1988 Toyota 4Runner Takes a Journey Through Time

By Brett Foote - August 1, 2018

Most builds have a beginning and an ending. But this Toyota 4Runner is more of an endless work in progress.

Most often in the automotive world, builds take place over a set time period. We tear our vehicles apart, fix them up, and then enjoy the fruits of our labor. But here at YotaTech, many of our members do things a little differently. We don’t like to suffer any downtime in regards to our off-roading fun. So we build up our trucks while we enjoy them, so there’s no lull in the action. And that’s exactly what coryc85 has been doing with his 1988 Toyota 4Runner over the last eight years or so.

“It is now my 4Runner, but my brother bought the truck sometime in 2007. A few weeks later we mounted some cheap MTs that came with it and took off the top. So he drove it for maybe a little over a year, and then he moved on to another 4Runner in better shape, and this one became mine. I sold my ’83 pickup and started to work on the 4Runner. First up, I put the Buckshot Mudders, FROR bumper, and Warn winch from my truck onto it. I also fixed the sagging rear with a leaf out of a Jeep YJ pack.”

After that, it was all about repairing all the little things that didn’t work quite properly. A new clutch, flywheel, cat-back exhaust, and a 4.88-geared IFS front diff were installed. And that was just the beginning. The OP didn’t have to go far to find many of his parts, either, as quite a few were sourced from his fellow YotaTech members.

Mechanical work pressed on, including a refresh of the 4Runner’s engine. Which, of course, put a little damper on the weekend fun. But a full court press on the mechanicals got this old ‘ute ready for some serious action.

“Going on a 2,000 mile round trip in the 4Runner in a few weeks, so I gave it a little TLC over the last few weeks. It’s at 176,300 miles, so a lot of things needed attention:

– Repacked front wheel bearings
– Replaced all 4 ball joints
– Replaced both outer tie rod ends
– New Aisin clutch master & slave cylinders
– Gave it a homebrew alignment following Matt16’s posts
– Took the soft top off and sold it, did not like the Kayline fit
– Changed oil

And finally put a new rear bumper on. It was custom made for me by a local FL TTORA member and he did an amazing job.”

Since then, this 4Runner has undergone an incredible amount of work. Not to mention more adventures than we can count. Be sure and head over here to check out the entire story, from start to finish. Even though the story of this 4Runner doesn’t appear to have an actual end in sight!