll a lot. But then I'll have to open up rebound and comp to keep it soft on slow speed.

Jumping in a rutted section while aired down Isnt the best idea though. Front skid took a pretty big scoop of the ground when it compressed.

Also I think the body roll from soft suspension in addition to bump steer from camburg heim steering clevises gives it some bad oversteer. When I am going fast in a corner I have to steer into it then bring it back nearly straight when the body rolls over.

Looking into options for intermediate shafts - either order a lot more spare shafts to keep rebuilding the two tubes I have and keep a spare or I'm working on a cad model of a short double sided diff side 27 spline shaft to get made from 4340. Then I can take 2 cut down internal spline passenger side sections and weld them together to go from the short shaft to the CV.

Future reference:

PRODUCT / ................................................. FT.LB. TORQUE/.... % TWIST
Yukon 4340 Dana 60 35 spline short side axle.........12,000 ..................130
Stock Dana 60 35 spline short side axle .................6,500 ....................35
Yukon 4340 Dana 44 30 spline short side axle ..........5,800 ...................35
Stock dana 44 30 spline........................................5,00 0.....................35
Yukon 4340 Birfield Eliminator kit (ear failure)............5,500......................50
Longfield 4340 30 spline (shaft failure)......................8,500............... ......175
Longfield 4340 27 spline........................................6,50 0.....................75
Stock Toyota Birfield.......................................... ..4,200 .....................45
Stock Toyota Inner Axle.......................................5,000 .....................45
All Pro "Profield".................................... .... .......... 3,500 ....................30
~30-35% gain from 4340 over stock
toyota splines are 45 degree pressure angle

 

Some pics from the last few trips out. on a decent string of trips with no major breakage but I have been easier on it while I was still waiting on spare intermediate shafts.

Still keep loosing headlights. Found a set of 7" rounds I may try, or baja needs to get these DOT LP6s to market already.

 

Looking into current projects -

I redesigned a 27 spline piece to replace the end of the intermediate shaft (goes into diff on passenger side) I keep breaking in hopes of getting it made from 4340, but between getting a test piece to check tolerances, heat treat etc. the price tag just isn't worth it to me. I also have 3 new oem shafts right now so maybe I revisit when I run out again haha



37s and beadlocks should be going on for good this winter and I will have some cutting to do.
Move the bump a bit lower in the front
Raise front ride height
Retune front coilovers - plug 1 or 2/3 bleeds and open up flutter maybe stiffen up high speed a bit
Hopefully add a rear sway bar
p0303 - do valve cover gaskets, plugs, wires, timing belt and hopefully that goes away

Overall it would be nice to make it a bit more street worthy so I don't shy away from longer trips with it.

Now exploring options with Dutchman axles

 

Front diff repaired for now, seal housing copper line was rubbed up and the o rings were trashed probably causing the leak through the breather. New seal housing and O rings are swapped in. For anyone else that needs to do this without a press, there is some 2" slip to 1-1/2 npt pvc pipe and a 5lb dead blow I used that fits in the passenger side to hammer out the shims, seal housing, and race. Use the same part to beat the race out of the old seal housing and into the new one then just put the same shims back in and tap in the new seal housing on top of them till the shims cannot move any more.

Overall condition of ring and pinion are good for what it has been through, some metal hanging around from all the broken jack shafts.

Pulled suspension to tune coilovers again, changed rebound to straight 15s and plugged 2 bleeds. Changing the oil volume in my bumps since they were hydro locking and destroying themselves. Got new ORI parts to swap the Schrader valve stuff out since it was all ruined on the bumps. Lowered the bump point to match the height that the bumps were hydro locking at. Raised ride height as high as I'm comfortable with without binding my coil springs at full bump - I should have about 1/8" extra room at the coil at full bump. I'll be adding 3/16 o rings to keep the bumps from bottoming out which will give me a bit more wiggle room.

Pulled all armor and suspension off to clean and repaint

Timing belt, water pump, seals, drive belts done, coolant flushed, oil changed

Solid Offroad motor mounts are in

 

A more entertaining possible new project, pics of clearance are with the motor raised 2". This will be on hold a while collecting dust because I want to wheel, main obstacle would be spindles.
Diff comparison




Jack shaft / CV spline comparison



Stock-ish motor height



Raised motor height to test fitment



Diff fitment

.




Diff is close in 3 places on the oil pan, at the jack shaft tube port, the ribs on the case just past it, and some bracket up top that could be cut off (next pic)

 

A year later and 37s are back on with proper clearance this time.

As if I didn’t break enough on 35s haha

 

front locker still leaked with new o rings and seal housing so I pulled it again and replaced the bonded seal. Not too bad of a job, just remove the ring gear, split the carrier and pop the bonded seal out with some compressed air.


installed my rear sway bar, 45" 1.25" u4 bar with medium heat treat, 18" double shear arms, 10-11" aluminum links. It is bolted to the frame so I can remove it easily if needed. only thing of note is when welding the tube that holds the bar to the mounting tabs for the frame i warped the fuck out of the tube. may be worth welding with the aluminum bushings and bar in palace to pull some heat. I bent it back as best I could then greased everything up and beat in the bushings and bar with a deadblow, haven't had any issues yet from this. the arms did get a little loose after the first wheeling trip. I tightened them a lot more on the splines after and Loctite the caps in place and wheeled it hard for 4 days plus about 500 miles and they are still tight now.

