96 4Runner 316,112 miles

Found some of my clunks- the left front diff bracket bolts were loose enough to move with a 1/2" ratchet. Tightened those up (3 at the diff and the long bolt at the front) and drove it. One noise down...

The other thing I noticed (really have to stop looking at this stuff!) while looking for clunks and pops was my steering shaft seal/bushing is so shot the part the shaft passes through is separated and just sitting down by the rag joint. The slip joint trouble many seem to have is not present because the 96 doesn't have one, but the whole shaft clunks back and forth where the u-joint is by the firewall. I removed the plastic cover at the firewall and found the issue.

From inside just below the steering shaft u-joint (mirror shows that it's mostly a big hole with some rubber here and there)


and looking up from the outside. That ring of rubber I moved up into the picture is part of the seal...


I'll get to it pretty soon, while I'm waiting on my Marlin rebuilt transmission. It's the end of week 6 so hopefully sooner than later. You know how that goes.

EDIT: Well, I found the Toyota part number- Hole Cover Seal - Toyota (45292-35080)aaaand it's no longer available with no supercessions. You can still get one for later 3rd gens. Looks like some silicone or something is going to be part of my life soon. At least enough of it is there to work with, I think. It is just a cover, but does seem to provide some stability for the steering shaft.

 

keep an eye out for that part in the junk yards.

 

It's gonna be hard to find, it was in 4Runners from11/95 (mine) - 1998, and even harder still in good shape.
What's weird is the newer version fits 97+...why not the 96? If the newer version fit it would be way easier to find either in the junkyard or Toyota.

I guess I should try seeing if there's a difference in the husband's '99 with the newer version vs the '96's old version. Maybe they forgot the '96, or there's just some weird little difference.
It's not high on the list, but now I'm all curious....

 

Hi Ms Hab.
May not help but I just got one for my 95 (noticed it was 'gone' when putting lengthened sterring shaft back in). The desc might help? Doubt the R&P hole is the same as the earliers.

Part No.: 45292-35050
SEAL, MAIN SHAFT LWR

From Toyota Parts Deal (dot) com. Thnk it was <10 bux

 

Thanks for the part number...I think you're right in that it won't work. Different shape and, like you said, size. Nice thought, though.
I'll try to get a minute to check the 99's, do some measuring. They aren't hard to get to if you can pretzel a little.

News from the Marlin front! My tranny is done and going to ship later this week. I'm not going to say I'm looking forward to swapping the transmissions out, but I am looking forward to no more bunches of noise!

 

hey, at least you arent having to swap out or pull and reinstall an auto trans! those things are leagues worse than a manual.

 

Truth! Longer, stinkier, heavier, not manual....those are all bad things.

 

96 4Runner 316,150 miles

Oh! Oh! OH!!!
It's heeeeeeeeeeere!
It's gonna stay wrapped up until it leaves the living room floor...


Now I just gotta find a minute to pop a transmission in.

 

might as well live it packaged, i am probably gonna need that
I'll even cover shipping

 

My husband already tried that!


Probably the wrong.....um....input shaft or something anyway?
I'll be sending the chatterbox off to Marlin when I get it out, I'll post up when it leaves here, but it could be a couple of weeks.

 

Finally back from a spring break jaunt last night....Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, the teeniest bit of Iowa, Missouri.
Dry roads, rain, snow. We saw the Bonneville salt flats and ate a burrito in Moab. Driving, driving, driving, more driving.
Took the VW Jetta tdi because 700 miles per tank and no 4wheeling because the whole trip was to pick up a Mazdaspeed mx5 thingy in Washington.








Today was so pretty, I got started on pulling the bad transmission. It was hard to separate the transfer case combo from the transmission until the hubby got the bright idea to put a constant tension on it using a big prybar and a ratchet strap hoping it'd give way overnight. It didn't even wait that long, popped apart while he was still under there.
I've got the shifters/interior boots and whatnot, the drive shafts, starter, slave cylinder, various wires, cat, the finger-slicey heat shields, and the rear cross member off.
Next is to move the transfer cases back enough to get the transmission out, and the mid cross member + transmission mount.
Tomorrow hopefully, storms are in the forecast, unfortunately.

 

96 4Runner 316,150 miles

Mid cross member out, transmission out, Marlin coupler off of the output shaft (ooooh, that was a BEAR),
My trophy!


