Build Forest5speed

JK13

JK13

I like to move it
Joined
Jun 20, 2020
Member Number
2137
Messages
293
Loc
Boise
Howdy Yall,
For years I’ve been trying to lock down what in my mind is prime adventure-mobile and think I’ve got a good rig to pick this saga back up. Good a time as any to start a build thread, have somewhere to ask some questions and maaayyyybbeeee add some tech :flipoff2:

But here’s how she sits
2000 4Runner
3.4 5-Speed 4x4
Elocker Rear
King coilovers up front, no idea the spring rates unfortunately. Adjustable king resis in the back. Mystery (stock late model 4runner possibly?) rear coils
305/70r16 Falken AT3dubbayas

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Future plans:
05 SD60 & 11.5
Rear factory elocker, something in the front
5.38s
Crawl box
Armor and f150 tank swap
 
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The backstory:
Found Pirate4x4 back in highschool around ‘07-08 when I got my first vehicle, a stock ‘86 4Runner. 22re, auto…built that up over the next decade with knowledge from P4x4 and bought my w56/dual case setup from a member there. SAS, spartans f&r and 5.71s. Didn’t wheel it enough and couldn’t get it to pass smog after swapping in a rebuilt 22re and ended up trading it away
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Always regretted selling it but scored a sweet green ‘98 a couple years later that I imagined being the perfect family rig, 3.4, 5 speed, 265’s and a solid platform to build off of.
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Since I’m a millennial and like to take car pics :flipoff2: I started an insta that was supposed to be like a photo album of family adventures with the rig and such and so started 4est5speed (cause its green, I like to cruise the forest and its a manual, I thought it was clever)

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Well that 4Runner got totaled (twice actually) by my (ex)wife, so much for that plan…

Got a clean green ‘92 Cherokee that could continue the dream. 2wd 4.0 5speed, it was pretty cool
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But it started having electrical issue and off it went.

Few years go by then I “stumbled” across this ‘99
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Which admittedly was a bit of a hooptie, but it was pretty fun and fit the criteria (green, manual lol)
3.4, 5 speed from a 3.0 so pass drop case to a mini truck front axle on some low leafs. 4.30 and rear elocker.
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Played around for a summer till I realized I didn’t wanna fix all the half ass **** on it and traded it off.
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(Dat booty tho)

Last summer I ended up being able to pick up a super clean ‘99
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Green, check :flipoff2:
3.4, auto but whatever, solid platform to build off of and do trips with my boys
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Till I got t-boned
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But insurance paid me out hella good and I found the current rig in Wyoming. 2000, 3.4 w/ factory 5 speed, Kings all around w/ some dobinsons lexus LC coils or something like that, fresh clutch/timing belt/water pump, etc…dude put a lot of money into this thing but his wife went on a SxS ride and the rest was history
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Did you have a write up on the first gen on pirate? I vaguely remember somebody swapping an engine in the street haha
 
Not me, but mighta used it for reference lol

Built a winch plate out of some beefy 6x6 angle drop from work
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Survived the accident at least lol
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Prior owner had this thing set up for a ton of extra weight so it honestly kinda rode like ****. Kinda wanted to lower it a bit cause the front CVs were hating life
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Scored a bunch of mystery parts from a local 4x4 shop. Swung by to see if they had any stock coils laying around and dude said I could go dumpster diving in their scrap bin :laughing:
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Swapped some coils in the back that best I can tell off the paint marks are off a current gen 4runner. Supposedly net around an inch of lift, worked with the isolators/bumps in the back and fit in the buckets so they work!

Adjusted the kings to level it some and take the edge off those front cv’s. Found out unbolting the upper BJ from the UCA (SPC uppers) was a super quick way to get room to adjust the collars
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Did that a half dozen times till I ended up with this

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Which settled to this
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Rides like a frickin dream now :smokin:
 
Winch mounted up to new yota
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Cut a little too much this time around, but oh well better access
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Now I wish I cleaned up this part more, it was hidden before

Pounded down the pinch weld and trimmed the front enough for spirited around town driving.
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Will have to check for clearance at stuff later
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Rear needs some trimming for full stuff also but nothing too crazy.

