1989 4Runner R150F Rebuild (1 Viewer)

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I tried the fancy syn gear oils. Always had problem with shifting into 2nd gear, especially when it was cold. Called an engineer buddy that works for Toyota who also has a nice Gen2 truck. He told me to stop, and use Valvoline 75W90.
 
Pappy, I see Valvoline 75W90 is available as synthetic or just regular dino. Both have limited slip additive and both are GL5. Both say ok for NON syncro manual transmissions that specify GL4. Are you running it? I wouldn't imagine any damage but I notice a difference in shifting whenever I run GL5.
 
About to rebuild a grindy 3rd gear r150f myself. Are there year break ax15 gears and counter? With the pre 95 r150 I think there are year breaks for bearings and maybe synchros. I'd love to do this upgrade.
I don't know year breaks specifically, but different years had slight differences. In my R150F, 5th gear was held on to the countershaft with a stake nut, whereas on the new AX15 countershaft I put in, 5th gear is held on by a snap ring.

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Thank you so much for the info. I'm looking for a core as we speak to try this.
 
Pappy, I see Valvoline 75W90 is available as synthetic or just regular dino. Both have limited slip additive and both are GL5. Both say ok for NON syncro manual transmissions that specify GL4. Are you running it? I wouldn't imagine any damage but I notice a difference in shifting whenever I run GL5.
I was told no syn in the tranny. TC and diffs, yes, but not tranny.
 
I've found gl4 to be extremely hard to find locally but stay lube which I believe you be conventional was cheapish for a gallon on Amazon. Still took 4 days to arrive.


I have redline gl4 but it's synthetic, I read good online reviews on it which is why I purchased it. This is the first I heard no synthetic in the r150, this is a bummer as if wasn't cheap...I guess it's tc and diff oil now
 
My trans shifts like it should with the Redline MT 90 and I've been running it for a while. Easier to find than any GL4 is mainly why I am running it. I will get some Sta-lube ordered so I will have it on hand for whenever I change my oil again.

I hope the trans repair is going well for BrickRunner.
 
I got the transmission apart as far as I need to to fix 4th. The synchro for 4th is trashed, the edges of the teeth are smushed and burred, and the thin sections where the hub keys fit are broken or in the process of breaking. Thankfully I found both of the missing bits:

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The 3rd gear synchro had a couple of burrs on it, but no cracking. I had an extra one leftover so I replaced it with the new one.
The 3rd/4th shift fork also had some wear on the 3rd side. Neither the 1st/2nd or 5th forks had any wear.

Now I'm just waiting for the remainder of the new parts to be delivered.
 
Could the damage been done thanks to the bearing retainer you're upgrading with the Marlin crawler retainer plate (play where bearing sits on housing causing gears to pop out)?

I've also seen a lot of mentioning of play on input shafts on the r150/ax15, do you have any recommendations on what to check for? I've read mentions of markings/wear on the input shaft.


I'd purchase and fsm for this but I've read where the fsm isn't much help with the r&r of the 150 internals. There is at least one decent YouTube video on this.

Also any recommendations on the bearing separator sizes to press the gears/bearings off the main shaft?
 
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Could the damage been done thanks to the bearing retainer you're upgrading with the Marlin crawler retainer plate (play)?

I've also seen a lot of mentioning of work input shafts on the r150/ax15, do you have any recommendations on what to check for?


I'd purchase and fsm for this but I've read where the fsm isn't much help with the r&r of the 150 internals. There is at least one decent YouTube video on this.

Also any recommendations on the bearing separator sizes to press the gears/bearings off the main shaft?
Output shaft play in the bearing retainer was one of my thoughts as well, as that would allow the input and output shafts slightly separate.

If you are going to use a used input shaft, you want to check for wear on the tip where in goes into the pilot bearing, as well as wear on the teeth where it engages the shift hub sleeve. I bought a new one, as the gear teeth that drive the countershaft were burned off, but you could check those too.

When I did the rebuild initially, I did the pulling and pressing at a buddy's shop, and used his press and pullers. I don't remember what sizes. I now have my own 20 ton press and a bearing puller with a 1/2in to 4-5/8in jaw, and think i could do the job with these along with random bits of steel tube.

The FSM was super helpful for me, along with taking lots of pictures and putting everything in labeled bags as I went.

A good set of snap ring pliers wouldn't hurt either.
 
I just googled input shafts for the 150 and while I need to verify which model they are less than 90 bucks so if you're like me and don't do this for a living a new input shaft would be cheap insurance.

Thank you again
 
Nuke it from orbit, the only way to be sure.

The Marlin bearing retainer is stout and a nice tight fit.

When I was just about done and installing the shift selector lever, I felt and heard a little tink, ugh!

