Finally extended my breathers

[87warrior]

I did the front and rear diff but here is what I have left for the transmission and transfer case, they terminate here at the firewall. Did you guys extend these? If so, how? I would like to access them here as it seems easiest, it is pretty hard to access things on top of the tranny and t-case.


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I traced those hoses back to where they originate then installed two long length of hose from the transmission and tcase. You could probably pull those hoses off the metal termination point and use some hose couplers to splice in extra hose for the extension.

I was happy I traced those back to their origination points on the trans/tcase since the hose near the tcase was plugged up with some nasty goo.

 

[mdcoa]

I did the front and rear diff but here is what I have left for the transmission and transfer case, they terminate here at the firewall. Did you guys extend these? If so, how? I would like to access them here as it seems easiest, it is pretty hard to access things on top of the tranny and t-case.


View attachment 2169917

So from there you can either trace those lines to the top of the tcase and tranny, pull them, and run al new line to the engine compartment (easier than it sounds) or just get some barbed male-male hose couplings and use those to add hose to the existing lines—probably even easier and what I’d have done if I’d been thinking—iirc the existing lines are 1/4” or 5/16”ish ID....

 

[wsudu]

Just about to start doing these two tonight. Thanks for the help but one more question, just so I'm clear, there's no actual breathers on the transmission or transfer case right? As in, if I extend from the picture I posted (the two caps at the firewall), there's no way for water to get into either Trans or T-case right? I didn't see anything in the lines that the OP took off. I did notice that the OP replaced the transfer lines with what looked like identical rubber lines and I wondered why he did that other than to just put fresh lines on?

So from there you can either trace those lines to the top of the tcase and tranny, pull them, and run al new line to the engine compartment (easier than it sounds) or just get some barbed male-male hose couplings and use those to add hose to the existing lines—probably even easier and what I’d have done if I’d been thinking—iirc the existing lines are 1/4” or 5/16”ish ID....

 

[mdcoa]

Just about to start doing these two tonight. Thanks for the help but one more question, just so I'm clear, there's no actual breathers on the transmission or transfer case right? As in, if I extend from the picture I posted (the two caps at the firewall), there's no way for water to get into either Trans or T-case right? I didn't see anything in the lines that the OP took off. I did notice that the OP replaced the transfer lines with what looked like identical rubber lines and I wondered why he did that other than to just put fresh lines on?

Correct, although the lines _are_ the breathers. I think you may mean breather valves, and no, I think it's just plain old fittings that the hoses slide onto. Valves (which my old Land Rover had on the axles) are actually a bad idea for venting pressure, since when the system cools suddenly (like when fording), it can actually create enough vacuum to suck water in past the seals.

Fortnately, the LC system is open, so yup, you can either just extend the existing lines or replace them with longer ones. Like I said, it's surprisingly easy to trace and remove them--they aren't even hose-clamped on to the fittings, IIRC, and replacing the lines with longer is probably a bit more elegant a solution than splicing extensions on, but I reckon both solutions will work fine for decades. . .

 

[toyfj62]

Great job. Thanks for pics. I'll be doing this soon on my 94.

 

[100d ua]

I did this a couple of weeks ago but used the ARB breather kit which allowed enough hose for two axles. I was going to buy more tubbing for the transfer and trans simce the breather has 4 inlets, but to my surprise my 01 has the Trans breather and transfer breather hooked to the transmission dip stick. Which is almost as high as where I installed the breather. Was yours set up this way?

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Hey all, looking for some clarification on this post. My 2000 LC also has (2) tubes running to the tranny dip stick. Is this for the tranny breather and transfer case? Am I missing anything else in that area? I plan on making this my weekend project and from the looks of it i'm seeing that i'll need to extend the front and rear diff breathers.

Kind of confused about the (2) breather hoses on said transfer case.

 

[mdcoa]

Bump for clarification (this is my weekend project) are the transfer case and transmission breathers on my 2000 LC ran along the tranny dip stick tube?

Hey all, looking for some clarification on this post. My 2000 LC also has (2) tubes running to the tranny dip stick. Is this for the tranny breather and transfer case? Am I missing anything else in that area? I plan on making this my weekend project and from the looks of it i'm seeing that i'll need to extend the front and rear diff breathers.

Kind of confused about the (2) breather hoses on said transfer case.

Yes, one of those comes from the transfer case and one from the transmission—you can either follow them back to the boxes and replace or simply splice a line on to them to make em longer.

 

[100d ua]

Is there a benefit to extending those breather hoses that are on the transmission dip stick? It seems to sit high up enough. Almost to the top of the engine.

 

[mdcoa]

No benefit I'm aware of unless you plan on doing deep-ish fording or unless you go in a deeper puddle than you meant to . . . at that point, having them run up a foot higher can be the difference between a transmission that's totally fine and one that's completely ruined. The axle breathers aren't very high up at all--I ran them all up higher just for peace of mind--no plans to go very deep, but I've taken a couple trucks in deeper than I had planned on . . .

 

[Joe422]

Great article! It helped inspire me to start my breather extensions..

