Porch Transfer Case Rebuild (Lotso Pics) (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Dec 27, 2005
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Location
Tucson / Vail, AZ
Website
kartchcustoms.com
Well, here's the writeup I promised in this thread..........

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=82361

The title says "Porch rebuild" and that's exactly what this write-up is. I'm currently waiting for our new home to be built and have almost all of my tools and such stored away right now. I couldn't wait and decided it would be "interesting" to see how I could do the job without impact wrenches, a full set of tools, a shop, etc. Well, I did it and came up with a few tricks in the process that could be of use.

Ok, the normal disclaimer crap.... I'm not a mechanic, i usually don't rebuild stuff on a porch, my methods may not be perfect, this stuff is heavy and can kill you, etc, etc, etc. Don't try this at home. Wait, I guess thats the point! :D

The transfer case in the 79 FJ40 I bought was in really bad shape. When I pulled the cone shaped cover off I was greeted by metal sludge with all sorts and sized of metal pieces. I found a fairly low mileage tcase and decided to only go through this once so I ordered a rebuild kit from Manafre.

As far as the kit goes, I have to say it is very complete (with one exception). I has all the gaskets, o-rings, bearings, etc. to do a complete rebuild. There are no directions however so you are on your own in that department. When I say with one exception, what I'm refering to is that the kit does not contain a shim kit which you may or may not need to complete the job corectly.

This write up will be quite picture heavy so dialup people will hate it. People who have done a bunch of rebuilds will think it rediculous but I hope it will help first timers out.

Well, here goes!
 
Tool List

OK, This will be a list of tools I used to do the job. I'll add to the list as I go as I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff. As you will see, this will be fairly minimal considering my tools are all locked away. Just about everything listed I needed to complete the job and would say is almost necessary with a few exceptions.

- Toyota Land Cruiser Repair Manual - Chassis & Body

This was a great reference manual to keep everything going along in order and to keep track of where parts go. I would like to post a scan of the diagrams that show all the parts and where they fit sometime and hope I don't get sued by Toyota.

- Basic metric socket set. I got a cheapy set from the local parts store that went up to 19mm. You will also need a small extension. The kit came with one.
- Box end wrenches. You will be using the 10mm, 12mm, and 17mm wrenches and sockets a lot in the rebuild.
- 1-1/16" socket or 27mm socket. Either will work on staked nuts.
- 1/2" breaker bar
- Small sledge
- Soft mallet
- High Lift jack handle or similar pipe
- a 2x4 for using as a spacer, "bench", pry surface, protection for setting bearings, etc. Trust me on this, you will find many uses in the shade tree version of the rebuid for it.
- Small flat prybar
- tons of shop rags. I bought the pack of red shop towels
- nitrile gloves or something similar. Gear oil is a mess and I think you can actually smell the rotting dinosaurs. I wore gloves throughout the entire process and would highly recommend it.
- Zip locks to keep track of bolts.
- sharpy to label the zip locks
- Flat head screwdriver. A couple large ones and a small one.
- small cold chisel
- dremel tool (optional or mandatory depending)
- small floor jack or come-along depending on how you lower the tcase and whether you lower the whole assembly (tcase and tranny) or just the tcase. I'll talk about that next.
- Vise grips
- Solvent of your choice (I used gasoline) and an oil pan of some sort to soak stuff in.
- Dry ice (optional as you'll see later)
- Some "sacrificial" nuts and bolts.
- come-a-long, webbing or rope to lower transmission/tcase if you do it as a unit lowering from above
- hand cleaner
There's more. I'll add to the list as I go.
 
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Tcase or Tcase and Tranny, that is the question!!

I did a lot of reading on whether it made sense to remove the tcase by itself or remove the tcase/tranny assembly together. The general consensus it that it's easer to remove the whole assembly.

Well, going against wisdom, I decided I didn't want to go through the hassle of dropping the whole assembly. Well, It can be done. The only problem was that I found out I needed to replace the tranny as well because the output shaft was buggered up.

So basically I've gotten a taste of both methods. I removed just the tcase, and then had to go and drop the tranny as well.

Having done so I would have to say the following..............

REMOVE THE TRANNY AND TCASE AS AN ASSEMBLY.