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Before I tore the transmission apart I had replaced the shifter housing to see if that helped. It didn't prevent the popout, but it did make shifting smoother and tighter!
The pins on the old one were quite wiggly.

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I've put another 4000 miles on it, including an 1100 mile road trip to Tahoe and Owens Valley and back. So far so good!
Fourth gear has had noise since I put it back together. The noise doesn't seem to have changed over the 4000 miles.
I think its the countershaft idling with no load.

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Oil is both easy and hard I suppose- look in the FSM for the proper oil type. GL5 should be used in the diff- it's not yellow metal friendly. I'm using GM synchromesh that I drained out of the Honda- the Honda didn't like it but liked the Pentosin MT2. Visit BITOG- lots of knowledge.
 
A very interesting read, I wish I had access to this when I was rebuilding my r150 in 2020 lol. Anywhere I have all the marlin goodies in mine as well. Along with all new mainshaft gear bearings and support bearings. I replaced all mainshaft gears except 2nd because nobody made a replacement at the time. So my issue is upshifting into 2nd. Pretty darn notchy! I wish I had thought of scuffing up the cone on 2nd when I was reassembling it! So when I broke mine in after rebuild I ran LiquiMoly 80-90 true Dino GL4 in mine for 30 miles. Had to tear it back apart because the stick would vibrate in 3rd. Replaced the synchro hub, 3rd gear, and the shift sleeve and keys. Reassembled and threw in some more LiquiMoly 80-90 and broke it in for about a thousand miles. and switched to redline MT-90. All the other gears are shifting fine, however, upshifting into 2nd and downshifting into 1st are quite annoying. I don't have to force it in. But I do have to wait 3-5 seconds longer than the other gears. So im hoping switching to a different oil would help. What would you guys recommend? Here's some pics of my rig/trans build.

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A very interesting read, I wish I had access to this when I was rebuilding my r150 in 2020 lol. Anywhere I have all the marlin goodies in mine as well. Along with all new mainshaft gear bearings and support bearings. I replaced all mainshaft gears except 2nd because nobody made a replacement at the time. So my issue is upshifting into 2nd. Pretty darn notchy! I wish I had thought of scuffing up the cone on 2nd when I was reassembling it! So when I broke mine in after rebuild I ran LiquiMoly 80-90 true Dino GL4 in mine for 30 miles. Had to tear it back apart because the stick would vibrate in 3rd. Replaced the synchro hub, 3rd gear, and the shift sleeve and keys. Reassembled and threw in some more LiquiMoly 80-90 and broke it in for about a thousand miles. and switched to redline MT-90. All the other gears are shifting fine, however, upshifting into 2nd and downshifting into 1st are quite annoying. I don't have to force it in. But I do have to wait 3-5 seconds longer than the other gears. So im hoping switching to a different oil would help. What would you guys recommend? Here's some pics of my rig/trans build.

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I'm still running MT-90 and have been happy with it. Downshifting to 1st will always be notchy, I think. That's been my experience with all of the manuals that I have driven. 2nd is fine in mine, but 3rd is notchy depending whether I'm romping on it or just cruising. How do you like your short shifter? (Like a lot of things in 2021 and 2022, it was out of stock!)
 
I'm still running MT-90 and have been happy with it. Downshifting to 1st will always be notchy, I think. That's been my experience with all of the manuals that I have driven. 2nd is fine in mine, but 3rd is notchy depending whether I'm romping on it or just cruising. How do you like your short shifter? (Like a lot of things in 2021 and 2022, it was out of stock!)
Pretty happy with the short shifter, expensive, but definitely an improvement! Changing gears faster definitely helps keeping up with traffic a little easier haha. But everybody in Colorado drives at least 15 over the speed limit and in the only one that seems like I stay 5 over and I'm holding every body up lol. I may consider regearing again. The 4.88s and 33s are too short for street driving and I'm already in 5th by the time I hit 50mph. So I may go back to 4.56 or 4.30. My brothers 3rd gen with 4.10s, 33s and the short shifter has wayyyy better performance than mine
 
Pretty happy with the short shifter, expensive, but definitely an improvement! Changing gears faster definitely helps keeping up with traffic a little easier haha. But everybody in Colorado drives at least 15 over the speed limit and in the only one that seems like I stay 5 over and I'm holding every body up lol. I may consider regearing again. The 4.88s and 33s are too short for street driving and I'm already in 5th by the time I hit 50mph. So I may go back to 4.56 or 4.30. My brothers 3rd gen with 4.10s, 33s and the short shifter has wayyyy better performance than mine
Interesting points on the gearing.
Working on an '81 and plan to install 33's so gearing choices will need to be made.
 

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