I finally got tired or putting grease on the front steering stops every other month and picked up a set of these steering stop caps off of ebay.
Total was ~$25 with shipping, but now I can forget about ever having to worry about that damn noise from the front with the wheel at full lock.

This is what I got a few days after placing my order:


It even had instructions on the inside of the flap


install took ~5 minutes with a few gentle taps of a hammer, these are NOT going to come off on their own


*note* the kit says it's for '89-95, but all IFS 4WD Toyotas from '86-'95 should be able to use these, mine is an '88

 

Awhile ago I did the 4crawler Deck Light mod so that the rear cargo lights can be used without the parking lights being on. I also previously used 2 single sections of flexible LED ribbon to light up the cargo area as the original light which never was very useful.

So now I wanted to consolidate the controls and add a rear "patio" light to illuminate the area immediately behind the 4runner. I didn't want a huge bright light since I like to stay as dim and low key as possible while camping, and a dimmer light won't kill my night vision as much. Besides, if I want to light up a big area I can just turn on the reverse lights. I also wanted the switches up higher, out of sight and easy to find in the dark so I don't have to fumble around as much to find them if I'm sleeping in the back.

Here's one of the Deck Lights that I installed awhile ago


I was using the factory deck light switch in the rear for awhile, but things tend to get piled up and block its access. This is how I'm going to wire it using a SPDT switch


I build a switch panel using some spare aluminum sheet that I had laying around. After measuring and drilling the panel I traced it onto the rear fiberglass shell so I knew what I had to cut. I made sure there was a decent size lip for the panel to sit against.


The panel with switches installed - the switch guards are just $.75 double nutted J-hooks that I found at some big box home improvement store.


I fished all the wiring I needed up through the "D" pillar along with 3 extra 14 gauge wires for future use. Since I don't need the illumination for the PW switch, the connector had 2 extra spots in it that I was able to use for the deck lights. Every wire is running through a connector so the shell can be taken off later without having to figure how to hook up a bunch of single unmarked wires. Here's the PW connector before I connected the wires:


The toggle switches I got use a screw through an eyelet on the end of the wire so nothing should ever come disconnected. I ran power for the patio light from the "common" pole of the SPDT switch through another toggle - the patio light can never be on just by itself, the deck lights have to be on. Here you can see the cheap riced out LED driving light that I decided to use, it should light up the tailgate area perfectly and is mounted up in the rear spoiler.


switch panel installed

and the layout

 

I don't claim to have figured this one out on my own, I heard about from a guy that did this on his lifted, long travel early 80's Celica. I haven't, however, seen anyone else write it up so it's worth a few minutes to spread the word about a $20 polyurethane engine mount. It's an Energy Suspension GM transmission mount, part number 3.1108 (R or G for red or black). Before I ordered one I measured the stock 22RE engine mount and found it nearly identical. While I don't have a 22RE in my truck anymore I did reuse the 22RE mounts, so this will work on any 22R or 22RE. This might also work for other applications, so hear are the measurements so you can see if it will fit.


Note the interlock that will prevent the mount from pulling completely apart if the polyurethane fails. Only the center hole is needed and the supplied bolt is just about the same size as the stud on the factory rubber mount.


Installation is pretty simple, here's the package I got in the mail. It should be noted that there's a flat piece of anodized metal with 2 holes that comes with it, this needs to go under the mount to line everything up a bit better and provides some kind of preload to the bushing.


I only replaced the driver side mount since this is the one that's under tension, and most likely to tear, when driving forward. 2 bolts (14mm wrench) to the mount pad and 1 nut (17mm) on the engine bracket is all that's holding the old one in. Of course, the engine has to be jacked up a bit to get the old one out, but the new one goes in much easier since there's no stud that has to go through the engine bracket. Also, I heard that the corners of the mount ears might have to be filed down to sit on the factory pad, but I didn't have to file anything to get all the holes to line up. The bolt for the center hole of the engine bracket comes with the Energy Suspension piece along with the appropriate lock and flat washer. If you want, you can use the stock metal cover over top of the mount, but polyurethane is oil and gas resistant so it's not necessary.



I took if for a drive and didn't notice any engine vibrations from the stiffer mount, but then again my inline 6 is a pretty smooth running engine.

 

I was bored and reading build threads the other day when I stumbled across these pics of a bar across the rear side windows. I sent the truck's owner a PM asking about them and this was his reply:
So cool, I can make something like that and gain a little bit of utility in the process. Take off the front coat hanger thing, whatever this is . . .