For the rear, I extended the diff breather into the gas filler pocket... using the stock breather cap.
I like how simple and discreet it is... but maybe someday I’ll run it to the front, like the OP did.
For now, it’s still an improvement...

Next I still have to do the trans/TC/ and front diff...

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Maybe I am being dense, but why replace the hoses to Transfer A and Transfer B? It looks like after they Y together you could just run a new line from that nipple all the way to your common filter.

 

[mdcoa]

You could totally do that—it’s be super fast. By the time that occurred to me I already had things apart and just went with new lines the whole way down.
to do your idea you might not even Need to get under the truck....

Editing a week or two later . . . drrr. Didn't realize you were talking about running two T-case breathers vs just running one from the T where they join (not sure why I didn't realize it since it's what you said). Yeah, totally fine, I reckon. But if you're using existing line, why not just poke a barbed fitting into where the two breathers terminate in the engine compartment and extend them?

 

[Dparo]

Am I the only one that can’t get to the front diff breather clamp?

 

[Justanothermember]

Am I the only one that can’t get to the front diff breather clamp?

Just did my breather extension last weekend, I was able to get to the front breather clamps by removing the front skid plate. Easy, 8-10 12mm bolts, comes off in about 3-5 minutes. You can try and reach it coming from the top, although it gets tight and the clips are small; it would be difficult to get vice grips in there at the right angle. Removing the skid plate makes things alot easier for this mod.

 

[Justanothermember]

Great write up! Thanks a ton to @willbt for this, I followed your install almost to the "T". You are right, the transmission breather you have to do some serious landcruiser yoga to reach it! Although to all future readers, the 5spd transmission has the breather nipple in a different location. The nipple is further back, off on the passenger side, on top. You cannot see it, but it is easy enough to get your hand up on top of the rear part of the trans to feel it, definitely enough room to work with it. My hoses all seemed to be great shape still, so rather than try and yoga my way around the transmission, I was able to reuse the existing lines, and ended up extending the breather lines by just putting the new fuel line on the two metal spigots where it terminates originally (behind the driver side head). The terminals are definitely tough to reach, I went from below, used my index and middle finger to grab the hose and pull it down over the terminal nipple and was able to use a very short screwdriver to tighten the clamp on it.

Overall great mod, and came out looking real clean! Thanks for the awesome write up and great pictures!

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Any advice, diagrams, photos to make the location clear? I am going to tackle this tomorrow morning on my 03. It has the 5-speed AT with the trans dipstick.

 

[mdcoa]

Am I the only one that can’t get to the front diff breather clamp?

I stood on a stool next to my engine compartment and was able to reach down and, if I recall correctly, just twist the breather off by hand. I definitely didn't pull the "skid plate." When I put the new hose on, I was able to get both hands and a stubby screwdriver down there and tighten up a hose clamp enough to keep it on there.

Any advice, diagrams, photos to make the location clear? I am going to tackle this tomorrow morning on my 03. It has the 5-speed AT with the trans dipstick.

It's pretty obvious once you get under there--reach up above the transmission and you'll feel two rubber hoses running along the top--they'll lead forward to the engine compartment and, if they're like on my '04, they terminate on a little double-tube-in-an-inverted-U thingmo that's on a bracket at valve cover height at the driver's side rear engine corner (pic below).
Depending on how you want to skin it, you can either follow them down to their termini at the tranny and t-case and run all new line or splice extensions into them with barbed fittings. I hope that's of some help!

 

[brauski]

Finally got around to doing this! Manged to spend way more money on it than required, but it did make it alot easier. Thanks for the super easy to follow write up!

Had a ARB kit lying around from Xmas, so I did a hybrid version. Ran the fuel line from the diffs, then switched over to the 6mm line (or whatever it is) in the ARB kit. Looks great. I elected to just remove the transfer case and transmission lines from the dip stick connection, and switch to the 6mm there. Was super easy to connect from underneath, then just pulled it up thru the bay. So that gave me just the 4 connections my ARB could manage - driver is trans/xfer and passenger are diffs.

 

[TahoeSlice]

Lots of good info here, thank you!

For those that have done this already, and have the earlier setup with the transmission and transfer case lines attached to the dipstick, I’ve been wondering. Did you do anything to seal those ports where both lines enter the dipstick after removal?

I may be wrong, but it seems this would be a potential point of water ingress in the event one were to ford water deep enough. While not as catastrophic as your engine ingesting h2o, this seems like it could be pretty bad.

I’ve heard mentioned that the original lines are just attached and not actually entering the tube. I guess I’m looking for someone to verify this.

In the meantime I’m just going to take my old rear diff line and repurpose to connect these two opening, effectively just creating a loop. In either case, I can’t see how this could hurt in any way, even if it does prove unnecessary. Rather safe than sorry when talking about potentially expensive repairs.

 

[87warrior]

Lots of good info here, thank you!

For those that have done this already, and have the earlier setup with the transmission and transfer case lines attached to the dipstick, I’ve been wondering. Did you do anything to seal those ports where both lines enter the dipstick after removal?

The lines attached to the dipstick tube do not actually vent into the dipstick. There is a small bracket welded to the dipstick tube where the transmission and transfer case lines terminate. That bracket is vented into the engine bay, not the dipstick.