Definitely dig the lower height though
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Starting a new job Monday, so figured I’d whip up a last little project for the yota
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Only did one hot pass, the whole bumper is bolted all stock so figured close to same strength? We’ll see lol

Painted OD green
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Tucks into the stock bumper cover nicely
 
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Did some exploring
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There’s potential for some gnarly **** on some of these dirtbike offshoots but being alone and out of cell service keeps me on the tame stuff for now. Super pleased with how it performs, though the elocker switch is temperamental so I gotta take a look at that

Edit: elocker switch just needs to be held longer :laughing:
 
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Hit up some dirt trails outside of Kuna
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Let my oldest steer off and on for a little bit, his first time “driving” should be out wheeling :smokin:

He loved it, says wheelin is much better when you’re the one driving lol he’s not wrong

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Blew a brake line on my 3rd time hitting these little rocks (but the biggest ones on a trail here) so round 4 (back down again) was sans brakes

Its way gnarlier than it looks :flipoff2:

Limped it just down shifting and using the ebrake into Kuna where the autozone didn’t have any toyota lines but the local Ace Hardware has m10 1.0 bolts

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So running on 3/4 brakes for the time being, which honestly isn’t that bad with the 5 speed. Grabbed a stock replacement from a autozone in boise but I’m going to tryn get another longer braided line and keep the stock+bolt as trail spares. Probably swap out the line on my lunch at work this week but need to find someone to help me bleed the system.
 
Got the stock line on and brakes bled, stops great…but the abs light is on. I’m cool with no abs though, I’m sure its just an illusion but it feels like it stops better than before? Idk…I have an FSM so I can check the codes by jumping the diagnostics port under the hood but I don’t care too much right now.

I have a new clunk though, hopefully a buddy can help shake the car while I crawl around underneath but I’ll probably pull the swaybar first to eliminate that.

Update: yep, swaybar. No big deal 🤘🏼 after driving around with it disconnected the last couple days, it’s going to stay that way. The adjustable end links go on quick if I wanna pull over and put them on but it rides so much smoother this way. Between the cali rake and the extra body lean, its like my own little brophy truck, a brorunner if you will :flipoff2:

I want to throw a crawl box in this thing so bad
 
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Went wheeling in Oregon last weekend 🤘🏼
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Roadtripped out there with my boys for a funeral/family reunion outside Portland and took a couple extra days on the front end for some outdoor fun with the kids.

Left Boise late Halloween night after trick or treating and drove through the night to Bend, got there around 3am
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Always love seeing this sculpture, dope metalwork

Hit up Cline Butte outside Redmond, OR on friday early afternoon. Didn’t take too many pics and didn’t do anything too crazy since it was just the 3 of us. It was a good warm up for saturday though. Cool spot, had a pretty big playground area with a seemingly endless amount of lines. Lots of easy trails with moto whoops that were fun for bouncing around the kids lol. The “moderate” trails were seemingly so for just having a lot of nuisance rock (like basketball size) on otherwise dirt roads.
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Went to back up and accidentally ripped off my driver side rear mudflap/bumper trim:shaking:
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On Saturday, met up with crazybluerider and japerry at Tillamook State Forest :smokin:

Big thanks to those guys for showing us around. Awesome dudes, definitely hope to wheel with them again sometime 🤘🏼

In true NW fashion, it was wet and muddy and about as much fun as you can have with your pants on.
We ran Happy Meal, University Firepower to Firebreak 5, Saddle Up, Dog Leg, then down Hogs Back to Archers Firebreak before heading back.
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Key Takeaways:

-Wheeling with others is way more fun. I wouldn’t have tried half the trails we did solo and woulda missed out on a lot. Having two knowledgeable off roaders with us allowed me to push myself and the rig harder (plus having spotters (who know what they’re doing) is great) and I was able to learn a bunch.