. . . and pull the tiny little plug out for the rear screw with a flat blade screwdriver (I never even noticed this before)


I bought some 1/2" conduit, cut two 31" lengths and hammered the ends flat on a piece of concrete with my ball peen hammer. 3/4" conduit will be too wide to fit between the raised lip in the front mount, so stick with 1/2."

Make sure the flat sections at the end are on the same plane, not that one flat is twisted a bit from the other or they won't sit flush against the mounting surface - a pair of channel lock pliers can twist them back into alignment if needed. I also had to mark and clearance the tube a little bit for the front of the window frame (behind the roll bar).


The mounting holes on my 4runner are 30.25" apart, so holes were drilled in the appropriate spots. A bit of Rustoleum Hammered paint and they were mounted. The front screw is #10 x 1/2" long, I used the screw that was originally up front in the rear hole.

I added another bar to the top of both rear side windows using (2) #10x1/2" screws at each end. They're surprisingly sturdy and I don't expect 'em to ever pull out - I can rock the truck on its suspension by pushing/pulling on these without any movement from them.



The reason for the top bar is so I can mount a piece wire closet shelf between the two to attach MOLLE/PALS bags. As long as the wires are 1" center-to-center these bags will attach easily and securely.


Finished product with the thick vertical wires bent over for mounting. I temporarily mounted it with wire ties, but it seems secure enough as is. If it comes loose, hose clamps would be the simple solution.


I may try to find some wire shelf with thicker horizontal wires or more verticals. The wires on the long span bend a bit easily, although the MOLLE/PALS gear, when properly strung up, will distribute the weight to each wire its attached to. The other problem has to do with stringing up the MOLLE/PALS gear with the wire shelf install on the shell - there's not really enough room to work. I think if I can find thicker gauge shelf, I might break out the welder and make the piece bolt on so the gear bags can be strung up and then the panel bolted on.

 

Got a few more minor projects finished lately. I installed dual power outlets in the back - these are fed by 10 gauge wire from the battery and are "constant hot"


I also moved the grab handle from the driver rear to the driver front and put my Mag-Lite where the grab handle used to be (another 4Crawler inspired mod). One of the original grab handle screw holes were used on each clip with a hole drilled for the 2nd hole - I've hit bumps at speed that put my spine through the top of my head and the light stayed in place so I'm not worried about it coming loose very easily.


While I was back there I finally mounted my extinguisher to the roll bar. 2" u-bolts kept me from having to drill through the bar and will keep the extinguisher from ever coming loose on its own.


When I replaced the transmission a few weeks ago I broke both sway-bar end links. I can tell the difference in cornering and without them there's a lot more tire squeal. Since this is my DD and I like to drive fast whenever I can, Energy Suspension 9.8118 end links are the same size and work perfectly.


I realized at the Oregon Trail Rally that it'd be nice to have my comm's speaker up high instead of in front of the center console. A short length of 1" aluminum angle and a few minutes with my Dremel gave me the solution. I'll probably end up buying another speaker and having one side for the CB and one side for the Ham radio - the sound is much better with them up there.

The piece of angle is just sandwiched between the rearview and the roof

 

I'm not a "big stereo" person and see no need for the people next to me to hear what I'm listening to, but with the rear storage box and everything crammed in on the sides, the rear speakers were getting pretty muffled. I was just about to start in on building a thin plywood speaker box to sandwich the rear roll bar and move the speakers higher when I decided to (gasp) SEARCH, and found a thread on another forum that gave me some ideas. So instead of the plywood, I decided to hit up my favorite big box store for some plumbing supplies. This is what I'm going to build off of - it's a 6" floor drain grate. The inner diameter is 5 3/8" and the outer flange diameter is 6 3/4" so a 6.5" speaker should fit perfect.


grill cut out and ready for a speaker


All of the mounts are some form of 90 degree bracket. The rear and front bottom use one side of a 2" u-bolt to attach to the roll bar. The upper front uses the back side of the upper shoulder belt attachment. The speaker magnet is flush with the end of the 6" drain grate. Because there's not much room behind that and the trim, I'm leaving it as a "free air" speaker. The marine speakers I picked up have 2 sets of mounting holes, 1 set is on a smaller diameter than the other and this set matched the pipe wall itself. So I carefully predrilled the mounting holes and ran the 1.5" screws down the pipe wall (no sharp screw tips sticking out).








