Topic: The Betty Goat, 1987 4runner restoration/surf adventure truck.

[FjordWarrden]

Hello everyone, Im finally getting around to starting a build thread for the Betty Goat.
Brief history: I bought the truck when I was 17 sold it when I was 22 bought it back again after the head was blown, got a new head, but before I could install it I ran off to Hawaii. When I moved back, quite a while later and needed a vehicle I got back to putting the new head on. Then I got married had a baby, sold poor Betty for a more family friendly vehicle. 8 years later I found here again.
It had been parked for 6 years and left for dead. I hauled it out for the price of a u-haul trailer rental and $657 in DMV back fees. got it running in a week, only to discover it had spun some crank bearings 
So after another year I got the funds for a rebuild. Ended up having 209Yota1 in Modesto do the rebuild, it should be done any day now. In the mean time I have been working on the rest.
I pulled apart the front end an cleaned an repainted the Knuckles and hubs, installed new bearings, and gave some love to the Locking hubs.
There is a slight drama with one of the new bearings, (working it out with Marlin Crawler right now).  Replaced a outer CV axle and joint.
I also dropped the Tranny and T-case and cleaned 30 years of grease and grim, replaced the input and out put seals on the tranny and the output seal for the T-case., along with new shifter boots.
I had gotten some parts from a 95  V6 4runner a few weeks ago. Namely the front a rear diffs ( factory 4.56) the radiator and the master and booster brake cylinders along with the calipers. The booster and master look to be just about new. the radiator looked good but upon flushing it at home I discovered it had almost no flow.So after a bit of research on the cost of repairs and the state of modern coolants and such I bought a replacement aluminum KOYORAD radiator, its a beauty! and the same price as a CSF brass/copper/lead unit, (when the KOYO is on sale) but about 40% of the weight, and an increased capacity over my factor unit.
I've been running into all kinds of little problems and bigger ones that I would love to discuss.

I'll post pictures as soon as I can figure out the proper resizing, its amazing how big phone photo files are now.

[FjordWarrden [OP]]

I'm working on two specific issues right now.

1) I ordered  a IFS front wheel bearing kit for both sides. The passenger side went great followed the FSM procedure and had no dramas, its smooth and quite and set to 9.5 lbs of rolling resistance with the adjustment nut torqued to 35 ft-lb. However the other side is seemed to go just as well, except when I installed the hub on the spindle and torqued it down to 43 ft-lb to do the 3 turns both ways to settle in the bearings, I immediately noticed that the bearings where neither silent nor smooth, not terrible but noticeable. I then followed the rest of the procedure- loosen, re-tighten to 18 ft-lb  check preload/rolling resistance, it as already at 10.5 lbs, and the noise and feel was the same. So I pulled the hub off and checked for any obvious damage to the bearings or cups, nothing. I did notice a small piece of the outer most dust shield (the one that seals around the outer edge of the back of the hub and attaches to the steering knuckle) had been damaged and flipped down, so I removed the offending edge and  tired again, no change. Next morning I called Marlin Crawler and they asked for a video of the hub in motion to see if they could hear what I'm hearing.

In the mean time I had issues on the other side as well.
2) as I was putting together the other side I saw that the groove in the end of the CV axle, where the snap ring goes was not visible when the spacer is in place. So I started to thread in the axle keeper bolt into the end of the axle so I could give it a tug, as I torqued to the prescribed 23 ft-lbs, the already light resistance went slack, broken. So a trip to the store for a extractor and a new M8x12x1.25. Still no luck in getting the axle to come through any farther, this is a factory Toyota axle, on top of that the snap rings I had ordered turn out to be rear axle snap rings. After some hardy internet searching I came apon a yotatech thread discussing this same issue. The conclusion of which is that a some point Toyota changed the design of the seal on the end of the CV axle, and the seal that presses into the back of the knuckle. If you have the new CV axle and a old style seal on your knuckle then they won't seat properly and the axle won't extend far enough to fit a snap ring on the end
So back to the Toyota parts dealers and the hunt for a few new seals, bolts, and snap rings.  its amazing how fast $100 goes in Toyota parts!
This build has become amazingly expensive.

Any one have any experience with either a bad bearing form a Marlin kit, or not being able to get a snap ring on the end of your front axle?

[FjordWarrden [OP]]

Got the call from yota1, the engine is ready to pickup! I'll be going up Monday morning to get it. I also will be doing a long term review of the Yota1 engine rebuild just to get a little more info out there., probably start a new thread just for that purpose in the engine section.

Also I installed the 95 v6  master brake and booster everything lined up great, only problem is I forgot to get the other side of the fluid level sensor harness, so I'll have to rustle one of those up. I ordered 1995 v6 rotors from NAPA and pads so we'll see if it all bolts up. I may have to trim the backing plate/dust shield slightly to fit the larger calipers.
There is a a larger spacer that sits between the fire wall and my original booster, I did not install this with the new booster. It appears to all line up perfectly without...we shall see.

[FjordWarrden [OP]]

I picked up the engine on Monday. Yota1 in Modesto is a really nice shop. Clean, organized and they stock just about every Toyota OEM part i could ever want.  Something worth mentioning; When they processes  engine core parts, the core deposit is itemized. So even though my crank and rods where shot I was on;y out $75 of the $400 deposit. The engine Looks great, although I haven't unwrapped it yet. I'm have been working on the 2nd gen V6 brake swap. So far its been fairly easy. only mod so far has been to the rotor shields, they had to be trimmed about 3/8" on either side to fit the larger calipers, this could of course be eliminated entirely by eliminating them, but my thinking is, all manufacturers run these shields on disc brakes for some reason, so it must be fairly important to justify the cost.

[FjordWarrden [OP]]

So I got the brakes mounted up a few days ago, just waiting on a a reverse bleeder to finish them off. I ended up getting re-manufactured calipers as the old V6 ones I puled where pretty corroded and seized up. The core charge on these are more than the new ones.

I have spent the last few days cleaning out the old coolant pipes, there are three primary ones, and mine where all clogged up. and corroded, but to replace them would cost $330! so I did about 14 hours of vinegar and roding-out and I believe they will be good for a few more years at least.

[FjordWarrden [OP]]

Big problem: I foolishly tore the fule line that come off the hard line supply to the fuel filter inlet when I was pulling the engine, I didn't sweat it at the time, thinking I woul jsut get a new one....wrong! turns out they are discontinued and out of stock. Does any one know of an alternative to this fuel line? I'm wondering if a 2rz or 3rz or even a 3vz line would work?