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From there we drove to Gunnison on the 50 to Sargents, and up the gravel over the pass for another night on the east side of Marshall Pass. In the morning we left the 96 at the bottom of Marshall pass and took the 99 with the bikes up to Monarch Pass so we could ride the Monarch Crest Trail.
After collecting the 99 we headed north to Turquoise Lake where we found a dispersed camp area.
Mt. Holy Cross. We drove up the one-way portion of the Holy Cross 4x4 road, shortly after passing the cut-off road we came to a large lump of rock. After watching the 99 work at it for quite a while and knowing there are more serious obstacles ahead I drove down to and parked the 96 at the cut-off parking area, then hiked back up and jumped in the 99. Of course the photo makes it look like flat Kansas...
The husband drove a little over a mile more before we came to an even bigger rock obstacle with a jeep in the process of breaking something up front. I promise it's not flat. It's also not the hardest obstacle, but more difficult than the lump rock
From there we hiked with the intent of seeing the rest when we came upon a couple at French Creek. They were backpacking and she slipped and fell while crossing the creek. With a dislocated shoulder and a big bump on her forehead she wouldn’t be able to carry the backpack any more. We offered to help them down the trail, luckily her pack fit me well and we helped her down to the 99.
That's french creek behind me, one of the harder obstacles. There were tall 'steps' of boulders you have to go up. Half the height of the one you can see is under water.
She felt better walking so we stowed the pack in the 99 for the husband to drive down and I walked with them while occasionally spotting since I was out anyway.
It was exciting (Too exciting! Too exciting!!) to watch Mr. Moka drive the 99 off the big rock lump on the way out. Their van was parked near where I left the 96. Very nice couple, hopefully she heals quickly.
So Holy Cross denied me. The one-way road was a fun drive at least. One the plus side neither of us broke things.
Afterwards we headed to Winter Park, camped in the legal area off Vasquez Rd. Thanks to careless campers parts of this area has been closed because of bold bear activity. You have to be very bear aware here.
Because of the storms last night we hiked a combination of Creekside and Flume Trails in Fraser instead of biking. A very pretty area, the first part is very open because of beetles killing the pines. Lots of pretty wildflowers are everywhere.
We then did a combination of highway/ guanella pass/ Jefferson park area to get to Rampart Range.
Rampart Range is another area with dispersed camping that is now being managed. There are quite a number of sites that can be reserved….We didn’t know about this new plan. Without reservations we drove quite a bit until I stumbled upon one of those site managers. He had one site left and we took it. Had a neat (because it didn’t get close to us) lightning show off to the east and loud partiers until midnight the next site over, and now we know about reserving a spot.
In the morning we did our last hike- Devil’s lookout-
and drove to Wilson State Park in Kansas. There was a severe storm warning, luckily it just missed us. The next day we made it home.
Removing everything to do with the rear axle, so far
rear driveshaft at the diff
both rear axles
3rd member
e-locker including breather
abs sensors and pulled the keepers from all the axle related bits
Parking brake cable
rear diff breather (nipple w/hose to the gas filler compartment)
Still need to remove
rear sway bar, rear links, and relocaters
panhard bar
rear shocks at the axle
lower control arms
upper control arms
While under there I noticed my right rear upper control arm is up-and-down movable. It shouldn't be. The bolts appear tight, I'll know more when I actually unbolt it.
I will be replacing my poly lower control arm bushings with stock bushings- those things are toaster-cookied.
Pic I only took because I was amused at the face the sun made when it shined through my husband's spare...
Camped out at 12K feet near Geneva City. Weekend and close-ish to Denver, so it was a popular spot:
Trail ended in snow above Creede CO:
Engineer Pass, Mineral Creek between Lake City and Ouray:
In the unnamed nowhereness between Moab and Glade Park CO:
Per the maps, Dolores river fording opportunity #1 - lol, unused in a long time, totally overgrown:
Opportunity #2 - wet spring erosion left a vertical 4-ft-ish (sticking out of the water) wall on the other side, no go:
Third and last opportunity - very deep loose sand and 3 ft+ of fast flowing water, don't want to be the subject of some dramatic rescue video, so we didn't try it, there's always next year:
Normally one of the most epc campsite views of our trip, we camped here Thursday:
But a friend tipped me on this place - an exposed tip of a mesa about 60 feet wide sticking out, with around 1000 feet sheer cliffs on all sides. So on Friday we drove an hour on pavement outside Moab, and then almost 2 hours down a rough trail. Kind of hard to get a pic that shows the whole scene, but it was utterly epic:
The geocache box at the point:
Drone shot from someone else, we were out at the dirt patch at the end of the point:
Poison Spider trail was all point and shoot for the 4Runners (usual disclaimer about cameras making trails look flat and tame, they're really not like that in person):
Stock Rubicon getting winched over some stuff on the lower intermediate trail section (they didn't even try the upper difficult section):
Wet/damp granite on a big ledge climb, I couldn't make it up without a little winch help:
(PS: Proving that my wife is smarter than me - she watched me on this ledge and said we needed at least one working vehicle after the day, and parked hers, and we continued up the difficult section in mine)
Very pleased with the suspension setup now - I've managed to get it to articulate fairly evenly front and rear:
About halfway up the difficult section to Holy Cross City, we watched a well modified Rubicon on 37's struggle with a really big ledge until he broke something on the front axle:
And after seeing that, I looked over the ledge and decided my 4Runner on 33's just wasn't going to make it. No winch points on the top side (and no more capable vehicle to climb it and pull from), and big rocks that were just going to drag the hell out of the belly.