Please, please trust me on this. It's not that much more work and is probably much easier and safer in the long run. You also run the risk of damaging your new seal between the tranny and tcase when reinstalling just the tcase. This is a vital seal that if damaged can cause fluid to pump from tranny to tcase (or visa-versa, I can't remember) leaving one of them without lubrication. That is not a good thing!

Anyway, if you didn't catch it the first time, Remove the tranny and tcase as an assembly. :D

My write up will show the removal of the tcase by itself. But I will explain the process of removing the whole assembly first.
 
If I were smart I would have done the following to remove the tcase/tranny assembly. I know it works because I used it to lower my tranny.

1. Remove drive shafts (front and rear)

2. Remove speedo cable. (Located just to the front of the parking brake assembly). I couldn't get mine to screw off so I removed the keeper nut and just pulled the whole assembly out.

3. Take off the transmission shift lever. Just take off the boot. Then, I used two large flat head screw drivers to push down on opposite sides of the base and then turn clockwise to release the lever. It was really easy on mine.

4. Remove the transfer case shifter dust cover. Remove the transfer case shift lever.

5. Remove the transmission cover. It's just a bunch of 10mm screws.

6. The manual says to remove the back up light switch. Probably so it doesn't get crushed. I didn't do this, so do what you will.

7. I have a front cage so for my support I put a long 2x4 across the front stringers of the roll cage. From this I suspended a come-a-long. I then used some old tie down straps to make a cradle and then attached that to the come along. Then jack up the come-a-long just until the hoist is just holding the weight of the unit.

8. Remove the four bolts that hold the tranny to the bellhousing. These are 17mm bolts.

9. Slide assembly back until clear and then lower the assembly slowly.

OK, back to removing just the tcase by itself. I hope this doesn't confuse things.
 
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Ok, back to how I was doing it. You should be able to follow along and adapt to your application. Obviously, if you have the tranny/tcase on the floor you will follow a simiar procedure to separate the two.

Anyway, I bought an el cheapo floor jack and placed it on some plywood I used for a base in this whole operation. The cruiser is parked on a pea gravel driveway so I needed a solid base. I positioned the jack so the handle was facing the front of the vehicle. The jack was placed so it lifted the tranny just enough to take the weight off and support everything for when I took the rear crossmember off.
 
Image 1.JPG

Ok, this shows the jack in the lower left. Yeah, I used a small brick to bridge the gap. Yeah, I know this is unsafe, stupid, etc. Use a wood block for this, get a higher jack, let the air out of your tires, whatever. I live on the edge! :D

The lower arrow shows where the speedo cable is. This can either be unscrewed (I couldn't get mine to budge) or you can remove the whole assembly by removing the 12mm screw and keeper dealio.

The upper arrow shows the rear cone shaped cover removed. You can also see all the gloup the PO put in there. Nice, very nice. It was at this point I found the sludge of metal.

- Remove the rear crossmember assembly. I can't rember the size of the nut. I'll find out and post it.

- Remove the staked nut. I just used a breaker bar and extended it with the handle of my high-lift jack.

As far as staked nuts. No Worries! I have never had to "unstake" a staked nut before removing it. Just let leverage be your friend. I blocked the tires so the vehicle wouldn't roll, put it in gear and then removed the nut.
Image 1.JPG
 
There are five bolts that need to be removed to separate the transfer case from the tranny. Three are exposed and two are under inspection cover where a PTO would go. Pic shows it.

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After removing the cover you will see two of the bolts show with arrows. Remove. If I remember, these are 17mm.
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Here are the three other bolts that need to be removed to separate the tcase from the tranny.

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Go ahead and remove them and bag them along with the other two removed from under cover.
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Before you try and separate the tcase, you need to remove the linkage to shift from high to low range. I was able to do this from under the vehicle pretty easy. When you look at it you will see what needs to be removed and what just needs to be moved out of the way.

This picture shows how I have removed the nut so I can slide the linkage off the front wheel drive engagement. The lower arrow shows the "high/low" range portion of the linkage that is unhooked and then removed with the tcase.
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This next picture shows the link that was left on the tcase after I removed it from the vehicle.

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If you were removing the tcase/tranny assembly you would be able to remove the whole assembly pretty easy.

