[RiskyRicky]

Tube doors are on hold for some other changes.

4.7 Tcase gears showed up and began working on the truck to get those in. Have had a leak at the back of the motor for some time now and decided to pull the Trans to check it out. My first suspicion was valve cover but I have changed it prior. So my thought was rear main. We will get to the bottom of this oil leak.

Trans and tcase out and all cleaned up. There was some build up of oil in the bell housing too thick to be motor oil. Going to reseal front of trans while it is out. Can see oil all over the EGR plate on the back of the motor. So my guess right now is not rear main.

Still need to pull the clutch and inspect rear main. Will inspect EGR area more.

 

[RiskyRicky]

More progress, pulled the crawl box apart and sealed it back up. Installed the 4.7 gears in the rear case. I really wanted the Marlin gears but they have been on backorder for some time and was able to grab the TrailGear ones for 20% off so couldn't pass it up. Install went fairly smooth, instructions provided are very detailed and easy to follow. There are some comparison pictures of the new gears vs the old 2.28s. You can really see the difference between the gears.

Replaced the transmissions input shaft seal and output seal. Pulled the clutch and appears to be a slight leak at the rear main, but most prominent is the leak from above. I read that the EGR block plate has two bolt holes that pass through to an oil passage, so pulled it all off and applied some sealant to the bolt threads. Hopefully solve my leak!

 

[RiskyRicky]

Have been getting a lot done over the weekends. New rear main seal is in. Dropped the oil pan and resealed it as well. Got everything back together and fluids filled. Pulled it out in the driveway and everything appears to be working, 4.7s and 2.28 crawl box is super low now, final crawl ratio of 223:1. So far no leaks.

On to the next project. NEW SHOCKS
Picked up some shocks from a buddy of mine as he upgraded his race truck #488 Degenerates Racing, Blue '85 Toyota pick-up racing EMC. Pretty cool to have some shocks with race history on them.

Anyways, they are Fox remote reservoir shocks. 14" travel, 2" body, 5/8" shaft and Radflo remote reservoir shocks. 12" travel, 2" body, 7/8" shaft. These shocks were also set up and tuned by 4wheelunderground. I know my 4runner is probably slightly heavier with the exo but it may be close, definitely an upgrade regardless.

Had 14in the rear prior so moved the upper mounts in 2.5in to fit the 12in stroke.

 

[RiskyRicky]

I plan on putting the Fox 14" shocks up front, but am going to have to redo my shock hoops to allow for longer length. As a result, I am going to plate the frame and move my PS Box forward. Ordered up a PS box plate kit and some APR Knuckle studs. One of my driver side studs has been stripped for some time so ended up getting another knuckle. Note: Torque to 100ft/lbs

Pass Side

Driver Side w/ New Knuckle

 

[RiskyRicky]

Got the knuckle all back together and began on the steering, frame plates, and shock mounts.

Don't mind the angle of the draglink in the first picture, the axle is going to be moved forward another inch or so. I had an axle pin relocation plate that moved the axle back due to the steering box interference, going to remove that finally.

Box in place with the axle moved forward

Shock hoops cut off and frame cleaned up. Plenty of clearance between tierod and draglink, I do have some concerns if the leaf will hit the pitman arm but if it does I can always get a flat pitman arm, mocked it up so there was plenty of clearance framewise. Might also need to move my bumpstops forward.

Extending the steering shaft is fairly simple. You just drill out the 4 plastic stops and can slide the shaft out a ways. My final length overall is 19in. You can see the blue mark where the shaft originally was, roughly extended 2in. There is easily another 2in of shaft engagement left, so no worries there.

 

[RiskyRicky]

Steering box plate all welded, got my frame plates cut out and began welding them in. Unfortunately day was cut short because I ran out of welding gas.

 

[RiskyRicky]

Got some welding gas, got the driver and pass side all welded up. Next is to start on the shock hoops and redo bumpstops.

 

[RiskyRicky]

Been working on things when I get time, had some fitment issues with the radiator and the front most power steering bolt on the inner frame well. Clearanced the bracket and cut any excess off the bolt. Got the steering all back together. Did flex out the suspension to check clearance with the pitman arm and it is very close but does clear but may get flat pitman arm to just be safe. Got the bump stops installed and the shock hoops all welded in.

 

[RiskyRicky]

Got the shock hoops and shocks all mounted up. Went wheeling down in Socorro. The shocks make a huge difference, rides so smooth now. The extra gearing is amazing, can basically idle up the trail and have so much more control.

 

[RiskyRicky]

Trip Report: Gordys OHV in Socorro, NM March 29 2016

First real shakedown with all the changes. We had a fairly large group for the first two trails then lost a few who were not camping out. Mostly jeeps and one other toy

Started out on Hidden Valley trail and came upon NM 4 Wheelers group at the first big ledge. Showed up just in to time to watch a buggy flop pretty good. Everyone was ok, stuck around till they winched him over and then headed off to the trail Squeeze.

All but two of the three of the jeeps in our group attempted Squeeze. Always a fun trail, one of my favorites down there. My buddy mat with the Toy just got Treps, so beefy and take the trail with you.

We continued on to Bad Hair Day, not many photos here as we pretty much cruised through. The others in our group broke off early and the few of us headed to Doug's Dilemma. The White Jeep in our group had some trouble on the ledges but cant blame him, he was open-open. So we gave him a bit of help. First time I seen anyone open-open attempt Dougs, so I thought he did fairly well.

Just as we got to the very top of Dougs, Kaegans jeep stripped out the nut on his tierod connected to the pitman arm. None of us had a nut that fit, so we first tried some washers and bailing wire through the pin hole and wrapped around. This was essentially the half way mark on the trail as you have to go down a ravine to exit with a few moderate obstacles. Half way down the bailing wire failed, and we ended up sacrificing a allen wrench. Hammered it through the pin hole and bent it to stay in place. Made it back to camp

Overall very impressed with how my 4rnr did, the extra gearing in the tcase is amazing, can idle through most obstacles and really let the tires work. Very happy with the shocks, never knew leafs could ride so smooth. Did find out my bump stops up front are not long enough, was bumping out on the shock body itself. Was not ramping it so it survived. Need to extend the bumps about half inch or so. Might just bolt a hockey puck to the upper bump section as cheap fix, could also get longer rubber bumpstops but that costs more. Also, no leaks so far.

 

[RiskyRicky]

Tube doors done

Finished up the tube doors. Ended up placing a dimple die section in the middle to provide some coverage/protection. We ended up tig welding the doors and got to try my hands at it also. Spent quite a good amount of time researching latch options, and found some really cool slam latch hinges, eg. 4xinovations, but did not want to spend to much. I opted to go with a pull pin typically used for swing out tire carriers or that nature. I just welded it on the body of the door. Placed a rubber grommet on the inside with a self tapping screw to keep the rattles down.

 

[RiskyRicky]

For those interested in following this build further I had posted an update thread on Pirate.

89 4rnr Re-Exo

Decided to finally start chopping up my 4runner and redo the exo cage. Originally started wheeling with a Taco and then moved onto the 4runner. Thus, the build thread on the runner thus far was on ttora. Check it out if your interested. Richard's 89 Turbo Runner -The Creep- - TTORA Forum...

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