Zcostilla

So my son needed a car with better gas mileage to get back and forth to college in CA, so I bought his stock ‘97 4Runner Limited for my fishing & fun truck. It’s kind of rough looking but still runs strong at 350,000 miles! I love that it already has the factory locker in the rear differential!

I’ve helped him do brakes and tune ups and stuff, and he’s repaired the mechanical issues as they have come up (starter, timing belt/water pump, tie rods). So now I’m going to keep it mostly stock, but add off road lights and hope to do the tundra brake upgrade and Bilstein suspension upgrades they used for the TRD trucks without adding any significant lift to it.

I look forward to reading all the pertinent posts here are learning from you all who have done it already so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Zac

Malcolm99

Welcome, you will find lots of info here, the FSM at the top of the page is extremely helpful once you navigate to the correct sections. As far as lifts go Steve at Sonoran Steel has great options for the tundra lift route, you can also purchase Bilstein 5100's all around specifically for the 3rd Gen 4R now, I did this on my latest 4R using 99' tall coils up from and OldManEmu 906's in the back with 1.5" Daystar spacers. Put me at 22.5" hub to fender in the front and 23.5" in the rear after sagging, plus a 1" Rodger Brown Body lift, works well and have no vibe or CV issues and alignment came in dead on spec with stock upper control arms. If you lift make sure you loosen all control arms, pan hard bar(lateral rod) and trailing arms and re-torqued once you put it on the ground and drive it 300feet, I hear a lot of people complaining the ride is ruff afterwards, usually its because they didn't set the ride height for all those static bushings. Your front lower control arms have cams that you will want mark and confirm are still adjustable before you start the lift, they seize up over time, the alignment shop will need to loosen them and adjust accordingly 2.4* caster, 0* Camber, 0.2 toe each side, you will have to insure they do this as typically they adjust toe and let it roll out of spec even at the dealer because it takes a good tech and patience to get it right.

Things to note about the 3rd Gen, although it is really well made, there are a few things at this age that need to be addressed or confirmed that the PO has addressed these issues at some point. Radiator if its an Automatic, Lower Ball joints(use OEM only), rear diff breather extension, steering rack bushings(especially if you want to run bigger tires), grey wire mod for use of RR DIFF Lock in any transfer case position, poly "anti' sway bar bushings and end links up front. I have never found the need for the Tundra brake upgrade as long as your e-brake and rear drum brake assembly is in working order and you use the e-brake(it adjusts the rear drum for optimal braking every time you yank on it) and having decent flex lines on it helps alot. I'm sure I've missed a few gremlins, but you can just ask as they arise. Being in your area there is a lot of support for these and a rusty frame doesn't seem to be an issue. Also this site has been pretty quiet for the past year, some very knowledgeable members seem busy and have not been around, but some of there discussions and info can be dug up.

Enjoy!

Zcostilla

What is the consensus on first things to address with this kind of mileage?

Malcolm99

Lord lift'in, I thought I addressed that already, you even quoted me, now I know why everyone gave up.. Use the search function, all this has been discussed in fine details.

Zcostilla

I could have worded that better. My fault. I’m on a budget, so after checking for the pink milkshake issue, what order would you prioritize the issues for a new to off-roading person?

habanero

Maintenance first! Because of how they can fail, make replacing the lower ball joints with toyota replacements (do NOT go cheap here), along with the 4 ball joint bolts, a priority along with either a trans cooler or new radiator to keep away the strawberry milkshake.
For the piddly bits you need the junkyards still have 3rd gens here and there.

Once you get caught up on whatever needs doing then I'd go decent tires if you don't have them, extending the rear dif breather is easy and not expensive and a very good idea, then armor starting with skid plates if you're finding you're getting into that kind of territory.

Pic of your truck? I'm sort of in the area, always happy to see another plus-mileage 3rd gen about.

Malcolm99

The Pink milkshake issue would be a complete failure and the damage is done requiring a rebuild or replacement transmission, and all the rubber seals associated to the coolant will be compromised as they swell up and fail, the rad and lower ball joints should be done as regular maintenance every 200,000mi or sooner, if you leave them until they fail you will blow your budget immediately. The items I mentioned of concern need to be addressed if you plan on keeping the rig, off-roading and or lifting.

Zcostilla

So here are the pictures. I forgot to add that my son has literally had this truck all over the country. He goes to school in LA County (Lancaster, high desert), plus summer internships in Chicago and NY City. He’s put almost 100,000 of those miles on it, and I’ve encouraged him to keep it maintained. But I wasn’t aware of all the OEM vs non-OEM issues, so not sure which parts he used, as his budget was usually pretty tight.


Passenger Side

Driver Side

Front/Grille (need a new antenna)

Rear (need a new wiper arm)

Front fender flare seals rotten

Rear fender flare seals rotten

Inside is rough

Nice green coolant! Guess it should be red?

Timing belt was changed last year

Front ride height

Rear ride height

habanero

Malcolm99 makes good sense...
Nice that the timing belt's been done recently. Nice platform to work with and, lucky you- oak and tan seems to be the favorite interior color when it comes to finding replacement stuff.