Don't be intimidated by the linkage. When you look at it, it really is pretty easy to see how it all hooks up and how it is removed.
Image 6.jpg
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When you remove the staked nut there will then be a thick washer followed by a spacer. Behind that will be a bearing that will be removed by separating the tcase from the tranny.

At this point you are ready to separate the tcase from the tranny.
From my reading this can be as easy as the two falling apart to having to make a puller to get them apart. Poser has a rig that he made up. I thought mine was at the impossible end of the spectrum until I realized I hadn't completely taken off one of the top bolts. :doh:

Once I removed that it took a little coaxing to get the tcase off the transmission shaft. I was able to get them separated about half an inch. At this point I let the tcase swing down on the transmission shaft until it was pointing vertical.

Image 7.jpg

Here you can see the tcase in the vertical position and the bearing part way off. Once I got that half an inch I kind of used the tcase as a slide hammer to work the bearing and the tcase assembly off the tranny shaft. I put a small tire below to catch the tcase. I didn't have concrete to worry about hitting. Also, be aware that when you slide the tcase to a point, the gear and another spacer will fall out the inspection hole. Be ready to grab those two and remove them as you go. I bagged that whole assembly in a large ziplock.

Again, the tcase is heavy. Be careful and think ahead how you are going to lower it. If you listened to my advice above you would be lowering the whole assembly from above in some sort of controlled manner. Just be careful!
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I knew that my tcase was going to be shot so I found a good used tcase to rebuild instead. I pulled my old one apart just to see what was wrong and there were major chucks of gear teeth missing on a couple of the gears. The front drive selector was also rusted to crap and the shaft was bent. PO said tcase and tranny were just replaced. Whatever!

You will now have the tcase ready to rebuild. I spent a quite a bit of time cleaning up the outside of the case I was going to rebuild. I used acetone, a bunch of shop rags, etc. to soak, scrape, and get the majority of gunk off. Then I used a wire brush on a drill to get into the nooks and crannies. I have found it's worth the time and effort to have a clean canvas so to speak.

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Here's a shot of the case all cleaned up. When I received it, it had years of gunk and mud caked on. It took some doing, but it's sure nice to have it all cleaned up.
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The next step is to remove the staked nuts at the front and rear of the tcase. Again, no worries! Don't worry about trying to "unstake" the nuts. It's just a waste of time.

Of course, my porch garage doesn't have an impact wrench or any Toyota special tools so I improvised.

To remove the nut at the parking brake end the first thing I did was remove the cover to expose the gears. I then rolled up a red rag and turned the gears until the rag was stopping the gears from rotating. I then used my breaker bar with a 1-1/8" socket as well as the handle from my high-lift to simply remove the nut.

You can see what I'm talking about in this pic.
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I guess I could have done the same with the front nut as well but I did something a little different. On this one I used a couple of sacrificial bolts/nuts. I bolted the longest wrench I had to the driveshaft flange and then used a second bolt to leverage against. Again, using my trusting breaker bar, high lift handle combo removed the nut.

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Good thorough start. When it's done make sure to submit it into the tech links.
 
That is great!!! It gives me courage to work on my own stuff.
 
Well, here we go again. Now we're starting to dig into the case itself. The next step is to remove the cases cover and then the shift fork shaft and assembly.

Once you are inside then take out the cotter pin that goes across the top of the shift fork. That will allow you to remove the large screw. Inside is a spring and a ball. This is the assembly that shifts the tcase from high to low range. You can see in this picture the detents on the shaft. The spring acts on the ball to "put into gear" so to speak. Pretty simple but cool stuff.

Then next step is to drive the shaft out. Take off the 12mm bolt that holds the shaft in place. Mine was pretty tight getting out. I found that by driving the shaft a little bit in the wrong direction and then driving it out the correct direction, it seemed to loosen things up a bit. Just know that it will come out!


The arrow on the left shows the hole where you take out the screw, spring, and ball. The arrows on the right show the detents that the ball slips into when you shift. One detent for low range, high range, and neutral. Here the shaft is almost out. Once the shaft is removed bag the whole assembly in a ziplock.


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Then remove the shift assembly for 4 wheel drive or in other words the mechanism that activates the front axle.

Pic
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Here you can see the shift collar that the shift fork fits over.

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