BattleWagon's 87 4Runner

[BattleWagon]

Number two here we go. This is my new 87 4Runner that I purchased off another board member a few months back. It was more or less a turn key wheeler. I purchased it to have a non tow rig that has the capability of being a daily driver as well as a hard core weekend wheeler. I first got my feet wet with a 01 Dcab Taco that I purchased back in 2003 and slowly built it into a mildly built daily driver/ weekend wheeler.
Build thread here----> http://ttora.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156417

But I got to a point where I was reaching the limits of the IFS and stock drive terrain. So after thinking of just about every which way possible to do a SAS and put double cases in the Dcab taco. I decided to say fuck it! And go a completely different direction and sell the Taco and by a SAS'ed old school 4Runner. (Which I have always loved). I was able to sell my Tacoma and buy an 87 4Runner with a few mods. Now it being a duel purpose rig aka a Daily driver is another story. Within 24hrs of purchasing the rig the Spedo broke, the Ebrake gave way, and the tires were so out of balance it was killing itself.

So the fine tuning begins

I also have sold my other dailydriver (93 Corolla) and I am using this as my Daily driver until I get something else to drive to a fro from work.



Now that you have all been filled in on what the hell has been going on, here are the specs of the new rig.

1987 4Runner
22RE
SAS'ed
37 Sipped BFG Krawlers with OMF 17" aluminum bead locks
Duel Cases with 4.7's in the rear
Chromo output
Twin stick
Full interior cage
Chromo's front and rear
ARB's with 5.29's Front and rear
and a bunch of other little odds and ends..



The day I sold my Taco



The Day I purchased my new 4Runner




A little Test Flex (aka poser shot)

[BattleWagon]

Ok after picking the rig up in Yuma and driving 140 miles with jacked up tires i knew that this was going to be the first of many issues to address. The previous owner had mentioned that he had about 14oz of Airsoft BB's already in each tire. The first plan was to go a similar route with Dyna beads or Centamatics, but the $$$ kept holding me back. After doing some more research on Air Soft vs Steel shoot vs different density of airsoft bb's... I decided to try getting new more dense BB's .20grams and try 11oz per tire and see if that did the trick. Mainly once again due to $$$.

Wow this was a project, It would have gone a lot faster if clean up wasn't on the agenda as well.

I had to remove a mixture of low Density Airsoft BB's abd Steel BB's all covered in grease. Lots of fun

I could tell right away why they were not working. The grease was so thick, it acted as a glue instead of lube. It took forever to shopVac everything out and then do a FULL wipe down of the interior of the tire. Once all was clean and dry I added the new Airsoft BB's. I put 11oz per tire of .20 gram high density BB's. It was aprox 1,550 BB's.

Wow what a difference, its probably a 90% difference from before. I still have a little death wobble at 35mph, but when doing 70mph its glass. Where as before i had worse DW and could only go about 55mph. Otherwise i would shake myself to death.

I'm in this about $20 and 4hrs of my time. No to to bad of a cheap fix. Just in time for KOH.. It was only 2 weeks a way!!!

Here are some pics of the action:







Just a little grease sucked up


The mixture of AS BB's and Steel BB's


New ones.


11oz of AS BB's


New ones in


Then I found this beauty on the second tire, so i just removed it and pluged it up.... Good to go.. now..

[BattleWagon]

Now it was time to fix the seats and put the softopper on.

The seats did not slide back and forth, which is kind of a big deal when you have four seats and only two doors.










The issue with the seats was only that the wire connecting the two rails was disconnected. So that was an easy quick fix.


Now the top is off!!!!







Now for the Spoftopper..

[BattleWagon]

Well I just got done doing a once over on the rig before heading to Calico next weekend for the annual So Call TTORA run. And I found some issue that need to be addressed before any wheeling is done.

1. Both Trasfercases mounts: I noticed that there was ware on my Trasfercases and upon further inspection, I found that the front Tcase mount was toast and the rear one does not look much better. So to fix the problem I just ordered the Bomb Proof ones from Trail gear. Got 2day shipping and should have them to instal Tues-Wed night.

2.) Tie Rod ends. Both Tie Rods are shot and i'm assuming thats where part of my death wobble is coming from. Should have the two I ordered from Marlin Crawler tomorrow or Tuesday.

3. Rear Shocks, I have 14" travel ones that are on there now are just a little to long. When i was fully loaded heading out to KOH i bottomed out the Shocks on almost every bump once i hit dirt. So to fix this problem, i have up graded from 5125 to 5150 Bilstein with 12" of travel. Plus i'm putting on some poly shock bumps for the shocks. Picking them up tomorrow and will have them in by tomorrow night.