So rather than beat my 4Runner up, we just parked it off the trail and continued up on foot to see the ghost town. And ran across a backpacker in distress - she'd slipped crossing the creek and the pack had body slammed her into the rocks and ice cold water. She had a big lump on her forehead and a dislocated shoulder. No way she was hiking her backpack back down the mountain. So we reversed course and helped them back down off the mountain to where they'd parked:
Just a new air filter to replace the year-old one (lots and lots of dust on vacation)
And a new MAF. I had so many P0171 codes this trip, increasing in number as the days passed.
Thank goodness for having the new style maf, so so so much cheaper.
With the snorkel both the air filter and maf stayed much cleaner. It wasn't throwing a code due to dirt.
I had been getting an occasional P0171 and the maf tested out of spec before the trip so replacing it was on my to-do anyway.
Pic of the 2 delicate wires down in the hole to give attention to when cleaning this style- when they are dirty they're harder to find...
Hey Hab! You should consider a foam pre-filter for all the dusty wheelin' you do. I have one on my 3RZ (just cut one out of green UNI foam) and it has kept me from having to change my paper filter many times.
The broken right side gear in the rear differential was the last straw. My axle housing was bent, anecdotal evidence pointed to it as a possible cause for the failed axle bearings and broken side gear. I finally sourced a straight rear axle body.
I cleaned up the hubby's old 3rd member (lots and lots and LOTS of rust) left from when he regeared his 4runner, mounted it on the old bent axle, and painted it.
self-etching primer
Dark walnut because that's the paint I had hanging around.
Once it dried it went on the new-to-me axle that I'd put on the middle height jack stands- 18ft lbs for the 3rd member w/e-locker. Next came the new axle seals, the axles, the locker, and finally the tires. I put anti-seize on the long diff studs for the elocker so it doesn't freeze up onto the studs.
for an e-locker 3rd member it needs to be locked to both remove and install into the axle housing.
Once the tires were on we pulled the axle off the jack stands. I finished removing the old axle and rolled the new axle in its place.
I like big (truck) butts...
Next I removed the destroyed poly bushings from the rear lower control arms and replaced them with oe bushings. We'll see how those work out, this last trip finished off the poly so they had to go.
I've loosely installed the control arms, and have installed the rear brake lines and abs senders. The springs are in place.
Tomorrow I'm gonna be torquing things to spec.
I'm happy with the 'monster' jack stands, on sale for $100 they fit the bill for holding the back end of the truck up while I've been messing with the axle and using the jack on the diff to position the axle for the control arm install. When I installed the original e-locker axle I only had the sears truck jack stands, about a 3rd the size of the big dudes. Sketch as heck, this was much better!
Heh...The RAV4 Toyota makes... THOSE have big buts. Ever since I saw my first Rav4, I've always thought they had fat buts.
But, hey, Fat Bottom girls make the world go round, or so I've heard
Pat☺
Those curvy little Rav4s are certainly unique in their proportions...and I've heard the same thing somewhere too
Now that Queen's stuck in my head...
Rear upper control arms 64 ft lbs
Rear lower control arms 107 ft lbs
Pan hard 64 ft lbs
Drive shaft bolts 54 ft lbs
Axle housing to wheel 50 ft lbs
Lower rear shock bolt saw both 53 and 47? I went with 50 ft lbs
Everything is buttoned up except for the diff drain and fill plugs and 75w90
and the brakes have to be bled.
It's gonna rain in a couple of hours so I NEED to go outside and PLAY first!!
I finally got 80w90 (all I could find around here in the rear...2.9 quarts
Enjoyed using the speedbleeders to quickly bleed the brakes
Changed the engine oil + new filter too
Cleaned it up, the tools, the vacation dirt, rocks and sand. Still have to do the outside though.
Hey bro, sorry if this isn't the place to post this, I'm new and couldn't send you a DM. I noticed you helped someone in a post about a vacuum line and I've been having a hard time getting help with this vacuum port. I screenshot the picture of your motor that u sent to guy in his post, that has the exact same port with a Plug over it can you please tell me what it is used for I have a set up sorta like yours a 96 SR5 4 x 4 I will attach a picture. Thanks.
Hey bro, sorry if this isn't the place to post this, I'm new and couldn't send you a DM. I noticed you helped someone in a post about a vacuum line and I've been having a hard time getting help with this vacuum port. I screenshot the picture of your motor that u sent to guy in his post, that has the exact same port with a Plug over it can you please tell me what it is used for I have a set up sorta like yours a 96 SR5 4 x 4 I will
Do you have the thread link and post number so I can go back and review? I see the rear heater hose in the pic, there's a few vacuum lines and a connector back there, among other things
Try posts 3721 (hoses on the back of the intake manifold) and maybe 3724, see if those make sense. https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f200.../index187.html
If that's not what you're looking for I'll look a little harder at the engine tomorrow afternoon- it's dark now. You're correct, mine is a 96 sr5 4x.
Do you have the thread link and post number so I can go back and review? I see the rear heater hose in the pic, there's a few vacuum lines and a connector back there, among other things
Try posts 3721 (hoses on the back of the intake manifold) and maybe 3724, see if those make sense. https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f200.../index187.html
If that's not what you're looking for I'll look a little harder at the engine tomorrow afternoon- it's dark now. You're correct, mine is a 96 sr5 4x.
here is the thread and the pic I posted I believe u posted as a reply. The pic I sent I'm looking to figure out what the capped vacuum hose is for.. the reason is I did an injector job and when I put in plenum I noticed a port w no hose. It's the same hose port on ur pic that is capped. I'm hoping that I just need to cap it bc I don't see any other hoses on my engine.
07-28-2023, 07:28 AM
