I just picked up this 1986 SR5 4runner for $1700. The guy I bought it from said it was a 'Special Edition' but I have yet to be able to find what this entails. It had all the factory options, A/C, cruise control, power antenna and a sunroof. I'm only the second owner, the guy I bought it from purchased the car at Fullerton Toyota back in 1986 where it was a dealer showroom car (this is why it had all the options). It has a few small problems, but I think it has some potential.

Right off the bat I made a few changes to it, I bought a new front bumper and some 31"X10.5" BFG ATs.

After that I got really sick of the purple bubbly tint so I replaced that with 5% limo tint and stripped the stickers off the sides. In my opinion they made the car look older. I also threw in a Alpine CD player and some 6.5" speakers in the rear.


This is my first 4-wheel drive truck so this is all new to me but I'm excited to try something new. The 4runner has impressed the hell out of me, the engine has almost 300,000 miles on it and it runs strong. It also manages to get 23-25MPG which is nice. It's pretty good on gas, but I daily drive my civic (40MPG).

 

New pics, taken after installing 1.5" BJ spacers, 3" lift downey leaf springs, low compression bump stops and new skyjacker hydro shocks. DO NOT buy skyjacker hydro shocks! First off they're cheapo shocks, secondly they are too large of a diameter that I had to trim my bump stops and bump stop mounts! decent flex


Just added a new marlin crawler rear bumper and a roof rack from a Nissan Pathfinder, I still need to pick up some D-rings to complete the bumper.

 

Added some more stuff
-Marlin Crawler 6" shackles
-Uniden CB Radio with PA system
-3' FireStik CB antenna
-Smittybuilt D-ring recovery Shackles
-Coleman Roof Basket






In my opinion it's finally trail worthy. I took it up to Big Bear in December 07 on a snowboarding trip and spent a day wheelin on easy trails and going through some mud puddles. I had to take it easy since I was wheelin alone and there was still a good ammount of snow on the ground. Then in January 08 I took the 4runner out to Carvacre (Pancake Rock) down here in San Diego. Sadly I only finished half the trail due to alternator issues. Carvacre taught me the importance of airing down and made me want lockers and either transfer case gears or dual cases.

 

Ok I've been meaning to update this thread for a while now. The 4runner has completed many trails and gone through a lot of changes over the last few months.

-February 17 2008 - Corral Canyon
we ran Bronco Peak (minus the connector) and Sidewinder


-Then 2 days later I went offroading out in Proctor Valley with my friend Johs in his new Toyota Tacoma Prerunner. I hit a patch of soft mud and sunk the 4runner to it's frame. My buddy Josh came back around to try to yank me out but managed to sink his tacoma in the mud while trying to get around me. I called another friend with a Jeep Cherokee on 31s out to try to pull us out but the trucks wouldn't budge. Finally after we realized the Cherokee wouldn't get us out I called my buddy Rick with a Jeep Rubicon Unlimited with a winch. He was able to easily winch both of us out. This is when I realized that as long as I keep offroading with friends with less capible rigs then my own I'll probably need a winch to get myself. Needless to say the next day I ordered a Marlin Crawler front bumper without a stinger and a Smittybuilt 8000lb winch



-March 1-2 2008 I headed out to Anza Borrego to explore with my friend Josh and his Tacoma Prerunner. I didn't do much offroading, I just ran Lower Coyote Canyon. Nothing too crazy, just a small boulder field and a 30" deep water crossing. Sorry no pics

-Luckily I was able to make it through the boulder field at Coyote Canyon without any body damage, but I when I got home the next thing on my list was sliders. I ordered a set of trial gear sliders and had them welded on. I went out to Anza Borrego again on March 29, 2008 to do some exploring, but I didn't get to really use the sliders. Sorry, once again no pics.

-The next few days after Anza Borrego, my life, like the fresh prince of Bel-air got flip turned up side down. I needed a stress reliever so on April 8th, I called two of my buddies up and decided to try another local trail called Carvacre, AKA Pancake rock. We only made it half way because the sun was going down, but I soon noticed a weekness of my 4runner. The narrow wheelbase made the 4runner scary in off-camber situations. For the next few days I started looking at Jeeps wondering how they do better in off camber situations. I realized that their tires are pushed out past where their body ends, they just use fender flares to widen the body.

