Project Cherry Bomb

[CreeperSleeper]

Well, I sold off my 40 project that stalled out and my 100. This is the replacement rig that I am picking up tomorrow. She is a 1991 Toyota 4Runner that I decided to name Cherry Bomb. It is Cardinal Red with grey interior (hence the Cherry), 3.0l V6 (hence the bomb), 5-Speed, stock cased, and SAS. The front axle is set up with a high pinion 3rd, 5.29 gears, Detroit locker, and 30-spline chromos. The rear also has 5.29's and a Detroit. The suspension in TG springs with Bilstiens. Bumpers and sliders are TG with HID driving lights and Warn winch. She also has 36x13.50x15 Iroks with less than 2000 miles on them and M/T aluminium wheels. All and all it is a very clean Runner and I'm excited to get back out on the "big boy" trails. The plan is to make this a capable wheeler that I can still use for adventuring. Think of a truck that I can drive down to Rubicon, wheel the trail, and drive home. Modifications and adjustments will be made with those goals in mind. Without further adieu, here are the pics!

 

[Clawhammer]

For overland and mixed (highway/trail) driving, I think I'd reconsider those tires. Something more all-terrain and lighter (maybe tall but skinnier?) probably. Is it just me or does the nose look like it's a little up in the air? Maybe add a leaf in the rear or lower the front some?

Regardless, looks like a great starting point, especially if you're planning an engine swap. Can't wait to see where this goes! :lurk:

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Yes, the bias ply Iroks are a bit aggressive. I will probably end up selling them as a set. It's too bad because I really love those tires off road.

You are correct, it does have a bit of the typical 4Runner butt sag. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. We will see how it works and go from there.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

I picked up the truck Saturday morning and spent all day trying to get the back window to roll down so I could open the tailgate. I ended up cleaning the switch on the console and that got it working. The keyed switch outside still doesn't work, but I will save that for another day. For now it isn't bothering me... Yet.

I ended up taking her up to TSF yesterday to test it out. Everything works flawless other then a bit of noise from the steering pump in the rocks. I will look into that a bit before Cruisin the Woods. It definitely could use 4.7's in the transfer case on the rougher stuff. Especially going downhill. All in all, I am impressed! The cruise control even works and it cruises at 65 mph like it's nothing. Here is the only pic I got because I was by myself:

I LOVE the Iroks, but I'm still considering selling the tire and wheel combo to put a radial tire back on. I think it would work better for what I am wanting to do with the truck as a whole. Now I just need to get a few things dialed in and she will be ready to go!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Well I am way past due for an update! I had a lot that I wanted to accomplish before Cruisin' the Woods, so I was working pretty hard at getting everything done. I had bought a 12 circuit aux fuse block for the 100, so I figured I would wire that in to run all of my accessories. I used 4 gauge wire from the battery through a 100 amp fuse and located the block between the dash and the center console. I forgot how compact everything is on these 4Runners! Once that was installed, I rewired my CB and amp to it. That cleaned up some wiring in the engine bay. Next I was able to install my 2M Ham radio and hard-wire my fridge. The last thing on my rushed to-do list was swap the front tires left to right so that they were pointing the correct direction.

Upon loading up the truck for camping/wheeling for four days, it became apparent that I need to add some lift / spring rate to my rear springs. She had enough cali-tail to make Snoop Dogg proud!

It was so bad that I actually wore through my mudflaps. As of now, I'm thinking of adding an add-a-leaf and possibly longer shackles. The other option would be to replace the rear springs all together. I currently have Trail Gear 5” springs on the back, which are 56” long and only have a spring rate of 195 lbs. All-Pro makes a spring that is the same length but 6” of lift and 250 lbs. I could also look into having a set made for me by Alcan. I'm just not sure what the best action will be at this time. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Other than that, I am very impressed with this truck! I have a few other things I would like to address, but the suspension is first on my list. Next will be baselining the engine since I have no history on it and figuring out a way to make the steering easier in 4Lo. That Detroit in the front makes for a workout! The other thing I need to figure out is how to get all of my trail equipment organized and secured.

 

[Clawhammer]

Upon loading up the truck for camping/wheeling for four days, it became apparent that I need to add some lift / spring rate to my rear springs. She had enough cali-tail to make Snoop Dogg proud!