Marlin coupler housing off.

Bell housing transferred from the old to the new, 27 ft lbs for the bolts and the post for the clutch fork.
Pre-bell housing. It's pretty.


Storming now, tomorrow is another day...one that's gonna include several advil so I can keep functioning.

My husband is working on a much more interesting project on the 99, he got a lot done with it today. Pics will show up eventually maybe. It's pretty cool...

 

Here's my latest 4Runner project. Adding an auxiliary fuel tank where the spare used to go. I was going to use emkeith's Ford F150 tank kit - but when Habanero got me the kit for Christmas I quickly realized that the 4XInnovations rear bumper was taking up some of the room that the Ford tank would have needed. It has some sturdy diagonal supports for the receiver hitch that fill in the rear corners of the spare tire area. Had to return that kit and start planning something else. So I measured the room I did have (taking note of the front right corner being occupied by the exhaust pipe, as well as the receiver supports). And used google a bunch looking at lots of tanks to find the right combination of shape, size, filler location, pump style to suit the application. Pondered a poly fuel cell for a while - might be better able to handle the occasional scrape (???) but the proximity of the exhaust pipe made me decide to go with steel instead.

Eventually came up with a 56-57 Chevy fuel tank. 15.5 gallons, not too wide, deep, or long. About as big as I felt comfortable making fit, you could certainly squeeze a bit more tank in with more careful measuring and searching. https://www.affordablestreetrods.com...nk-570-cg.html

Since it's made for 'restomod' Chevys, it has accommodations for an in-tank fuel pump. Making the install a bit neater with no external fuel pump. I got a 255 LPH pump, should transfer the full 15.5 gallons to the Toyota tank in roughly 15 - 20 minutes or so.

First task was to chop out the spare tire holding crossmember. It just takes up too much room.
The mounts just consist of two pieces of 2X2 inch angle iron welded between the frame arms. The front arm got two slots carved into it for the tank straps, and the rear got two holes drilled in for bolts to hold that end of the tank. Cut them to length, fitted them in place, sort of wiggled things around for best fit, and then welded them in place. I probably needed to use a stick welder, but I've never gotten around to setting up our old Lincoln 'tombstone' stick welder (it needs 220V which we don't have in the garage). So I used my old crappy 110V MIG welder. Don't zoom in, it's not pretty. But it should be strong enough for the application...

Front of the tank. The lip of the tank (I had to straighten out a few bends) sits directly on the angle iron, the tank lip is about 1", and I used rubber stick on strapping to pad it there. The tank straps that came with the tank were too long for this situation, so I shortened them, looped them through the slots in the angle iron, and then I ensured they wouldn't wriggle loose over time by drilling a hole and bolting the loop shut.


Back of the tank. Same situation here - the 1" lip of the tank is cushioned by solid rubber tape - and enough of the angle iron sticks out past that to drill holes and hang bolts down for the straps. Fit the straps (also cushioned with the same rubber tape) and snug it all up firmly. This crossmember sits a bit higher than the front one - since this end of the truck is more likely to be dragged across ledges:




Connections to the Toyota tank: I decided to give it a go with the new tank sharing the Toyota tank's ventilation/carbon canister system. It's possible this won't work and I'll get a CEL, in which case I'll convert this to a vented style. But for the time being - two connections to the Toyota tank. A ventilation line - teed into the smaller vent line on the Toyota filler (my original filler was getting pretty crusty - so I bought a new cheapy one from Rock Auto as part of this project). A 5/8 line (close enough to the Toyota pipe's 16mm) that joins to the vent line on the new filler neck. And on the main Toyota filler hose (35mm) I used a radiator sensor adapter to add a 3/8 fuel line fitting from the Chevy tank's fuel pump. So when the pump is on - fuel flows through the 3/8 line at 255 LPH into the Toyota filler hose and on into the Toyota tank. All stuck together with the special fuel safe rubber hoses of various needed sizes:


I placed the new fuel filler on the rear fender - between the taillight and the stock filler door. It needs three hoses going to it - one large on (1 3/4") for the fuel filler to the Chevy tank (which is 2"), a 5/8 vent line to tie to the Toyota ventilation system, and a 3/8" vent line from the tank (to 'burp' it as it fills). This was a bit awkward - hole saws don't like going in at an angle. It was an ugly, brutal affair, but it got done.


