3rd Gen 4Runner SAS

Out with the old stuff. Lots of grinding ahead of me.
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When I did mine the grinding was the worst, I spent hours under it, my hands would tingle forever after I was done. I swear It felt like I was doing nerve damage:laughing:
 
When I did mine the grinding was the worst, I spent hours under it, my hands would tingle forever after I was done. I swear It felt like I was doing nerve damage:laughing:
You went leaf right? I hate the frame cleanup work, damn cheapo wheels sometimes vibrate like crazy when new and holy hell that's worse than holding the damn thing above me.


Passenger side cleaned up. I put this off this morning and made my links because I knew what lay ahead for me lol.

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You went leaf right? I hate the frame cleanup work, damn cheapo wheels sometimes vibrate like crazy when new and holy hell that's worse than holding the damn thing above me.


Passenger side cleaned up. I put this off this morning and made my links because I knew what lay ahead for me lol.

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Ya Mine is on leafs, I have a plasma, but I'm not a pro with it so there was hrs of grinding. I swear anything in my garage that was no covered was covered in fine metal dust, And I swept up 10 lbs of steel dust.

I had it in my eyes and nose, my hair, laying on my back on a creeper grinding over my head. and i should have bought good wheels and grinders, but it was HF flapwheels and cheap HF grinders. I had one catch fire in my hands.

I's fun watching and remembering.
 
Ya Mine is on leafs, I have a plasma, but I'm not a pro with it so there was hrs of grinding. I swear anything in my garage that was no covered was covered in fine metal dust, And I swept up 10 lbs of steel dust.

I had it in my eyes and nose, my hair, laying on my back on a creeper grinding over my head. and i should have bought good wheels and grinders, but it was HF flapwheels and cheap HF grinders. I had one catch fire in my hands.

I's fun watching and remembering.
I have a Milwaukee grinder but I buy HF wheels lol. I've been using a fan to direct the dust out the garage and I wear an N95, a hat, welding coat and face shield because when I did the SAS I just used safety glasses and I hated having all that shit in my nose. I'm sure I'm closing in on that amount of dust. I'm about 1/3 through the driver side now and calling it a day. So far the fan seems to be doing a pretty good job of blowing it all in one direction. I'm not even using a creeper, I'm just rolling in the dust :laughing:. Shit sucks I can't wait until the grinding is done and I can start tacking my brackets on.

Edit I have a plasma too now but I'm scared of blowing through my frame so I got the bulk off with it and now I just attack the welds with a grinder then use a chisel and big sledge to break the leftovers away then grind the little bit of weld left.
 
I ran out of fluxcore wire so finished off the grinding work for the most part and decided to see how it looks at full bump.
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Got everything measured 4 times and then tacked into place. I dropped it all the way down to the lowest the little stands will go and lifted each side to the bump stop. No binding so next step is burning everything in permanently I guess.

Edit: The lower mounts will be getting a gusset from what's overhanging on the inside of the frame up to the inside of the frame as well as a weld between the center of the bracket and the inside corner of the frame.
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I grabbed some Dobinson 210v FJ80 fronts because I read they were basically 8 wraps but progressive and handled weight better. Threw a shock in there for reference. The 210v's are like 1" shorter free float length than my 8 wraps. Not sure they will work without retaining plates with the travel I have. Not sure how I didn't lose one of the 8 wraps to be honest :laughing:
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Edit2: Appears as though my 8 wraps are late LX450 springs (8.25/8.75 wraps). The 8.75 will stay in the bucket at full droop with a 1.5" gap. Since the rear squats a bit and will get worse with the skid I'm going to build for the tank I think I will sell the Dobinsons and go for another 8.75 spring and add a spacer.
 
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I have some spacers somewhere I could throw in a box if you want?

Also, I like that you're building a legit 4 link back there and keeping the coils. Most either just go leafs (guilty on my 2nd gen) or full blown c/o's and start from scratch.
 
I have some spacers somewhere I could throw in a box if you want?