 

-After Carvacre I decided I needed to fix the tippy-ness of my 4runner. I needed new tires, so I debated whether to buy new wheels with a different backspacing or to just buy wheel spacers. In the end I went with 2" wheel spacers on each corner. A few weeks later, I took the 4runner back out to Carvacre with it's new wheel spacers and it was like night and day. The ruts I used to need a friend to 'slider surf' for me now seemed like a piece of cake. Well that and my driving is getting a bit better (not me in the picture)


After Carvacre I ran Corral Canyon again, just this time I ran it solo. It didn't seem so bad the second time around. I now needed to find a new challenge. Then it hit me, before summer is over I wanted to run John Bull at Big Bear. The 4runner was decently capible, but if I wanted to run John Bull I knew what it would take, a rear locker. I ended up purchasing a aussie locker and installed it myself. I did a few tests on some dirt roads close to my house and I was extremely impressed with the 4runner's new capabilities.

I added a few more parts to the 4runner to prepare it for Big Bear. I added a set of Hella 500 driving lights for trail running at night and a switch in the rear cargo area to raise and lower the tailgate glass. I normally sleep in the back of the 4runner when I go camping and it's a pain opening the rear tailgate. First you have to lower the glass to drop the tailgate. The only way to lower the glass is to either put the key in the ignition and hit the switch between the driver and passenger seat or to use the keyhole on the outside of the tailgate. To remedy this I spliced into the wires of the keyhole in the tailgate and ran wires to switch in the rear cargo area that was always hot (meaning the car didn't have to be on). After a few nights of sleeping in the back of the 4runner, I just wish I did this sooner. Looks stock too!


July 31-August 3 I was up in Big Bear running the trails up there. Here's the trip report. I ran into a few small problems, but the 4runner overcame them all. I managed to run Dishpan Springs, Gold Mountain and John Bull. Thanks to Keith (Corax on here) for being my co-driver on John Bull. It would have been nice to run Holcomb Creek too, but it's still closed from fire damage. Here's the 4runner on John Bull

Oh and to add icing on top of the cake, I got to use my winch to free a stuck Range Rover.

 

After Big Bear I started seeing some of the weaknesses of the 4runner and started planning on what I should modify on the 4runner. Right when I got home I realized that my rear differential drain plug was leaking. It must have loosened up while it dragged over rocks, proving to me that some of those trails are meant to be ran by rigs with larger then 31" tires. So I replaced that with a Marlin Crawler low profile drain plug, any easy $10 fix.

Next on my list were my pillar mounted Hella 500s. I had two problems with them, firstly in my opinion they weren't bright enough and second, they shook so much that it made it harder to see when they were on. To make them brighter I just ran down to my local Autozone and picked up some Silverstar 100w H3 bulbs and a larger fuse. They dropped right in place of the stock fuse and bulbs, no other modifications needed. To stop the lights from shaking so much I removed the 'upper hood' and sandwiched two pieces of sheet metal which were held in by the Hella's mounting bolts, this made it much more stable. Here's a picture of the sheet metal, sorry it's blurry but you can make out the sheet metal in the lower corners



Everyone I wheeled with at Big Bear either had 32s or 33s and I was in major tire envy! So the next thing on my list was to re-gear my differentials and bump up to 33" tires. Since some 2nd generation Toyotas came with stock 4.88s I decided to try to find a used set to save money over just buying new gears and having a shop install them. Luckily Chris (SLOsurfer) was selling his differentials to upgrade his 4runner to 5.29s. So I grabbed a few friends, loaded up my civic and made the 350 mile journey (with a few stops along the way, I saw a Clippers Game in the Staples Center, Visited the famous Getty Museum in Los Angeles, partied in Santa Barbara and went hiking up at Lake Isabella ). Although I was stoked about the new gears, this meant I had to sell my rear 4-cylinder differential with the aussie locker . Oh well, I'll definitely get another rear locker in the near future. After picking up the differentials I realized that the front diff was equipped with Toyota's ADD (automatic disconnecting differential) system. I could have easily just used a hose clamp to disable it, but instead I swapped my stock axle tube off my stock front differential onto the new differential. I prefer having less moving parts, less parts that can break on the trail! After I got both differentials in I also picked up a new set of BFG 33X10.5X15 ATs and had them mounted on the 4runner. Right when I had them mounted up I took it to a easy trail by my house to check for clearance. Here's a pic of the 4runner with the new tires, you can also see my repainted grille, I hate chrome!