Inside the rear fender area - here's the new filler neck. It has the three hose fittings needed - 3/8, 5/8, and 1 3/4. I had to chop some of the ventilation box that's located there, but I left the main functional part - the one-way flapper vale, in place and functioning normally. The neck angled downward quickly enough to clear the interior panel:


And the outside of the fuel filler. This is (I think) normally used on aircraft, so it's sleek and flush. I mostly wanted it so things could slide down the side and not catch on it, a different sort of 'aerodynamics'. It's a Newton Aero 300. I searched around and found a wide range in prices, the cheapest one I could find was a company selling them for Caterham kit cars (modern Lotus Super Seven clones). So it says 'Caterham' on it. A hole saw and 6 smaller holes, it bolts right on.


It's lockable, flip the lever up, turn, and the cap pops out and is retained with a little cable:


A side view of the tank showing how well it's tucked up between the frame rails. I don't think it will ever get dragged, if so, it will likely just dent and not leak - it's soft steel, pretty maleable:


And last but not least - the electrics. I was originally planning on having a switch up front, but then I thought that maybe that would just lead me to turn it on, and then forget to turn it off, leaving the pump running on a dry tank, etc. So I decided to just put a switch back in that corner. When I want to transfer fuel from the aux tank to the Toyota tank, I'll just stop, roll down the rear window, flip the switch, and wait. No real need to do it on the fly.


For future reference, I do have a gauge sender in the tank - wired up and stubbed out sitting behind that interior panel. The sender is specced (and reversed from normal) to work with the Toyota gauge in the dash - I'm planning on some point at running wires up to the dash and using an A/B selector switch to flip the gauge between the Toyota and aux tanks. Another future added feature will be a selector valve on the aux tank that switches it from filling the Toyota tank to an external hose - so I can fuel other vehicles easily if needed.

This was all a lot of work just to avoid lashing plastic fuel cans up on the roof rack on our annual overlanding desert trips...

 

Nice job on the install! can you post the dimensions of the tank? this is one of those ideas floating around in my head to do sometime

 

24-1/2" x 25" x 8"

8" depth is important - I don't have it tight up against the body, but it's close, and I have a 1" body lift. Any more depth and it's going to hang down under the frame more.

Other than that it's a matter of using up the spare inches left over on either side. If you rerouted the exhaust somehow you could go several inches wider with no problems. It just comes over the panhard rod crossmember, goes inside the frame rail, then angles out underneath it.

 

96 4Runner 316,150 miles

Spent more time working on the trans install. Today I got the output shaft coupler on for the taco box, and the coupler housing.
Ready to go in, I installed my trans shift lever and.......it would barely budge.
So I spun the input shaft and the output shaft went the opposite way trans was in reverse.
The shift lever, however, was in neutral, though it really only moved from center to right.
A quick peek at the interwebs described exactly what I was experiencing (thread below), and the fix was the same. I used the reverse-light sender hole to push the shift rail backwards and that did the trick...
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...everse-126269/

Except the shifter would only shift out of some gears by lifting up on it. Hmm. I measured my original shifter housing and compared the one provided by Marlin, theirs was shorter.


Swapped the shifter housings and it now shifts the way it's supposed to. Installed the transmission, starter, clutch slave. Cleaned up the Tacobox in preparation of sealing to the transmission.
That's all for now.

My husband's mod is way cooler than my repair, the new gas cap looks really good in person too.

 

96 4Runner 316.....150 miles

Trying to get it done around the everyday life stuff. Got the transfer cases in a couple of days ago, fiddled with the interior a bit yesterday but got distracted, put the cat back on today.
The goal is to get it moving this weekend. It's not far off assuming (eeks!) that all goes well.

 

thank you sir!

Hab- your 4Runner is progressing way better than mine!

 

idk, neither one of yall have reverse right now.

side note, it is soooooooo nice being able to back my 4runner out of the driveway.

 

You're doing so much more to yours!
96 4Runner 316,157 miles

Redline went in the transmission and transfer cases, rear driveshaft on, REVERSED
out of the driveway and did a short test drive.
Got a few little things to button up, but it sure was a lot quieter. So far....I'm a little jumpy about all this transmission stuff for some reason.

Crossing fingers I've finally gotten somewhere with all this...