Just as long as all my parts arrive i should have everything done by Thursday night. Lets Hope

I'm hoping to head out of San Diego by 6pm at the latest, which would put me in by 9-10ish

[BattleWagon]

So I picked up my 12" Bilstein 5150's today and did the install when I got home from work. Well I ended up buying the daystar shock bump's and they were not going on the 5150's by any means. Then i leanred the "assumption Lesson" for the 1000th time. FUCK..... So yea the shocks i had on there were 12's and not 14"'ers like i "assumed" because thats what i was told....
so no problem solved in the up travel issue and no bumpstops on...

with it being my DD I had to keep it together tonight.. I will have to address the bump stop issue tomorrow..

Here are a few pics..






And I love the directions. Use the instalation tool..WTF. What fucking tool. I called ORW were i purchased them and they said that there is no "instalation tool" and should just use whatever i can to install them.... I was like "OK"

[BattleWagon]

New Issue

She won't pass smog so this is going to be a fun adventure getting that accomplished ...

Then I decided to tackle the rear U-Joint. That too was fun, I was my first Yota ujoint replacement and it prop took me 3x as long as it should have. But got it done.

Here are a few pics. I don't have any when i was beating the old one out which was the big chore.

Putting the new one is was easy as pie..

[BattleWagon]

This past weekend I got around to replacing the 1st Trasfercase mount with a "Bomb Proof" one from Trail Gear. Hopefully they will hold up better than the stock ones.

I also was able to get that "Instillation tool" for the Shock bumpstops. When I originally called ORW, they said that there was no instillation tool, and that I should just use "what I can” to get them on. Well that did not work.
So when I went to return the Bumps. I spoke with a manager who said that there is actually an installation, but that they would have to order it. Well it finally came in last week and gave it another shot at putting them on yesterday. Even though I had the instillation tool, it still was a total pain in the ASS to get them on. It took at least 40mins per shock...

But now there on, so hopefully they will help protect me from bottoming out my shocks.

Old VS New..




Instal Tool:

[BattleWagon]

A few more issues addressed:
Front Brakes

So the other day I noticed fluid on the inside of my passenger tire. Upon further inspection I noticed that the pads were beyond gone and that they only friction helping me stop was metal on metal Also as you can see from the pics that the caliper was leaking because the pistons had been pushed so far out (because the pads were toast) So I did a temp fix and replaced the pads. In the next month I plan to swap in the V6 calipers and rotors for better breaking.

A few Pics














No on to the rear bumps:
The gap between the stock bump stops and the pad on the leafs was so large, it was almost ridiculous. But I was able to find the 4 1/2" poly bumps from another board member and extend the bracket down by 2" with a piece of 3/16’s 3x2 square stock.

Here are a few pics of the Fab/Install

[BattleWagon]

[BattleWagon]

Another update:
After wheelin John Bull and Corral Canyon I noticed some issues with the rig. 1st i noticed that me Tcase was still rubbing on my skid-plate even though i had just replaced the Tcase mount with a Bomb proof one. So i ended up figuring out that it was one of my engine mounts is toast. The plan is to replace it another stock one, but strap them so they don't tare. Then i noticed a loud "clicking" noise coming from my passenger front axle. Not sure if the birf is actually toast, or just needs to be rebuilt. After pulling it i could tell that there was plenty of play and the joint was super stiff. I got it shipped out today to longfiled. Hopefully i will have it back in the next few weeks.

Few Pics of the action

[BattleWagon]

I finally was able to get some new shoes on my rig yesterday. Ever since Goodyear came out with the new MTR'S, I new that they were going to be my next set. The issue I ran into was that when I went to purchase them in June. I kept hearing that they have been on back order since March (size: 37x12.5x17). The story I heard from a few different people and suppliers is that the military has a huge contract with Goodyear right now for the Humv's. I guess their going to a 17" from the 16.5" So I started looking everywhere for new and used MTRS. I was able to find a set of 2 New style MTR's (1) w/ 55% and (1) W/ 45% as well as an older MTR w/ 20% tread for $300. I then kept stocking Discount and Tirerack and finally found 2 from discount on Thursday. Goodyear only released 20 to Discount stores in the San Diego area.

This was definelty a whole day adventure started around 9 and finished about 8. With 24bolt OMF bead locks it was a 120 bolts on and 120 bolts off (have 5). was lots of fun... No to mention trying to seat tires with a gas stating air compressor... (Co2 was out before the day even started ) But i was able to get it back on all fours with the new tires yesterday...

I took it for a drive and it was almost night and day on the road... cant wait to see the offroad performance...

A few pics..