Zcostilla

So I live in IL, just outside St Louis. Where do people go off-roading around here? I did a lot of it as a passenger/spotter in SD and Alaska, plus plenty of time driving a HMMWV in the service, but all that was over 10 years ago. I have no idea where the public lands are around here, and the websites don’t do a great job listing them without going 2 hours away

Zcostilla

25th Anniversary today, and my wife and I decided to get out while still practicing social quarantining... so we went for a drive in the country. On the way home we were passing by a huge pick-a-part salvage yard (about 25 minutes from our house) and we went for a walk together. She was eagerly walking through the foreign truck section, trying to find either of the two 3rd generation 4Runners they had in stock. We found them, but only useful part I needed was the rear wiper arm, but she stood by and we held hands walking out to pay for the part. Got home and painted it black, and removed the shag carpet that was in the back cargo area (no clue why my son never pulled it out of there). It needed to come out because last week the battery died, and when we went to take the core back, my youngest son didn’t listen and out it in the back instead of on the floor in the back seat. It tipped over and leaves its fluids all over the carpet. Anyway, I started to clean out the cargo area but started running out of daylight. I think the best option will be to get it really clean and cover it with bedliner paint.

habanero

Well, there's Moonlight, that's the closest to me in west county- not super close to you. There's Flat Nasty too, and on special occasions Was-hita (dumb sensors- there's no hyphen), and St. Joe is a bit meh, and then there's stuff south of you....Land between the lakes I believe has something, as does points north- I've never done the IL, SD, KY, TN, IN stuff. National forest service roads too. A lot of offroad parks are either currently closed or on a reservations schedule because of COVID-19. My favorite stuff to do (so far) is out west- CO, UT. It's point to point on our vacations and not pay-to-play loops- which are fun- but I really like wheel/camp/wheel camp somewhere else.
If you do facebook look up Mo4wd (pretty local to both sides of the river) and Midwest Off-Road for a start.

What an awesome way to spend an anniversary! I hit U Pick A Part, Speedway, Riverside, and U Pull A Park occasionally. If you see a sort-of old lady out there with a black backpack of tools messing around the Toyotas it might be me. Orrr, it might not and you'll scare the tar out of someone.
Actually, it might be safer to pretend you didn't see me- unless you really like talking about 3rd gens!

Zcostilla

Thanks for the reply! We hit Soeedway yesterday. The red ‘97 one has cloth seats that are in better shape than my leather ones, but still torn on the driver’s side. I’m just going to have an upholstery shop make custom neoprene covers (my wife’s idea). Someone took the entire engine and transmission our if it (cut off the frame rails underneath to do it!). the Blue one, I think an ‘02, was also stripped clean. There were no tacomas for me to take the whip antenna. I’ll hit the one in Washington Park tomorrow or Thursday to see what they have. If you need anything, let me know and I can grab it for you and you can pay whatever the receipt shows I paid.

My youngest son and I were going to try Hillbillie Off-Road.thursday, but I’ll call to see if they’re open. https://hillbillieoffroad.com. We might just go check out the Shawnee National Forest roads, east of Marion IL, on Saturday if HBOR is closed. The truck is stock, but three years ago, when my son first bought it, I helped him drive to CA for college, and we went through Denver and the Rockies, drove past the Arches park in UT and camped in Natural Bridges National Monument because he’s into photography and NBNM is an International Dark Sky sight (no artificial light) and he wanted to take pictures of the stars. Too bad it was cloudy and raining. It was still easier driving than the hardcore stuff at Moab, but she handled it all great, but that was something like 100,000 miles ago.

habanero

I like all those places you mention, didn't realize NBNM was a dark skies sight- we've always visited in daylight. New respect. I spent years driving my stock truck on stuff, adding bits and pieces as things wore out or as needed, in the case of armor. Nothing extreme happens, because we have to drive our trucks home!
A quick view of the Hillbillie offroad site makes it seem like a mud pit? If you go I'd love to hear about it- mud is not my cup of tea.

Because I listen to cd or Pandora more than the radio I added a simple switch so the antenna only goes up when I want it to.

That's a very kind offer regarding the junkyards! For me it's all about going out and messing around, seeing what's there. Row52 shows Pick n Pull (I called it U Pull a Part, oof) inventory and LQK U Pick a Part has inventory on their website. No online inventory for Riverside or Speedway that I've found.
There was a tacoma at Pick n Pull a couple of weeks ago, but I don't know if it's still there or if it still has an antenna.

Zcostilla

So... my son’s Kia died on his way home from CA (after dropping off a classmate in CO on his way home). Now he!s going to have to borrow back the 4Runner just as I was getting excited about driving this more. I’ll be back in the VW Passat TDI for the most part until school starts in the fall. He’s going to have to lump it during the outings I already have planned unless he wants to come too.

habanero

Noooo! And funny, we have a VW Jetta Wagen TDI. He should go too.

Zcostilla

My wife was excited for me to have the 4Runner because she loves driving the Passat so much. We’re getting 42 MPG driving 80 MPH through Kansas. I think my son will jump on the second off-road trip because he has projects due Monday for college.

Zcostilla

LQK only had one 3rd gen and the only thing in the passenger compartment that wasn’t taken or ruined was the passenger seatbelt. Taught my you best son some basics of car ownership by teaching him how to do the spark plugs and how the door linkage works.

The driver’s door wouldn’t open form the inside, and it was the wire in the linkage being too stretched. I suspect that someone tried to use a slim jim to open an unlocked door and bent it out of specs. Ended up cutting almost two inches off the end and rebending the tip 90 degrees to reinsert it into the handle. Works great now.