Project Poor-Runner

Well this 1990 4runner kinda fell in my lap, v6 3.slow, five speed SR5 nice everything inside, 4.56 factory gears for 1100$ I originally bought it to resell and make a couple hundred bucks, but then I drove it and kinda fell in love. Its in great shape rust wise, but rough around the edges otherwise. Has lots of PO stupidness to undo. Such as Pluming pipe and washer body lift, T-bars cranked a stupid amount, Rear drop brackets from a old lift kit still on but factory coils put back in that are sagged out, bent/rubbing upper links from the lift bracket. Anyways plan is simple, simple fun wheeler on a budget. I ordered all new ball joints, tie rod ends, idler arm and pitman arm, along with all new seals for front and rear axles from Rock Auto for dirt cheap. Gonna trade the cv shafts in on a warranty at the 'Zone because the boots are busted and hey its lots easyer and cheaper than doing cv boots :mrgreen: Ordered ball joint spacers so I can uncrank the torsion bars, and ordered a set of 1.5 inch lift OME springs for the back. Im gonna take the lift brackets and the body lift off, Throw a lunchbox in the rear and Put a set of Techno Excavators on it. build a set of sliders and a front bumper. Then add a winch. Then its gonna take over DD duty from the lexus and hopefully be a fun toy (pun intended) till I get some other projects done

Seems like most lifts are hack jobs. Just makes the car less drive-able if you don't do it correctly. This one doesn't look weird where it sits though. I had a 1984 toyota pickup I used off road a lot and it held up pretty good. Had 240,000 miles on it.

I agree most "lift kits" are junk, and solid axle toyota is about the toughest truck ever build. I Put a full day in on the runner today, got the rear axle pulled and stupid brackets off, upper links are bent and bushings are toast, lowers aren't much better, bolts are seized in the frame side. I got em soaking in a tub of atf I'll see if it helped tomorrow. Hoping to find replacement uppers and new bushings for the lowers,but I'm striking out finding replacement links I'll clean up the axle and give it a quick coat of paint after I get a locker here, anybody have a spare locker they are willing to part with? I snapped a few pics today too

Before pic of the brackets they welded on



After, had to torch em, ran outta torch gas at the last second and barely finished the cut it was crazy how it worked out lol



Stuck bolt in front drop brackets >




New parts!!