Also, I like that you're building a legit 4 link back there and keeping the coils. Most either just go leafs (guilty on my 2nd gen) or full blown c/o's and start from scratch.
I wanted to do CO's but with how low I have it I wasn't able to package a 12" back there without lowering my bump stop and restricting my up travel even more. The coils have worked really well for me anyways and this ended up being cheaper even with the Dobsinson spring purchase lol. Also I see many do leafs also, they work, nothing against them, but I wanted to go the extra mile on this setup. Some of my measurements in my calculator aren't right I have to update it, but the differences are less than 1/2". I plugged them all in on my PC and the figures didn't change much, I think my AS actually got a little more acceptable even lol.

Do you know how thick they are? If they're 1-1.5" I would be interested in them.
 
I wanted to do CO's but with how low I have it I wasn't able to package a 12" back there without lowering my bump stop and restricting my up travel even more. The coils have worked really well for me anyways and this ended up being cheaper even with the Dobsinson spring purchase lol. Also I see many do leafs also, they work, nothing against them, but I wanted to go the extra mile on this setup. Some of my measurements in my calculator aren't right I have to update it, but the differences are less than 1/2". I plugged them all in on my PC and the figures didn't change much, I think my AS actually got a little more acceptable even lol.

Do you know how thick they are? If they're 1-1.5" I would be interested in them.

I think they're 2", I'll have to dig them out
 
I think they're 2", I'll have to dig them out
Ok, let me know, 2" might be too much but I won't know for sure until this thing is back on its own weight and full of gas. Going to try and burn everything in today.
 
This is what I was meaning about the gusset. Two inch flat bar would have reached better but I don't have any and the weld will get it 90% of the way to the edge so I'm not too concerned.
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Might be easy to cut down?

That inner frame is very thin, might want to add some sort of fish plate to spread the load out with it set in like that.
 
Might be easy to cut down?

That inner frame is very thin, might want to add some sort of fish plate to spread the load out with it set in like that.
Yeah, that has been on my mind with these frame brackets, the front at least has a very large weld footprint by comparison. I'll probably fish plate those, I have some 1/4 plate laying around. Think I should do a typical <> plate or just weld some 1/4 up there where that gusset will be contacting? I'm not sure I would do a typical plate I'm pretty dang close to that crossmember.

Edit: was thinking of just doing a rectangle of 1/4 up on that inner wall.
 
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Doesn't need to be 1/4"

I don't know that shape matters all that much, just something to spread the load out. I'd probably gusset/plate the bottom also.
 
Doesn't need to be 1/4"

I don't know that shape matters all that much, just something to spread the load out. I'd probably gusset/plate the bottom also.
Ok, I remember there being a reason fish plates were shaped the way they were but that may have been for bonding two separate pieces rather than the application we are talking about. Might not be a bad idea to do the bottom also.

I think 1/4 is all I got plate wise, might be able to go pick up some 3/16.
 
Ok, I remember there being a reason fish plates were shaped the way they were but that may have been for bonding two separate pieces rather than the application we are talking about. Might not be a bad idea to do the bottom also.

I think 1/4 is all I got plate wise, might be able to go pick up some 3/16.

There is a million theories out there. Some say vertical edges is bad, but just about every factory frame has a vertical weld on a crossmember.

Angled or curved edges should be better, but I think anything is better than nothing.
 
This is what I was meaning about the gusset. Two inch flat bar would have reached better but I don't have any and the weld will get it 90% of the way to the edge so I'm not too concerned.
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My front hangars are in boarded like that and I used a pre made gusset from ruff stuff and went almost all the way up to the top of the frame. Overkill, maybe. I agree if you can plate it, it doesn't hurt.

I can't find it on their site, but I built something like this and boxed it in on the angle part. Probably overkill, but I was a newbie at welding at the time and figured I would over build parts to make up for it. Frame Mounting Platform, Small
 
My front hangars are in boarded like that and I used a pre made gusset from ruff stuff and went almost all the way up to the top of the frame. Overkill, maybe. I agree if you can plate it, it doesn't hurt.

