Pearl's -King Shocks-Dirt King +3.5 -Califab -Metal Tech -Custom Baja Bumper -Doug Thorley Headers

Damn! That's a shitty spot to put a starter.

 

The 5th gen starter is almost as difficult, you just don't have to pull the intake.

 

Bummer

 

Well I had a plan for the rear suspension, but I'm not sure it will work. I've been cycling the axle today and don't like what I see.
So I'm rebuilding my smoothies in case I have to put it back like it was. They would only hold 70psi of nitrogen and were fading quickly. Too hot to touch my last time out, and one of dozens of times they took some serious abuse. These are a Tacoma spec 10" shock and I believe they were valved too light. They weight of the 4Runner just plain overworked em. Oil is pretty much cooked too.

 

What's the idea for the new rear set-up?

 

I was hoping to put a 14" triple bypass in there, but there is a lot of limiting factors. My lack of knowledge mostly, that and finding up travel is a problem. Droop won't be much more than I have now, and the FJ fuel tank will help with needed clearance for the upper link and drivers side coil. Up travel will be lots of fab work where the pan hard bar contacts the cross member. Then of course the upper shock mount has to go into the cab, which is a big project by itself.

 

Have you explored the cantilever option?

 

Sorry didn't see this. I did look at Wicked's set up. It is pretty damn slick. But, my skill for installing this would be suspect. There don't seem to be a lot of fab shops around here who have the time or if they do, they're knowledge of this sort of thing is lacking also.

I heard tuning this set up for off road is an art that not too many have experience with.

 

Once I started the rebuild on my rear smoothies, I decided to check the valving and see what I have in there. Judging by what I've read in the last three years, these things were valved WAY too light. They are a Tacoma spec length, but are obviously not valved for the weight of the 4Runner or the different rate of a coil compared to a leaf. So new shims have been ordered and we'll see if that cures the tendency to pogo stick in the whoops.

 

Shock rebuild is on hold until the shim stacks get here. So I decided to clean the bodies up. Wet sand w 1500 and some simple green. This worked alright considering I only spent a few minutes on them. Got the worst of the corrosion and I'll spray on a coat of engine clear to see if it holds up.

 

Last spring I installed the shorter FJ fuel tank to clear up some down travel for the rear suspension. I got it pretty much finalized except for a weak point I left where I had to move the rear strap over to the other side of it's mounting bracket.
So I found a tab on the upper link cross member that has an 8mm nut welded in there, and then I took some old bed frame and fabbed up a bracket. Should be pretty solid.

 

The pursuit of more travel for the rear suspension continues. I still want to stuff those 14" bypasses in there, but each time I go to cut some metal, I get skeered. So the current set up will have to do.

During the process of rebuilding/valving the shocks, I remembered when I ordered these Tacoma spec smoothies, DSM and King were concerned about the 4Runner application. The longer shock would supposedly bring the drivers upper link in contact with the tank. So they put a billet 1/2" top out spacer in there to eliminate some ext length. The Califab upper links open up a little more droop and with the shorter FJ tank, I'm not even close to contact now.

Well I decided to remove the spacers and install some Limiting Straps.
McKenzie's for the win.



I also decided upon cycling the axle, that I could gain some more up travel. So I did about a 3/4" chop on my Metal Tech bump spacers. Now, in theory, I should gain about 1" of travel up and down, once the limit straps do their stretch. Hopefully this will help it keep up with the front now.

I did an initial drive on the street last night and I didn't realize how much the lack of valving in the smoothies were affecting the handling. It's much more stable at hwy speeds now with the new shims. Reservoir adjusters are wide open, so I have a lot more compression if I need it.

 

Bought the Harbor Freight copy of the Pro Eagle. I tested it, but haven't used it yet.

 

Since this rig isn't really set up for camping, I decided to build a basic cargo box for the jack, recovery gear, and tools. No drawers or galley needed, so it works fine for what I need.
Not very confident in that cheap orange strap for the spare. Will be changing it out.

 

Also got the fiberglass mounted and primed. The whole rig needs paint, but the cash for that is non existing. The bumper needs extended to match the width of the fenders now.