2 Used MTR's




All five rings off


Removing the AS BB's


The 4new ones






Weighing out the AS BB's


A few calories to keep me going... One done 4 more togo..



On the Rig..

[BattleWagon]

Put two new engine mounts in this weekend.

Both of the old ones were toast...

[BattleWagon]

Just picked up a DIY swing away tire carrier kit. Here are a few pics of the action.


2x3 .120


















Used this guy to heat up the spindle housing. Also had to put the inside sleeve for the bearings into the freezer so they would shrink. Other wise you need a press to do so.





with the inner sleeve pressed in with the bearing

[BattleWagon]

damm this shit is consuming a lot of my time.. Day 2. got the cross bar mounted and the driver side mount.













A little closer than i wanted. Pretty sure the bracket warped on me when I welding everything.

[BattleWagon]

Well after some thought I tossed the latch side mount in the trash and started over. I got rid of the plate and went back to 2x3 .120 square stock. I know that the plate was just not going to work. It was just asking to be bent to hell.













































Maybe its time for a new set of welding gloves..

[BattleWagon]

Got the last of fabrication items wrapped up for the 1st part of my tire carrier today. Pretty stoked on how it came out.




























Painting has started










All Done!! Well at lest for now..

















I still plan on doing some sort of Gas/Water carrier on the left hand side. But ill wait on that for a few.

[BattleWagon]

Little update on the tire carrier.

I relocated the license plate, removed od Co2 mount, mocked up the new one and tool box placement.





Still need to get a light for the plat to make it legal.


Co2 and tool box mock up

[BattleWagon]

The new Co2 mount was on the chopping block for todays work. The last one was just crap.










Letting my buddy try a little welding..



Just about done. Paint is the only thing left.



Heres a sneak peak of the new look of my runner..

[BattleWagon]

Today i started the second stage of my tire carrier. I added a spring loaded stop for the gate and buit rack for two 5Gals or an Ice chest.

Happy Cinco de Drinko!










New beadlocks and rubber



Now time for the 5Gal rack.

[BattleWagon]

Today was kind of a pay off day for me. I have been working on a few different projects on the rig and was able to get everything finalized and wrapped up.

The completion list is as follows:
-Gas&water carrier
-Stop/locking latch for the carrier
-Co2 Mount painted
-New tool box mounted
-HighLift Mount
-Wire/install the Lic plate light.
-Mount new beadlocks and rubber.

The Gas and Water jerry can mont is not the most ascetically appealing but its strong as hell and should do the trick.

some pics of the action.




















Lic plate light done.






The redesigned bed area with the new Co2 mount, HighLift mount, and tool box.




Stoping and locking latch for the swing out tire and jerry can carrier.





All done.

[BattleWagon]

Update on a few things that have been ging on.
a few months back I replaced the passenger front caliper. The old was toast, one of the two pistons were almost froze and the rubber boots we all but gone. While i was there i also replace the pads.

When i was out wheeling in mid May i had a problem with my rear ARB not locking up while i was in the middle of the obstacle. The compressor was running non stop and the all of a sudden, POP! So i figured i blew a plastic line. But after inspection of the lines i saw no cracks. So i'm assuming its the hard line or the o-rings in the diff

I too noticed that there was a shit ton of gear oil all over the solenoid and the compressor. So gear oil was working up the line as well. I do have a extended breather on the diff, so not 100% sure why this happend.

Pics of pulling it:












The last weekend 7/21 I finally was able to get the 3rd pulled and inspected. There were a few issues, the main leak was coming from seal on the housing just like OOP'S(from Pirate4x4.com) suggested. (Thanks again for your input) I Had the seal pulled apart and the mating surface needed to be polished up so the seal surface would perfect. Before the seal surface was not 100% so that’s what leads to O-rigs wearing out prematurely. There was also a small leak on the bulkhead fitting. If you tighten the bulkhead too much you can crush the copper line. Mine was not damaged too much so I was able to swap in a new O-ring to spot the leak in the bulk head fitting on the 3rd member. So you just want to make sure when tightening down the bulkhead head to only make it sung. No need to crank it down.
In regards to what caused the sudden release of pressure, the “pop” I was talking about. What I’m assuming is that it was the Purge Valve on the compressor.

Today I had time to get the ARB back in and take care of another laundry list of todos.
-ARB back in
-Add Diff oil
-Bleed the breaks
-Swapped out the wheel spacers. (with the new wheels the off set makes up for the width. So i pulled the 1.5's in the rear and too the 2" off the front. This should help with my scrub radius.
-Recharge the AC
-Change Tcase oil
-Replaced The Driver side TieRod
-And few other odds and ends

More Pics..