I can't find it on their site, but I built something like this and boxed it in on the angle part. Probably overkill, but I was a newbie at welding at the time and figured I would over build parts to make up for it. Frame Mounting Platform, Small
I wouldn't say I'm super good at welding but I trust my welds more than factory stuff, which probably isn't saying much. I have some plate laying around, it's all 1/4 so I'll probably just use what I have and plate it up to half way up the inside of the frame or higher if I need to get above that frame cutout. The gusset is all 1/4" also. If I plate and gusset the under side those brackets will have four welds holding them to the frame on the sides as opposed to two of it was centered. Sounds a little overkill but I like overkill, my front crossmember also has extra plates holding it on.
 
Those kick outs hang people up more that they realize.

Buuut! They do a really good job of protecting the doors and work fine for a mild rig.
I built some and they did hang me up a few times so I cut off the kickout portion, and learned to embrass the body damage.
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Kickouts suck, don't do it. I have a friend with a 4runner who has them and I'm like a broken record every trip to cut them off. You can see him get snagged on them and they just stop momentum, especially when you need that last little bit to crest a hill. I would much rather have the entire slider sticking out further than that damn kick out.
 
Kickouts suck, don't do it. I have a friend with a 4runner who has them and I'm like a broken record every trip to cut them off. You can see him get snagged on them and they just stop momentum, especially when you need that last little bit to crest a hill. I would much rather have the entire slider sticking out further than that damn kick out.
I'm sure once I get stuck on one I'll want to plasma them off but we don't have much rock around my parts. Though I've been invited to go to some private stuff more West which does so we will see how it goes when I get to go out there. That and I would like to visit Reiter at some point.
 
I like kickouts. Have saved damage a few times. But it also depends on what type of wheeling environment you're in, I guess.
 
We are talking rocks and trees, not carts and car doors at costco
Both of my rigs have kick outs, not sure they have ever kept me from getting through a trail, hell i use them as a pick point to rotate the truck when needed.
 
Because I'm keeping my shocks outboarded and couldn't put them on the front of the axle like I had prior, the rear has some other things in the way and I wanted them on the top of the tube anyways, I needed to clearance my bumpstop bracket a bit so the shock body will clear. I shaved off about 1.5" and will gain back 0.25" with the plate. I'll drill a new mounting hole and weld a nut in place for it like factory. I didn't see a need to completely start over and this coupled with my bumpstop setup was already the proper height and placement. Nothing super fancy, I also have 3/4 link brackets welded to the frame, I screwed one up trying to weld with the muffler in the way so I cut it out, cut the muffler out and got a new bracket, it's ready to go in tonight or tomorrow. Then front gas tank mounts, shock towers, brake lines and paint.

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Mocking up my shock towers. Took some universal WFO mounts and cut them up to fit my need. I cannot weld them from the back so the line going across will be a slot that I'll weld from the front that lines up near perfect with the top of the frame. Then I'll throw a ton of paint at the back side to protect that weld but it should seal everything else off once the other welds are completed.

Note, Bilstein 7100s do not use 0.5" spacers for 1.5" tabs, I thought 0.5" uniball was the same as 0.5" uniball in my Fox coilovers :homer:.
(They measure to 1-5/8" with 0.5" spacers)

Link issues, I must have done some passes too quick on one insert, I got one of my 1.25" heims stuck in it and after breaking the adjuster on my big crescent with 7ft of cheater it's time to make a new one. The good news is it measures out to my spec without the jam nut on the other heim so I was able to use it for mocking up shocks for now.
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Well, not much to report other than its back on tires now, everything is in and cleaned up, new gas tank mounts are in (not shown). One thing I will do down the line is cut out those shock towers and put in some hoops I have coming. I made a mistake on the towers, even measuring multiple times it doesn't help when you're axle is further down than it's supposed to be when 3 measurements were taken. Needless to say I cut the towers in half, extended them and got it all in. My truck needs to go in for some work that I don't have the patience to tackle so this thing needs to be back on the road.

I really need a flaring tool :laughing:, the 30" lines were too short and had mismatched fittings and the 40s were way too long. Think someone cut the 30s and snagged fittings then tossed on ones they had and returned them.

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