Offroad-Express

About 6 months after I sold my 80 series, my brother decided to sell the 4Runner that my Dad bought new in 1990.
It had been used for towing a horse float for the last 8 years or so and was dirty/smelly and really gutless, add to that a rear diff whine and leaking radiator, but the price was very right and it was nice to have Dads car that I first drove when I was 18.

It still had the original Toyota washable air filter and spark leads, so new plugs, leads, dist cap, rotor, air filter and an oil change wasthe first on the list.
5 evenings of cleaning to get rid of the dirt and horse smell.
New shocks
Get rid of the catalyst and leaky muffler and put on a nice big muffler to keep it quiet and breathe well
New crown wheel and pinion on the rear diff with the LSD tightened up.
Front seats from an SSR-X as the originals were knackered.

On boxing day I got bored so gave it a polish.
It will never be a hard core 4wd but will do what I want it to, the little 2.4 petrol wont win any races but isnt too bad, (now it can breath) certainly better than the 2.8 diesel one we had for 10 years before I bought the landcruiser.

Im working my way through sorting out vibrations and noises, new ujs have fixed some but the driveshaft feels unbalanced at 100km/h

At the moment its a 2Runner as the transfer box is noisy and seems not to disengage the front driveshaft properly so I took the front driveshaft off to keep it on the road until I can get another t/box.

Today the 2Runner became a FrontRunner.
Im still chasing vibrations so thought id try driving from the front only, the wobbly vibration is gone so im guessing the rear drive shaft is bent or out of balance, but there is a notchy vibration that I'm putting down to CVs as it has the originals in it. There is a bit of backlash in the front diff, but no whine so I guess its ok.

So the problems I think are front cv, rear drive shaft and tired transfer box......apart from that its great!!

Can anyone tell me where is a good place to take the drive shaft to in Chch?

are the uni's in phase. if i remember right its a 2 piece shaft and sometimes don't get put back together the right way.
also fit some front hubs, saves wear on the front end.

Thanks Tweake
I think the UJs are right as the yokes on the shaft both face the same way, Ive put a pic below, please let me nkow what you think. I did think about manual hubs for the last one i had, but drove it for 100,000km with no issues in the front, sold it with 300,000km and this one has done 276,000km and its the first time its had any major attention in its life.

I think towing a double horsefloat has been harder on it than i expected.
it only did a few thousand km with the last owner but it was all heavy towing - it was all they used it for.

Pretty sure I've seen people recommend Circle Track Engineering for driveshaft stuff. Search the forum, I haven't had anything done there myself.

That name does ring a bell.
Thank you, ill give them a call.

cruiser80 wrote:That name does ring a bell.
Thank you, ill give them a call.

Yes Circle Track is the place to go. Just make sure you write your name on your stuff, I was a few days late collecting mine and it took them 20 minutes to find it...

I dropped the drive shaft into circle track last week and fave ordered replacement front CV shafts from online auto parts in Aus. They arrived today but despite no damage to the box both outer CVs have got bent seal protector rings
I was hoping to swap the axles over at the weekend as every now and then I get a squeak or a graunch from one side and im not sure how long I should be driving around just on the front diff - its done more work in the last few weeks than the last 25 years!
Ive looked at some YouTube videos on how to change the shafts, so now I want to get it done.
Hopefully online send another couple of shafts in a hurry.

Circle Track Engineering did a great job on the driveshaft, all the vibration is gone.

I fitted one of the front axles today and the vibration under my feet is gone but there is still a vibration at the front so ill do the passengers side.

The transfer box is whining heaps when not in 4wd.
Is it easy to get the transfer box for a C52 gearbox or should I plan to pull it apart and rebuild?