there's less than 1/8" between the hi-lift and the speaker grill, but it fits


The rear's sound better but not quite as loud as before since they're just running off the head unit. So now I'm wondering if I should have pulled the mini-amplifiers off of the original speakers and connected them to the new speakers. BTW, the head unit is pushing 52W max to these speakers (speakers rated @ 30W nominal, 160W max)

 

I figure it was time for a new project and with some of the organizations I'm trying to get involved with a winch bumper is in order. I modeled the base of it off Robinhood4x4's bumper build - I really dig his multi-mount functionality. That takes care of the center part / winch mount, I still had to decide on what I want to do with the wings. Excuse the poor google Sketch Up renderings, but this is what I started with in my mind. I could have easily built another tube bumper, something like this

and mocked up to a 2nd gen pickup since I couldn't find a pre-made 4runner model (ignore the factory bumper)


Or I was thinking of making a tube bumper and then fiberglassing between the tubes to make front storage compartments. The finished product would look something like this, the lateral lines off the center section would be tube - the 2 lowest tubes being 1.5" and the 2 upper ones just 1"

I couldn't get the planes to fill in on the bumper quite right, but hopefully this'll give some kind of idea what it'd look like covered


I decided against the front storage idea partly because I started to realize the compartments would be small and difficult to seal - I could see the PNW turning them into a mold & mildew experiment.

This is where I started. I picked up a 1/4 plate remnant and made the center part of the bumper. Here it is all laid out and ready to get cut


After a few hours with the Sawzall, grinder and HF Welder (just to tack it together). I took it to work and use their welder to burn the final welds in - every gusset and plate is welded on both sides. I also added the center gussets once the receiver box was fully welded in. I'll also add mounting bolts in the center of the crossmember (which is already reinforced with Front Range Offroad's 1/4" plate frame brace
)

Here's the center section all finished up. I decided to angle the inner gussets to help with any side loads I might generate. Luckily, the receiver cradle only tightened up about 1/32" after I was done welding so there was minimal grinding needed to get the receiver tube to slide in again.




A little bit more progress. The main bars were bent and tacked into place well enough to transport it into work so I can finish weld them (and heat bend the far passenger side about 1" up to match the other side).


BTW, I also figured out a simple solution for the "dimples" that my HF bender leaves in pipe. Here's an example from my old bumper - see the dimple just above the turn signal?


The fix was simple - I got a threaded pipe nipple big enough to fit over the 1.5" sch 40, cut in in half length wise and placed between the pipe and rollers. Now when I'm bending, the pressure isn't localized and there are no more dimples


One more project down and mostly finished - I still want to bend up some headlight guards out of 1" pipe, but that can wait awhile. The white paint is Rustoleum oil based white metal primer, after it dries for a few days it'll get a healthy coat of black oil based paint. And yes, I need to make a stop by Fastenal for some 12mm x 1.25 bolts to fill the other mounting holes.


As with any project, it evolved and changed a bit while it was being put together. For example, once I get a winch, removal will have to be from the front - I don't think there's enough space between the top hoop and the grill to lift it straight up, so I had to change the top hoop a bit to make sure there was enough room to slide the winch forward.


I also decided to attach the top hoop to the lower lateral tube instead of the main tube. This allowed me to lean it forward a bit more than if it was welded to the main tube.


I didn't primer the lower half of the lateral tube because I need to heat it up to get the bolt holes at the bottom to line up again (welding the hoop onto the lower tube caused it to shift a little. BTW, like the parking light? That was just radiant heat from the tube when I heated it up to fine tune the bend. By the time I saw what was happening it was already too late.


After a few months, I finally got around to bending up the headlight guards.

 

I finished it (more-or-less) about 10 months ago, which is why I'm just quoting the posts that I made elsewhere.

 

Cadillac 4 note horn install to replace the weak factory horn. If you've never heard the Caddy horns check this link out (kinda sounds like a train):
It's a Truck, It's a Train, It's a Cadillac Eldorado! 1985 Biarritz

I picked up a set at the local Pick-N-Pull from a Buick Park Avenue that had all 4 notes - A, C, D and F notes are marked on the horn by the opening - and can say they are definitely larger and louder than the stock ones.


Here they are mounted, they barely fit behind the grill - to mount them I just used a bolt through one of the holes in the bracket and cut the excess bracket off. I have them wired with a 20 amp fuse on a relay (blew the 10amp fuse I used originally). Another indication of how powerful these are: when I first tested them my wrenches vibrated right off the radiator support