Our the land cruisers tranny considered 'tanks'? (1 Viewer)

[imnewtolandcruisers]

I was out at a shop the other day and a mechanic said he hasnt seen a 89 land cruisre in a long time and he commented to me that the 'pumpkin' part of the axle tells you that its off set indicating the transmission is built like a tank to handle that cause all modern transmissions now have the 'pumpkin' inline with the tranny front and back but we have a off set. He commentd the engine will die before the tranny........which does hold true since the engine I have is rebuilt, but tranny orignila......

So are our trannys built that tough????

 

[cavemancaleb]

there just built right.

 

[slacker24-7]

not sure what he is talking about the offset having anything to do with the duribility of the tranny. the off set comes from the transfer case. i assume your talking about a 89fj62 auto?
i can only speak of a fj60 manual, yea they are pretty durable, kinda like the older muncies or new process manual trannys...

 

[GeologistFelix]

From what I understand, the auto can have the seal between it and the transfer case go bad, and the mixing of the two gear boxes' fluids will cause the transmission to chronically overheat, which will kill it if you don't do something about it. A lot of people just put in a separate transmission cooler, but that's more of a bandaid than a permanent fix.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

The tranny in the FJ62 is the A440f. It is a very large, strong and robust tranny. Toyota used the same transmission in the "Coaster" bus, and that is why it is considered to be a "bus" tranny. Incidentally, the Coaster bus also uses a centered version of the 80 series FF axle-at least the one I rode in in Belize did.

It is susceptable to the same problems that any auto tranny has- excess heat causes premature failure. In the 62, it does not come with a cooler, other than the small one in the radiator. Many people add an additional cooler to prolong the life of the unit. There are several write ups on how to do that here on ih8mud.

In my view the 62 has another special problem. Because of the low power, and heavy weight, it tends to come out of lock and shift into 3rd frequently on hills. There is no lock of the TC in 3rd. That generates tons of excess heat in the TC, and that is why it is so prone to overheating.

Gear oil mixing in the tranny fluid is also a bad but unrealted thing. The only fix for that is to replace the seal between the transfer and transmission.

Regarding the reason for the offset in the differential...your mechanic is full of crap. It's off set because the output from the gear driven transfer is offset. That is the only reason.

 

[BG_TX]

Because of the low power, and heavy weight, it tends to come out of lock and shift into 3rd frequently on hills. There is no lock of the TC in 3rd.

Unless one installs a nomad/extreme valve body with lock-up in 3rd/4th.

 

[torfab]

I think that mechanic was just blowing smoke. Yes they are tough, but tend to fail due to overheating and or fluid pump going out, for the reasons explained above

 

[haryv]

I wonder how those transmissions face up to the H55f for our diesel cruisers?

 

[brian]

Regarding the reason for the offset in the differential...your mechanic is full of crap. It's off set because the output from the gear driven transfer is offset. That is the only reason.

well not entirely. yeah he was probably blowing smoke, but by using a side drive t case, you need to have a stout transfer case.

 

[hank14]

Yes, he was full of it. But, they are built like tanks and sounds like he was trying to pay you a compliment. I'm hoping you weren't paying him to work on your cruiser?

 

[imnewtolandcruisers]

well not entirely. yeah he was probably blowing smoke, but by using a side drive t case, you need to have a stout transfer case.

that was my assumption also...i didnt mean that the transmission would last 'forever', but it would outlast some of the cars on the road today. something built 22 years ago and still going strong is good indicator to me thats its pretty stout vs other cars ou there. My vehicle has over 300k miles if not more since the odo. stopped at 291, miles many years ago the previos ownder told me. The tranny is original, but engine is rebuilt and my tranny shifts smooth as butta...no issues here, yet

 

[imnewtolandcruisers]

Yes, he was full of it. But, they are built like tanks and sounds like he was trying to pay you a compliment. I'm hoping you weren't paying him to work on your cruiser?

hahaha...no he was not paying to work on it. I was just by the shop chilling with my new cruiser and he walked to me and talked about it how his friend put a v8 in his cruiser and talked about the 'pumpkin' on the axles to me and tranny.