As you can see in the second pic, it definitely rubs in the rear wheel wells. It also rubbed the pinch welds in the rear of the front wheel wells. The front was an easy fix of just pounding back the pinch welds but I had to do a little trimming in the rear. I only had to take out a about 3/4", but here's the finished product.


And finally I also threw in a set of pioneer 100w 6.5" speakers in the back of the 4runner. I originally replaced my stock 4" rear speakers with the stock 6.5" speakers from my civic, but after blowing up the engine in my civic and being forced to daily driver the 4runner for a little while I decided I needed better speakers. I just installed a head unit for a friend and since the speakers wouldn't fit his car he gave them to me, so I figured I'd make good use of them and install them in the 4runner. The 4runner's sound system is getting better, but it still has a long way to go...


Since Big Bear I've taken the 4runner out wheeling 3 times
-I led a trail run out at Corral Canyon but I don't have any pics since I was out front
-I did a solo run out to Carvacre (AKA Pancake Rock). I'll try to get some pics up later. The only problem wheeling along (no other rigs and no passengers) is that when I'm in a off camber situation and I get out to pick a line the second I get back into the 4runner I can never get a seatbelt on, I figured it locks up when it's at extreme angles. I thought about messing with it, but it's probably there for my safety.
-Finally a did a little snow wheeling in Big Bear. I learned the importance of airing down for snow. I originally ran the 33s at 15PSI, but they kept digging in. I then lowered them to 7PSI and they floated nicely on the fresh snow. I didn't get far though due to being open front and rear and the 4runner trying to plow through 3' of fresh snow

 

I haven't updated this thread in a while so I figured I'd let you guys know how the 4runner is coming along.

In the last year I've added
-added Sony Xplod headunit that is bluetooth capable
-Combined my Downey 3" lift leaf springs with my stock leaf springs to make a 6 spring pack
-re-installed stock front bump stops to stop from bottoming out so badly while pre-running or jumping
-Downey 26mm Torsion Bars
-Manual locking hubs
-Lockrights front and rear locker
-New Dash pad
-tan 2nd Gen 4runner center console
-LC Engineering Engine

I haven't really had the time or money to do many wheeling trips over the last year. The only two worth mentioning were the Trip out to Tierra Del Sol's Safari back in early March and Corral Canyon in late July. Other then that I've just messed around on local trails close by my house. I even snapped my first CV! For once I felt like I actually wheeled my junk!

But then again it also made me feel like an idiot for using too much throttle. Plus on top of replacing the CV, I had to replace all the hardware for that mounted my strut bar to my A-arm. Which seemed cheap at the time until I couldn't find the right size bolt and had to buy a new one from the dealership, errgg...

I've also fixed many problems on the 4runner over the last year. I've replaced the engine in the 4runner, steering center link, fuel pump strainer and idler arm.

My last engine was junk, I bought it from Mini-Truck Dismantling here in San Diego with the guarantee that it ran fine. It never ran fine, if they ever fired it up they would have known this. It cam timing was off by a whole tooth and it had two valve springs that I could compress by hand causing a horrible misfire. It was tricky to diagnose because if you did an compression test with the engine off it'll read fine since the springs were moving so slowly, but would have zero compression while running. Plus other then checking the valve lash I never checked the engine since I was told it ran fine. I only found all this out after selling the engine and buying a used LC engineering engine.

Next up was my steering center link. It was bowed, probably from the last owner. I'll upload a pic some time


Then there was my fuel pump strainer. Over the last 23 years the stock fuel pump strainer disinigrated and clogged my fuel system. After cleaning it out as well as I could, replacing the strainer and replacing the fuel filter it ran better. Not sure if it's 100% but it's the best it's ever ran for me! The yellow stuff in the picture is part of the strainer, that's about half of what i found in my fuel lines.


And finally I replaced the idler arm with a Autozone replacement. The bushings in my arm were almost non existant, plus it has a life-time warranty!



From now on I'm posting updates in my build thread