FNG checking in from the Carolinas

[PD1744]

Quick update. Already having an issue with my driver side headlight. Waiting on a replacement. Not a good look.

Did this quick and easy yet satisfying mod. Blacked out my chrome shifter and cup holder bezels:



Looks much better imo and no more blinding glare on my drive home.

Replaced the parts store hub/sensor with an OEM one. All good now. Truck is happy. Looks like they gave me a regular F150 part and something with the descent control doesn’t play well with the sensor or ring in that part.



Put my stock axle back in while I was in there and that was when a simple straight forward job went a little sideways. When I pulled the axle, the intermediate shaft came out with it. So I ended up having to pull the coil-over in order to get every out and separated. Anybody ever heard of that happening?

Next on the agenda is to take a peak into the valve springs. My suspicion is that’s what’s causing this intermittent miss and lumpy idle. We’ll see.


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[PD1744]

Updating while I get a chance. After the new hub, truck was happy (no dash lights) for about a week. Then took it adventuring and, like always, at the furthest distance away from home pops a low fuel light, CEL, and gauge runs to “E”, even though I know I have plenty of fuel.



Tried the fuel level sender ‘quick fix’ with the Chevron Techron plus concentrate additive to no avail. So now I’ve place an order for an entire fuel pump assembly since the work is the same (less even) as changing out the sending unit and I’ll have piece of mind of hopefully not having to do the job of dropping that 36 gallon fuel tank again for a long time. Should get it knocked out this week hopefully.

Also helped my buddy replace his blown engine. That was a fun job. All I can say is hopefully all of our starters live forever because man that’s a pain in the ass. The rest of the job was fairly straight forward.

Out with the old:


In with the new:


Runs like a top now.

Also started checking out my valve springs in the midst of all this. Opened up the driver side bank as I was convinced I’d find intake #8 broken and of course they were all fine.



Still need to peak at the other side. Also expected to find a broken spring on #8 on his engine as well as that was the piston that grenaded but they were fine too. So we still haven’t figured out how the engine killed itself. I think we’ll dissect it when we have time.

So yeah, fuel pump and other valve cover coming up this week. That’s all.


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[CoronaRaptor]

WOW, great build/maintenance so far. Pretty soon you'll know this truck better than Ford did, lol.

 

[PD1744]

Tackled the fuel pump last night after work racing the sunset.
Found out the issue. The upper contact on the wiper was completely broken off (circled in red) so it wouldn’t have mattered how many bottles of cleaner I dumped in there.





Overall not a terrible job. Worst part for me was having to work through the hose clamp where the tube meets the top of the tank that whoever assembled it last stripped and broke. Other than that was pretty straight forward.

BUT... when I looked back at the top picture this morning I realized there is no gasket on the new unit... well shit. So I get to do it all over again. If nothing else, messing with these trucks has leveled up my wrench game a lot. Cheers.


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[PD1744]

199,994 miles. Was a productive morning. The fuel pump deal snowballed into a fiasco that went from a 2 hour job to a week and half long evolution. All good now and several lessons learned.

Oil change and transfer case fluid change.





Disconnected the sway bar to see how I like it, checked the valve springs on bank 1 (all good) and changed the PCV valve while I was over there.





Was a productive morning. List is shrinking.


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[PD1744]

Plugging and chugging away.

Update on the sway bar situation; I like it. No sway and mid perch feels nearly perfect for me. I haven’t noticed any additional body roll but front moves much better. I’ve been without sways on the 4Runner (on and off) for probably 9 years and it’s drastic in the amount of body roll you get but also in how much better the suspension works. I approve of this mod.

Applied a ceramic coating:



Threw a stubby antenna on there. My factory whip was catching stuff all the time:



Put new auxiliary pods on the 4Runner so I used one of the ones that came out as a reverse light on the Raptor. One of my justifications for pulling the trigger on that expensive GJ brake light was it would keep me from having to install flush mounts in the bumper. Turned out to not solve my issue as the GJ light throw is too far out so I still couldn’t see anything right behind me. Came up with a solution using parts I already had. Wired to the trailer plug:



Flushed the power steering and brake fluid. Both were nasty. Fun fact: This truck is the first I’ve worked on were the return is actually lower than the suction. So no real method I see to flush without getting at least a little air in the system. Seems to purge quickly enough though. Brakes feel absolutely amazing now. Night and day difference. Nice stiff pedal. You can see what I pulled out. PS in the rear working right to left. The brake fluid the far right bottle was just what came out of the reservoir!! Disgusting:



Started changing the rest of the bulbs over to LED. Reverse and tags:



Always hard to take pictures of lights. Funny that the Baja Designs is the warmest of the bunch.

Interior:



I’ve got puddle lights and new rubber air deflector radiator shrouds inbound. It for now.


