3.4 thrust washers

[Firedog]

Just bought a 97 4Runner with the 3.4. Started catching up on the maintenance and discovered the crankshaft has about 1/8" of endplay!
I haven't pulled the pan yet to see what is destroyed but I know the thrust washers must be out.
My question, can the crankshaft bearing girdle be pulled in the truck?

 

[jynx]

I would say yes, but you will have to remove the front differential in order to drop the pan and girdle. With that and the associated crossmembers out of the way I don't see why you couldn't drop the pan and remove the girdle.

 

[Firedog]

I would say yes, but you will have to remove the front differential in order to drop the pan and girdle. With that and the associated crossmembers out of the way I don't see why you couldn't drop the pan and remove the girdle.

Thanks, this is the GF truck and is 2wd. (Pointless, I know, but a good choice for her). The job looked pretty straight forward in the FSM, but I couldn't tell if it would mess up the crank seals to pull the mains.

 

[jynx]

The front crank seal is built into the front of the block. Behind the Timing Cover. Rear main I believe is like the other toyota motors and should be housed in a small retainer on the rear of the block, so dropping the pan and girdle are possible without loosing the seals, but in that situation the crank would be resting on the front crank seal up front and would be supported only by the flywheel/ flexplate out back, so if you pull the girdle I would try to support the crank and be prepared to replace one or both of those seals should they start to dribble.

2wd should make it MUCH easier to get at the pan and whatever bits need to come off to check the bearings.

 

[Firedog]

Can't sneak the girdle past the lip on the rear seal retainer
The thrust washers were in the bottom of the pan and one side had obviously been spinning for quite some time. Some wear on both the block and the crank where the washer was spinning. Number 2 main bearing was showing considerable wear, other main bearings weren't in too bad of shape! Crank looked good. I installed new thrust washers and main bearings, all clearances were within specs. Putting it back in now, let's see if it will go another quarter million miles!

 

[jynx]

Wow, those are pretty nasty looking. Interesting that everything else was in pretty good shape. Be interested to see how it runs after you get things all back together.

 

[Firedog]

It's running great! Of course, it was running great before without the thrust washers! It will be interesting to see how long it will last, it already has over 240,000 miles. I figured I would spend $50 on it to see, either way, a complete rebuild will cost the same now or later.