-Airing down to 15psi was money. I was blown away by how well the Falken AT3Ws worked in those muddy rock gardens. I really need a way to air up so I can air down more often.

-I need body armor :flipoff2:

Wish I woulda had time to weld up some sliders before the trip, but life happens fast. Not worried about the body damage this time, but I got lucky it wasn’t worse. More armor is high on my priority list cause I like functional doors on my DD 😅

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JK13 said:
Key Takeaways:

-Wheeling with others is way more fun. I wouldn’t have tried half the trails we did solo and woulda missed out on a lot. Having two knowledgeable off roaders with us allowed me to push myself and the rig harder (plus having spotters (who know what they’re doing) is great) and I was able to learn a bunch.

-Airing down to 15psi was money. I was blown away by how well the Falken AT3Ws worked in those muddy rock gardens. I really need a way to air up so I can air down more often.

-I need body armor :flipoff2:

Wish I woulda had time to weld up some sliders before the trip, but life happens fast. Not worried about the body damage this time, but I got lucky it wasn’t worse. More armor is high on my priority list cause I like functional doors on my DD 😅
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I'm just glad your fuel tank still holds the correct amount of fuel. The last low 4 runner I ran the upper portion of firebreak 5 with ended up with a tank that held about 5 less gallons than stock. :laughing:

If the doors still open the rockers are fine... :flipoff2:
 
Ok, update time. Some if yall might have seen other threads of mine, but working on swapping tons under this BZ now.

This is super low buck, and not the most efficient, but its what I’m working with.

Long story short, got in a little fender bender and insurance gave me a chunk o cash cause I carry full coverage. I can’t really afford “upgrades” that aren’t maintenance related in my general budget, but since this is money from the yota I can justify putting the money back into it lol

Picked up a set of 05 Superduty axles out in Twin for $5hunned. Scored w/ factory 4.10s since I’m too poor to regear right now. Only planning on running some ford takeoff 35s for the foreseeable future so I should be able to get by for awhile.
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Sandblasted them and painted them up
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Threw on some Warns, one of the stockers was bad and I saved the good one as a trail spare
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Gunna use RuffStuff’s universal Y Link cause the stock low steer rubs me the wrong way

Had to trim away these brackets
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The stock knuckle attachment
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Way too thick for the shank of the GM 1 ton TREs

Cut and ground them down
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No pics, but drilled out the holes in the arms to 7/8” for the RuffStuff tapered TRE inserts

Had some custom washers cut on the laser at work out of 7ga SS, needed something cause the shank is much smaller than the 7/8” I had to drill it out to (it would chew up the castle nut otherwise) This is how it sits torqued to 40ft-lbs, which is about what I could find on google for a torque spec.
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All bolted up, top of the tie rod is about flush with the too of the axle tube now (as I feel it shoulda been in the first place!)
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Now had to address the Tie Rod

Stock, the steering arms are too short for a straight, mid mounted tie rod. Hits the diff cover way before the stock steering stops. Put a little bend in it and clears lock 2 lock + more
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Gunna plate over where I hacked off the stock drag link and sway bar mounts. 1/4”, gunna use this as a base to mount my new traditional drag link. I’ll trim it out and full weld it once I get the bracket location finalized

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Made these today, will use these to mount up the drag link. Gunna make that out of either .120 or .250 wall, 1 1/4 heims. In hindsight, way overkill…but so is most of this build
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And that’s all I’ve got for now. Still to come, radius arms, coil mounts, rear axle everything lol
 
Modded my FJ80 pitman arm with RuffStuffs tapered 1 ton tre bushing this evening.

Drilled the hole out to 63/64 and pressed in the bung
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Welded it out with the tig here at work
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Now that I got the pitman arm off, next project is tearing down the box to drill and tap it for hydro assist and reseal it…but not tonight :laughing:
 
Diablo169 said:
I saw you post about the bent center link, What is the specs on that tubing again.

Looking good.
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Thanks! One of these days I’m going to go back and update these posts with part numbers and materials…but for now, 1.5x.25 DOM
 
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