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Had to liberate the truck from the hardtop today! Not much sun, but tomorrow will be better.
Then my son got to drive it on the streets for the first time with no top.
Vacationing in LV and trying to work some car stuff in. Today it was cars and coffee, desert driving(Audi Q3 rental) and rusty stuff found in the desert.
Want. Want. Lambo sport ute? Oldest looking not old engine. Wow. Want. Cool. Don’t want Hella want. My pick of the cruise. Perfect desert patina and stance.Best Original FJ i have ever seen.
For the 4th, we put 273 miles on the old 4runner from Melrose MA to Groton Long Point, CT and even did a parade crawl with my Mom in the back throwing candy and my Navy Vet stepdad in the passenger seat. I actually used 4low for the parade and now may have a legitimate use for a twin stick transfer case shifter. Here’s some parade cars.
“Uncle Mom in the 4rth runner” RHD and turbo diesel. Next door neighbor, Professor Bob. One of the best days in a kid’s life, riding in the bed of a pickup throwing candy.
I haven’t updated in a while but have been doing lots of small operations to the ol 4runner.
I started with replacing fuse holder for the power amps. The old one was disintegrating and could have led to a fire. Next anew set of exhaust manifold gaskets. I had a small leak that was getting worse so couldn’t live with that. Next, the rear output seal on the transfer case. That led to greasing up the u-joints and rear slip yoke. That led to replacing the shifter bushing which i didn’t expect to do much but it did change the feel of switching gears. Since that all went so well, I decided to replace the front output seal on the transfer case also. I spent a good hour or more scraping gunk off the transfer case under the truck. Which meant i had to remove the crossmember and degrease and paint that.
Amp fuse.
Underside is a combination of factory rustproofing, dirt and leaking gear oil. This is after degreasing. New parts from Yotashop. Shifter bushing I can’t help painting things before reassembly. Back together. Easy job.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; 07-15-2021 at 08:25 PM.
Oddly, the front output shaft nut is 32mm while the rear is 30mm so had to buy a socket and a seal. There is a lot more to take apart to get to the front seal. There is also a “dust seal” in there that is not used on the rear. I was surprised by that and wound up bending that up so decided to go to the dealership for a new dust cover and felt piece. This was Thursday, they said they’d have one piece Friday and the other Tuesday but i wanted the truck driving for the weekend so I went home and straightened out the old dust cover with a small hammer and vice and cleaned the felt with Brakleen(it used to be a rabbit, so no big concern).
New Front seal and old dust seal. Here are the accurate p/n’s for front and rear. Reinstalled. Looking better… Joint cover before and after
Last edited by Melrose 4r; 07-15-2021 at 08:28 PM.
Somewhere along the way Jimkola mentioned satin black chassis and roll bar paint from VHT so i had to try it. It’s pretty good! There seems to be a lot in an $8 can and it dries quickly. I was able to paint the crossmember and ujoint cover and front driveshaft and still have 1/4 can left. SEM trim black is still my favorite paint, but not intended for chassis.
Good paint, reasonable price.
I’ve got hours into cleaning this front driveshaft.
Tonight i put in this new clutch fork boot. Mine was a mess.
Lastly the EFI damper was leaking randomly so i swapped in a used one off my extra 22re.
I think that’s the entire list.
I’ve been putting some miles on the 4runner since the beginning of July. About 750 with day trips to Rockport/Gloucester, Lincoln NH and York, Maine.
Driving home from one of those at night, I noticed my climate control panel wasn’t illuminating. My A/C switch had already gone dark. Now i had two things to fix.
This tool is perfect for pulling the panel off. Remove the knobs, insert and lightly pull.
One screw and the switch comes out. The bulb can be accessed from the bottom. I searched my bag of extra switches and found the cruise control to have the same bulb. Gotta clean the lens with soap and water.
The bulb behind the heater control panel was burnt out. Had to go to O’reilly for a replacement. Then the green cover was cooked on and didn’t come off without tearing, but i had another one in the extra switches.
During Covid, i had a sentimental moment and bought two original, new in the box, REACH toothbrushes from the ‘80’s off Ebay. Paid about $7 each. Remember how amazing they were, angled like a dental tool, life-changing in fact. Well, I’m here to tell you, they were the greatest thing since sliced bread at the time, but today they suck. However, one worked great at cleaning the “A/C” and “Pull & Turn” with Dawn dish soap.
I’m not a dentist and I don’t play one on TV.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; 08-06-2021 at 07:03 PM.
05-08-2021, 05:31 PM
