The parking spot next to the garage is where my daughter normally parks; unless I'm working on something, then its termed "the sick bay" as its closest to the tool boxes.
The Mean Green Bean has been in the sick bay for two weeks (three weekends).
Rebuilt the whole front end, new TRE's, knuckle service, 4:88 gears and ARB locker installed.
Rear gears and locker installed. BTW that rear drop out is one heavy SOB.
Learned a few things... such as:
1) Now that I know how to do a ring and pinion job, I don't care if I ever do another ring and pinion job.
2a) The Harbor Freight TRE separator works a treat!
2b) The Harbor Freight big bearing separator also works very well and a valued addition to the tool collection.
3) An acceptable carrier bearing adjuster nut wrench can be fabr-a-cobbled out of an over head cam timing belt gear holder. Now I need a new timing belt gear holder, but it was a marginal POS for that job anyway.
4) keep a box full of flattened cardboard as a crash pad under the diff while working on it. Dropped pinons when they slip out of your son's hands when driving them back out of the upper bearing is rough on the concrete.
and the pinion.
5) The crush tubes provided by Nitro Gears don't work with the oil cup that is supposed to be in the front diff. They are too big in diameter and won't pass through the oil cup. However the shim kit provided for their solid spacer (which also won't fit) will let you recycle the original Toyota crush tube. I chose a .020 spacer to start and the pinion nut came up to torque and then I set bearing preload.
6) I might smell like gear lube for the next few months, gawd that s&^t stinks and the smell permeates EVERYTHING! I hope it will wear off eventually.
The Mean Green Bean has been in the sick bay for two weeks (three weekends).
Rebuilt the whole front end, new TRE's, knuckle service, 4:88 gears and ARB locker installed.
Rear gears and locker installed. BTW that rear drop out is one heavy SOB.
Learned a few things... such as:
1) Now that I know how to do a ring and pinion job, I don't care if I ever do another ring and pinion job.
2a) The Harbor Freight TRE separator works a treat!
2b) The Harbor Freight big bearing separator also works very well and a valued addition to the tool collection.
3) An acceptable carrier bearing adjuster nut wrench can be fabr-a-cobbled out of an over head cam timing belt gear holder. Now I need a new timing belt gear holder, but it was a marginal POS for that job anyway.
4) keep a box full of flattened cardboard as a crash pad under the diff while working on it. Dropped pinons when they slip out of your son's hands when driving them back out of the upper bearing is rough on the concrete.
and the pinion. 5) The crush tubes provided by Nitro Gears don't work with the oil cup that is supposed to be in the front diff. They are too big in diameter and won't pass through the oil cup. However the shim kit provided for their solid spacer (which also won't fit) will let you recycle the original Toyota crush tube. I chose a .020 spacer to start and the pinion nut came up to torque and then I set bearing preload.
6) I might smell like gear lube for the next few months, gawd that s&^t stinks and the smell permeates EVERYTHING! I hope it will wear off eventually.
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