It was so bad that I actually wore through my mudflaps. As of now, I'm thinking of adding an add-a-leaf and possibly longer shackles. The other option would be to replace the rear springs all together. I currently have Trail Gear 5” springs on the back, which are 56” long and only have a spring rate of 195 lbs. All-Pro makes a spring that is the same length but 6” of lift and 250 lbs. I could also look into having a set made for me by Alcan. I'm just not sure what the best action will be at this time. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

An AAL seems like a band aid solution on a truck this built. Replacing them seems like the best solution, if not the cheapest. Have you thought about swapping in Chevy 63" springs?

 

[Boonie Buster]

Good looking setup!

I would replace the rear springs, Allpro's sound like a good option. I think the Chebby 63's will be too soft, they flex really well, but I fell they're too soft and you'll be adding leaves to the pack to make up for that softness.

What height springs are you running up front?

I love me some Irok's too! I used to run them in the 36" and 39" flavors on my SAS Chevy S-10. They definitely won't last long on the highways, but I think they performed very well in the PNW!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

An AAL seems like a band aid solution on a truck this built. Replacing them seems like the best solution, if not the cheapest. Have you thought about swapping in Chevy 63" springs?

An AAL and/or longer shackles ARE a band-aid solution. The truck will eventually have a RTT, rear tire/dual jerry can carrier, and all of my camping/wheeling gear. I "think" that the All-Pro 6" leaves will level out the truck as it sits now, but IDK if it will keep up with the weight once everything is finished. I may just do an good AAL for now and have custom springs made once everything is installed since an AAL is $80 and All-Pro springs are $499.

Good looking setup!

I would replace the rear springs, Allpro's sound like a good option. I think the Chebby 63's will be too soft, they flex really well, but I fell they're too soft and you'll be adding leaves to the pack to make up for that softness.

What height springs are you running up front?

I love me some Irok's too! I used to run them in the 36" and 39" flavors on my SAS Chevy S-10. They definitely won't last long on the highways, but I think they performed very well in the PNW!

Thank you! I agree that 63's would be too soft and long for what I want to do. The springs I currently have are 56" (9" longer than a stock Toyota rear spring). Looking at the mounting points on the frame, I really wouldn't want to go longer than that. My current springs are Trail Gear 5" front and rear.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

I have no patience... Took advantage of autoanything.com's free overnight shipping and ordered long leaf AALs from Skyjacker.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Last night my buddy came over and helped me install the AAL. It all went together relatively smoothly. The only main issue we came across was Skyjacker designed the AAL around a stock leaf pack. Since TG's leafs are 56”s long, the center pin hole needed to be moved about 2” over. I just drilled a new hole and called it good.

Before:

After:

It is definitely stiffer in the rear, but that makes it drive a lot better on the street. I also had my buddy and my neighbor climb up on the back bumper to see how it would handle being loaded down. That was a little over 500 lbs on the bumper and it only squatted about an inch. That should be perfect for my needs.

Another note, I am very impressed with Skyjacker. When you turn the instructions over, this is what you see:

As a Christian, it is refreshing to see a large company that isn't afraid to proclaim it's beliefs. It may make them unpopular and against what most would consider good business practice, but it made me proud that they have the balls to minister to people by meeting them where they are.

Last but not least, I drove it to work today just to get everything settled in. I want to put some miles on him and re-torque everything before wheeling it again at the end of the month. This is in my level parking garage at work. Man he looks good!

 

[Boonie Buster]

That looks a lot better!

Next time though... you need to make a decision a bit faster, overnighting parts, then installing them the next day... just not fast enough! :coffeedrink::coffeedrink::coffeedrink:

 

[CreeperSleeper]

LOL! No kidding... I am looking forward to a quiet, relaxing evening tonight.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Oh! And here is a quick pic showing where I mounted the aux fuse block and 2m radio:

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Well I guess it is time for an update... A local 4x4 club was hosting their annual poker run last Saturday, so I figured that would be a good chance to see how the spring modifications worked. I must say that even with just my trail gear in the back, the suspension worked very well! The 4Runner has enough weight to still work the suspension. It's not super flexy, but the Detroits make that less of an issue. All in all, the 10% loss in capability on the trail was over-shadowed by the 90% increase in functionality.

Now on to the bad side of things... Ever since I bought the Runner, the PS would whine in 4wd. I knew that hydro-assist would be in the future plans because she was a workout to wheel. Well the PS pump decided to fail at a horrible time while navigating a trick section of trail. I was using a bit of momentum because of the mud and ended up laying the Runner on it's side. It happened pretty slowly and the slider took the brunt of the flop, so that was a blessing... And my girlfriend wasn't scared off by her first flop experience! LOL! Another participant was able to rock the truck back onto it's tires and help get me up and out of the trial.

