pillguy's 4runner build (with pics)

[dragr1]

Looks good and very similar to my old '99 that I sold:

SE4RJ3-Tellico May 2006 :: Me on the Rock Garden and Face of Slickrock video by dragr1 - Photobucket

 

[pillguy]

cool video did you sustain any damage?

Looks good and very similar to my old '99 that I sold:

SE4RJ3-Tellico May 2006 :: Me on the Rock Garden and Face of Slickrock video by dragr1 - Photobucket

 

[dragr1]

cool video did you sustain any damage?

No damage, made it all the way up Slickrock though!

I did some of the same stuff you're doing with capping the frame rail ends (Prado bumper on mine) and e-locker axle swap.

 

[LDowney]

Andrew,
If you came across an odd black rubber cap in the garage, it probably came off one of the jack stands. The following picture has it circled in green. If you find it, please set it aside on the off chance we can do a hand-off some day.
Thanks

 

[meridian]

You couldnt have picked a better project. At the end of the day the runners and tacomas drive so nice. I just finished a SAS on my 98 tacoma and it rides great!

If you have to run another group of wires through the firewall, nest to the gas pedal is a 1 inch rubber grommet that can be popped out.

Also check your manual for other acc power wires under the hood to tap into rather than trying to splice standing oin your head under the dash.

Glad to see you ditched the ramps for jack stands. A little tip is that wood blocks under the jacks help gain height so the jack isnt full extended and they grip the concrete better when you start gettin rough under there

 

[pillguy]

I am back... had to close on our new house and sell ours... Thank God esp in this market...now back to blogging, where was I? Oh yea, elocker....
Uh-oh we have a problem... with the elocker, wire has been cut and so I went to the web to see what everyone else had done. It seems I needed several things, the elocker brain, pig tail, pig tail off the frame, abs pig tail with diff lock, factory switch with pig tail. I called Blakes and fortunately they had everything except the factory pig tail on the frame. I ordered one from the elocker itself to the frame, and ordered some 14g 6 conductor wire from somewhere.



I am hesitant to wire up the elocker with out some sense of the wiring instructions so I went on to do other things.




More work on the sway bar extension



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more work as there are a lot of small details to finish...

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[pillguy]

Larry, I will let you know if I find it.
Andrew

Andrew,
If you came across an odd black rubber cap in the garage, it probably came off one of the jack stands. The following picture has it circled in green. If you find it, please set it aside on the off chance we can do a hand-off some day.
Thanks

 

[pillguy]

Here I have finished painting the axle, I hope it holds up, I think I should have painted it with Rust bullet instead, but oh well...


Finally I get around to the issue with the bent skid plates... mine were non-repairable and I did not have time for fabbing up something, so I weighed my options and called Budbuilt and ordered (2) so I have protection all the way back to the gas tank. Unfortunately, they arrived on valentines day weekend and the was not too happy with the attention the truck was getting attention....




I also did some repair work to the slightly rusty battery tray with some of the leftover truck bed liner in a can... worked great.
Now, I am done with painting the skid plates, what a pain
And I am ready to install... but I have to weld.
You see, one of the mounting points on the truck for the factory skid plate was bent from the tear off, so I beat it a few times to get it straight and then jacked it up, wire wheeled it and hoped for the best. I have my Dad's old HF wire welder 110v, I have no clue how to use it, so I plug it in and read the ****py instructions and make a go at it.
Here is my first try... why the spatter??? I think from what I have read, it is inherent in MIGs without gas and yes.... I have a cheap welder.


[FONT=&quot]GUess what? it did not hold, so off came the plate and I broke out the MIG again and cranked up the heat and poured it on..
THis time it held.[/FONT]


Well, that is all for tonight folks
PS feel free to comment on my welding job

 

[TeddyBoy]

Look at Frosty go, you've become a mad man about this!!! Happy to see it, good work

 

[dragr1]

I used a wiring kit from Inchworm for my e-locker retrofit. Nothing special to it, but it's all there so it makes it easier. But you do need the pigtail to get started.

 

[pillguy]

I thought about using them and 12 volt guy's stuff, but some of it was back ordered and I needed to have the system work with my ABS system.

I used a wiring kit from Inchworm for my e-locker retrofit. Nothing special to it, but it's all there so it makes it easier. But you do need the pigtail to get started.

 

[pillguy]

Now I can start to mount the skid plates, boy are they heavy, but I figured out a system of blocks to get it done.


[FONT=&quot]More bolting them in place

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And here is my painted battery tray with the bed liner in a rattle can. There was not much rust there, but figured it was a quick project.


OK, I am dragging on the elocker

 

[pillguy]

SO now, I am nearly done except the electrical work for the elocker, I had all my parts including a few radio shack ones as well and I put a post out on mud to see if I could get some help, because I could not really understand the wiring. I read multiple posts on the web about various elocker writeups and each seemed a bit different because they either had the factory wiring harness or no abs system and several of the posts had landcruiser wiring diagrams.
So, fellow mud members wardameagle and secondgentoyota fan helped me out. WDM, even called me all the way from England to talk for about an hour.
After finally deciphering the diagram, I bought 24 hr access to one of the toyota sites and downloaded the 1996 wiring diagrams and started tracing things out.

Everything matched except, my truck did not come with a elocker, ABS internal harness, so I had to do several things
[FONT=&quot]1) fabricate a wire to the ABS brain, 2) fabricated the socket for the bulb with two wires to wire up directly to the harness rather than using the existing plugs, 3) run 6 conductor wire to the left drivers side panel and wire everything up to the factory switch and brain. The factory harness was missing the pins for the respective wires and my local dealer was absolutely no help.

Here is the wiring mess

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[FONT=&quot] So after about 24hrs I nearly finished. Circled in green is the elocker brain. That was critical to the entire wiring job.
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So I try it out.....turn key, push button and..... I get a blinking light in the dash. So I ask some more questions on the forum and find out I had to ground two additional wires.
I get that done, but still no success...., by this time I am really bummed, did I wire something wrong or what?
So, I do what SGTFan said to do and jacked up one tire, spun it, then pushed the button, it still blinked. I went back over to turn the tire and after a slight push, the elocker clicked into place. It works!

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[FONT=&quot]
It seems that, you have to turn the truck slightly and drive forward to get the spines to engage and it works like a charm. After spending about $850, I have an elocker. I drove it and all seemed well except the brakes, they seem spongy. (air in lines or poorly seated brake shoes with shoddy adjustment. Given the 4runners brakes are a bit tepid at startup, I decided it was not worth it to penny pinch so I bought, new drums, shoes and pistons and swapped everything out. Made all the adjustments and the helped me out with bleeding the system again. She is great!


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[2000UZJ]

Looks good andrew. Very very good. I'm thinking about picking up a 4runner. I'm so confused!!!

I'll be in this weekend if you need an extra hand. Just give me a ring.

Nick

 

[pillguy]

For now, I am done with major modifications except the rear bumper which I will fabricate sometime soon, and mud tires, in the meantime here is what I have so far....

another view

and the original starting picture

 

[CID 96]

Awesome work, good to see!! Love the "gold package" emblems.

Sid

 

[pillguy]

Its the bling that gives you the extra traction on the muddy ections. LOL!

Awesome work, good to see!! Love the "gold package" emblems.

Sid

 

[Atlanta Cruiser]

Looks great! Good work.

 

[CDUFF7]

Very cool build!!!!

 

[2000UZJ]

looks very good!

what kind of M/T are you looking at?