Other things worth noting for install on a t4r -
I did trim down my panhard bar frame side mount to keep the arm closer to the frame and the bar is still offset to the passenger side .4 ish inches to give it a little better clearance.
axle side mounts are 48" wide if I remember right
the bar is set with the link to arm pivots about 1" forward of where they are at ride height and with links set to 10.75" ish, this leaves the bar angled up at ride height to help it droop out easier when the axle swings forward from the short links
2" spacers 0 offset wheel and 37x12.50 haven't seen any signs of rubbing yet


and flexed out with the sway bar and no weight still looks decent

 

Fucking shit. Didn’t know you had a thread on this machine

 

drove it back to Missouri to wheel the day after finishing the sway bar, trip went ok but i got denied a lot. some combination of it being so wet and slick, wheelbase on ledges, getting used to setup changes, and 12psi in these tires was way too high. Didn't break anything major even ripping through trails late at night. only things are the gas light wont go off and a big dent in a bumper hoop from playing bumper cars with @TacomaDad18. rest of the crew destroyed two tires and got some significant body damage that I escaped.


https://youtu.be/HlWWKsQE1ds?si=0Vktq-t1zNmIm_UP

 

next week was Toyota Jamboree in TX. somehow spent most of the time wheeling with broncos on portals. didn't break anything again and I was much happier with how it did with 6psi in the tires. hung with everyone I wheeled with other than a linked f-toy on 39 reds. went back and forth with the broncos that were on 35s to 39s but in the end I was able to do some lines they didn't, maybe because I don't care about body panels.




tacomabeast guy tried to hang with the broncos and had to pull cable and standard third gen tacoma smoke


some new shit im not spending 70k on


put 35s back on for the rock garden race classes, got beat by 2 seconds by a rclt and trailing arm v8 4runner. wish I wouldn't have geared out in first and low low. to top it all off the 37s class winner was 15 seconds slower than me lmao
https://youtube.com/shorts/3xJHEx68Xoo?si=xp3ygv2VBnTt_9Ts

good clip showing the bead grips doing some real with with the tires at 6, and good to show the flex with the sway bar. it likes to follow the rear more but is a lot more stable off-road. I'm very happy with it.
https://youtube.com/shorts/wzrTGD-nnEk?si=RGNIje1oq4OoXzIq

 

Lmao it says denied on your video, I bet it’s cause of E shirt lmao

 

nah that's the title because I aint making it up that shit

 

ohhhhh lol

 

Go back and try that when it's not a stream. Also, WTF did you do to my headlights? lol

 

Lmao it likes to eject passenger side headlights. Just rips the screws out of the housing. I destroyed all the good ones I had in a few trips last year after I swapped them back in since led pods looked too ghetto. The last 6-8 months of it there were just zip ties holding it in.

So now I have some 7” round Amazon specials with built in turns etc.

Might try some plastic aftermarket housings that are lighter, or maybe waiting on Baja designs to release their dot headlight lp6 or I’ve been bothering people at diode dynamics to come out with one.

that obstacle pissed me off this year because @TacomaDad18 made it up with no front locker and with a rev cut issue. Used to be half that height and no issue to walk up. They dug it out sometime early last year so the past two years I’ve gotten denied. Last year it felt way sketchier so the bottom probably got filled in a bit since. Also had to pull the spare since it was inside the back window when I turned around haha.

Being in low low probably didn’t help with how wet it was.

 

What gearing would you go with if you were going to be on 35’s? Are 5.29 too steep? Worried that if I jumped to 37’s in the future 4.88 might be miserable. Was fine in the second gen taco with 37’s and 4.88 if that counts for anything. Also, not excited about having arb’s again.

 

Auto? If so for sure 5.29s.

I’ve driven it back and forth to Missouri through the ozarks on smaller 35x10.50s, bigger 35 pbrs and 37s and it does fine. 13-14mpg this last trip and it will cruise at 80 no issues till it hits a hill then I’ll drop to around 75 to try and keep it in lockup. I’m at 2900 ish rpm at 80 and it will hang around there for 9 hours no issues

my front arb started leaking bad but I was able to do all the seals myself so hopefully it will be good for another few years.

also while your rear axle is out check out the eimkeith panhard bar relocate stuff.

and if you have to weld on a new diff cover I would consider shaving the rear axle or just removing the drain plug for clearance and so it doesn’t leak after destroying it on rocks.

 

It’s an auto, so that’s good to know. All but one of the diff studs came out with the nuts so I think I’ll throw some bolts in there and weld up the drain plug. The tacos was beat to hell.

the three link kit comes with new panhard mounts, but I did get poly bushings for the bar itself. May build one with Johnny joints or heims later. Waiting to hear back from Opt if running a 14” is worth it. Would like to just stuff a coilover in there, but I’m guessing the frame would have to be more than just notched…

 

Yea frame is stupid tight to tires on these. I know one guy with coilovers inside the frame I think, but I know I don’t want to go inside the vehicle like that.

I know with stock links I prefer worn out oem panhard bushings because with a lot of droop it binds up with the uppers since they are a little triangulated lol. You won’t have that issue with the 3 link.

I have considered that 3 link kit, just wonder about clearance since link mounts already hang me up a lot. It would be super nice for going fast though.

 

I can’t make up my mind if I want to just do 14” and strap it to 12” if need be or just do 12” and be done. Worried I’ll lose uptravel with a longer shock body. Also, not sure if I’ll find any coils that will work with 14”. Will wait to get everything in and tacked up to see what’s what.