I was very luck that the damage wasn't that bad. This is all of the sheet metal damage...

After that, we stuck to gravel roads to finish the Poker Run. 36x13.50 bias Iroks with 8 psi of air is very difficult to control with no power steering pump! I have decided to upgrade to Trail Gear's Rock Assault 1600 PSI pump kit. For now that is all I'm going to do, but that will give me the flow and pressure to run a ram in the future. I may have to do a work party soon to get that installed for snow wheeling. All in all, I am glad it wasn't worse and I am reminded how awesome people are on the trail. A big thanks to all that help!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

With the Christmas Tree Run coming up this weekend, I was pushing hard to get my power steering fixed this week. *I ordered Trail Gear's 1650 psi pump kit thinking that it would be a great upgrade for the time being until I can put a ram on for hydro assist. *Reading the instructions showed that the cooler that comes with the kit wouldn't work with an A/C truck because of the A/C condenser fan is where the cooler is supposed to mount. *I ended up pulling the bumper and grill off to take a look and see what I could do instead. *It may be a wheeler, but I really like having A/C!

The truck has a A/T cooler in the radiator that isn't being used and my original thought was to use that as my PS cooler. *After some Google-****, I decided that wouldn't be a good solution because the coolant would raise the PS fluid temps. *My compromise was to buy a single pass cooler to mount below the passenger side headlight. *The next night my buddy Mike, TonsOFun, Mr. Jitz and his son came over to help knock this out. *The hope was to get it finished in one night starting at 8:30 pm... On a weeknight. *(I have awesome friends!) *In typical Trail Gear fashion, the instructions sucked. *It also is more of a "one size kinda fits nothing" ordeal. *It seemed like every step took some ingenuity to figure out. *I am so glad that I wasn't tackling this on my own! *When we got to the part of mounting the cooler, my friends did what they should and laughed at me. *The fact of the matter was the mini cooler I bought wasn't going to do a thing. *I finally came to the realization that steering is more important than A/C and the fan needed to go. *The next road block was the cooler was sized to not have the A/C condenser at all, not just the fan. *A little frustrated, we figured out that the mounting holes on the cooler were the same width as the mounting location of the fan. *That would put the cooler lower and out more than it should be, but I could trim the grill where nobody would see and it should work. *We got everything together and started bleeding the system with the engine off. *It just wouldn't bleed! *I swear it seemed like the fluid was multiplying by itself in the system. *Power steering fluid was everywhere... *After about 50 or 60 turns lock to lock, we decided to start the truck to force the fluid through system. *That is when we found a loose banjo fitting on the ABS actuator when it started spraying fluid. *("Oh! *That's why it wouldn't bleed...") *We worked it until the bubbles were mostly gone out and called it a night. *It was about 3:30 in the morning.

The next day I was back at it after work trying to button everything up. *I took the cap off the reservoir and PS fluid came pouring out! *Like I said before, it's like the fluid was multiplying... *Now I'm super confused and slightly worried. *I sucked out some fluid and went back through the bleeding process. *Once again I had very small bubbles, but I wasn't seeing any leaking. *I can't be sure of this because it is hard to look for leaks when everything is wet with fluid and I needed to turn the wheel. *I went until I didn't see bubbles anymore and started putting everything back together. *I trimmed the grill and re-did the connection for my aux lights with a new plug. *I got the bumper up to bolt it down and my winch ran ********** dab into that PS cooler. *I was not happy... *So, everything came back off. *I didn't want to remove any hoses, so my options were limited. *I ended up finding the one spot I could get the cooler, but the only way to secure it was with zip-ties. *I figured if it was good enough for Volkswagen...

Then the process sped up a bit. *I got the grill back on and made sure that nothing was rubbing or touching where it shouldn't be. *All in all, I was happy with how it came out.

I put the bumper back on and everything cleared! *It was about 11:30 and my daughter was asleep so I didn't get a chance to test drive it, but I was overall happy with how it all turned out.

This morning I drove it to work. *It doesn't seem to be leaking or have any more air in the system. *Driving the truck is kinda like driving something with Saginaw steering. *There is almost no resistance in the steering wheel when you are turning on the street. *I am very excited to see how it does off-road. *The downside is this pump is noisy! *Reading the reviews, I was prepared for it but it does make me a little nervous. *It sounds like a supercharger or timing gears on a SBC. *It's not annoying, but it is definitely noticeable. *All in all, I think I will be happy with the upgrade and I am so thankful to everyone that helped! *I guess we will see how he does this weekend.