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[PD1744]

LED puddle lights





Replaced upper control arms. Shout out to Rock Auto. First I don’t understand how these Raptor parts are like $50 each. Even for the 4Runner a factory replacement Moog arm is still $150. Whatever, I’ll take it. Parts showed up at my door 25 hours from when I clicked ‘buy’. Insane.





Air deflector/radiator shrouds:





Bath time



Over 190k miles now.


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[BenBB]

Looking great!! Damn dude, I don't know how I missed this thread but I've done like 8 out of 10 of the same exact things on my '13 haha! I'm only at 183k miles heh, but was another West Texas truck with similar issues. Did you get anywhere on the A/C? I finally got mine sorted, it damn sure will freeze your ass out if it's working right, have you taken a peek at the evap core? If not, pull that blower motor back out and cram your phone up there for a pic (alternatively remove the solid-state resistor for a better view), I'd post a pic of mine before cleaning but it's frickin' gross lol! What's next??

 

[PD1744]

Looking great!! Damn dude, I don't know how I missed this thread but I've done like 8 out of 10 of the same exact things on my '13 haha! I'm only at 183k miles heh, but was another West Texas truck with similar issues. Did you get anywhere on the A/C? I finally got mine sorted, it damn sure will freeze your ass out if it's working right, have you taken a peek at the evap core? If not, pull that blower motor back out and cram your phone up there for a pic (alternatively remove the solid-state resistor for a better view), I'd post a pic of mine before cleaning but it's frickin' gross lol! What's next??

Thank you sir! Gorgeous rig you got there.

Yeah, A/C is where I'm happy with it now. I really didn't see anything in the evap core out of the ordinary. Just pinning the fresh air door shut made all the difference. Really wish I would have done that before taking it to the dealer, but the haste was just out of making sure my family was comfortable. A secondary bonus I get from always recirculating air is that, before, the cabin used to get really dusty pretty quickly due to lack of a cabin filter. Now it doesn't.

As far as what's next; not too terribly much actually:

- Still need to do the front diff fluid
- After seeing the bushings on the upper arms, I think I'm comfortable just doing the lower ball joints and not fooling with the bushings right now. There's really not a lot of good information on replacement bushings for the lowers and replacing bushings is a PITA. Complete arms are pretty expensive on these as well.
- Still need to have a second key made
- Down the road I plan on doing the transmission filter and new lead frame while I'm in there. I think I'm actually going to do my first transmission replacement of my father in laws 6R80 on his 2011 F150 next week. We did his FIRST tune-up not too long ago on his work truck with over 300k miles on it. Original plugs. Insane. And it has that 3.7 liter V6 that nobody talks about.
- Bedside reinforcement stiffeners
- Might investigate a dead pedal option
- Deavers at some point

That's it really. My progress is slowed by the fact that I'm maintaining/building two rigs at the same time, so I just tackle things as time and budget allow. A couple big'ish' ticket items for the 4Runner coming up (re-gearing and full skids), so that takes attention away from the Raptor, but she's at a point where I'm feeling pretty happy with it (both are really)... As long as nothing else breaks.

What's next for you?

 

[BenBB]

Very nice, I'm pretty sure the previous owner of mine never used recirc, hence the dust and gunk packed in the evap. You oughta do some threads in the DIY section, I'm sure there's a ton of others that would appreciate it besides myself heh. On that note, I did one on lower balljoints, definitely go with OEM there as I tried Moog and had to redo 'em with Motorcraft. Same as you I couldn't find LCA bushings but I decided the same, they damn sure don't look bad enough to merit replacing the entire LCA (and at that point I might as well upgrade haha!). Been there on the second key also, mine only came with one, I found an OEM uncut blank on Amazon, had a local locksmith cut it, and had to have the dealer program it (and technically probably disable the lost one); unfortunately you can program a 3rd yourself but not a 2nd. That's crazy the little 3.7L plugs lasted 300k, was there any electrode left?!? What's he going with for the new trans? You going to core the old one or tear into it? Never hurts to have a spare...

Next on mine is chasing another frontend clunk, nothing major but just annoying heh, need to retorque everything, like you I pulled the swaybar and prefer it without. Waiting to see if I can score any Black Friday deals on the GJ third brake light, BD 30" light bar and an S2 for the rear bumper. Wanted to redo the hood decal but kinda missed my window of summer heat to assist in removal, that'll probably wait 'til Spring along with a reflective tailgate decal and gloss between the front & rear door windows. Will likely work on the wheelwells then too (hammer pinch welds, Line-X or Rustoleum bedliner on the rear). Definitely wanting a dead pedal, check out Evil Manufacturing, and ditto on the bed supports, I'm thinking GJ Motorsports but considering KHC and SVC. I really need to diamond plate the inner tailgate, catch can is on the short list too, as is Gen 2 rears if I happen upon them. Then there's the long list haha! It never ends, and this year I went and got a bass boat so yeah, same deal dividing my time/money between two toys and never enough of either one lol!

BTW badass 4runner, post pics or a link if ya got a thread elsewhere on it, really curious what 8-banger you crammed in there...