87 4runner *progression/regression*

[bruise82]

Hi.... Here's the progress that I've made with my 87 4Runner. I bought it bone stock with the exception of some chrome  bumpers.

In that pic, its got a 4" IFS lift and 32's.... It was cool for a high school kid w/ little to no disposable income.
I then moved to AZ for school, knowing the wheeling would be different I started researching SAS kits. Going with the  kit was a given.  I ordered the kit with 4" front springs w/ 2" shackles and 4" rears w/ 2.5" shackles from Dean. The axle was gone over and built using 30 spline Longs, a junkyard scored 4.88 third w/ a mystery locker and billet 6 stud knuckles.

some AZ ifs wheeling hardcore eh?



needless to say the ass end sagged a lot and it looked like  So I called up Marlin and talked to Dave. He sent me out a set of 5" springs in exchange for the saggy 4's.    Now that the truck had some suspension travel, it was time to get some tires and see how she could do... I scored a set of 37" mt/rs for $250 and some wheels for $40 so i was set.



the first wheeling trip was 100 miles away in Jerome, AZ. all the paint was still fresh and the springs were pretty stiff but it did good. I had my first encounter with a tree on this trip 

same spot on Sunflower Mine Trail w/ new front end


next i picked up a second hand 4.7 case w/ a twin stick and cryo'd internals... so i started trying a little more difficult trails 


and hitting rocks...

shortly after all of this, i blew up the motor
Note: engines with already low compression; DO NOT LIKE GM TOP ENGINE CLEANER! (whoops)
Once i got the new motor in, I went wheeling in Florence Junction, on that trip I broke all 4 passenger side knuckle studs, had my transfer case come apart from my transmission and destroy my rear ring and pinion... what a trip! 

but after all of that the truck is up and going. ARP studs were installed, a new gear set was set up, and the t-case bolts  were tightened....

and I'm back to crawling!

[AaronB]

nice runner, good progress.

[topar]

  Nice Runner!

[skipnrocks]

Cool truck man,  it looks like you have rocks in the back though LOL.

[highridin4x4]

Good looking runner. How long did it take you to do the sas? I want to get rid of my IFS.

[bruise82]

thanks for the props, It's come a long way, thats for sure.
There weren't any rocks in the back of the truck, just my IFS on a pallet.
it took about 24 hours i didn't do it straight, just kept track of the hours i spent working on it