Regearing project (2 Viewers)

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Beowulf

Beowulf

Joined
Mar 27, 2003
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Somewhere in the foothills...
We made quick work of pulling the diffs this morning. Started around 9:30, stopped for lunch around noon and were done around 3pm. Onur pulled the right side front birfield and showed Rory how to do it. Rory pulled the left side like he had done it 10 times before. The guy is a quick study.

I will do a lot of cleaning tomorrow, fetch parts, and get the truck ready for when the diffs come back loaded with 4.88s.

A BIG thanks to Rory and Onur!

-Mike-
Diffs_Removed.jpg
 
Mike if that photo is of the diffs as they came out of the housings, they are in beautiful condition and your maintenence habits are to be congratulated.


:cheers: D-
 
Who is doing the regear?
 
It was a great day, I think you made the work easier by being totally prepared. That spread of tools was awesome!


Onur has done this way too many times!
 
cruiserdan said:
Mike if that photo is of the diffs as they came out of the housings, they are in beautiful condition and your maintenence habits are to be congratulated.


:cheers: D-
Click to expand...

Straight out of the axle housing, onto Onur's chest, then on to the pad. :D No cleaning. I did the first front axle service at 100k miles. The truck is at 170k+ now. Last time I used Amsoil synthetic moly grease in the knuckles and the Amsoil wheel bearing grease in the bearings. Everything looks really good in the knuckles including both birfields. There was still a good amount of grease in the birf joint and I have not added ANY grease through the fill plug. I replaced the wheel bearings at ~130k so they were still in good shape with plenty of grease.

Onur says I should replace the brass bushings in both spindles. I haven't looked at them closely but I will probably replace them depending on the cost. I am going to clean up everything tomorrow and come up with a parts list.

We had no issues with disassembly other than the front diff has 2 very long studs in the area of the locker mechanism so we had to pull those 2 long studs to get the front diff out. It would have been easier if we had known that to begin with. I will go back and read that section of the FSM and see if that is mentioned. It could be that lifted trucks with HD tie rods have the problem where stock trucks don't.

I've had a shimmy up front for about a year. One of the PS lower knuckle studs was loose. I have checked them several times and there was no leaking but the darn thing came out by hand when Onur was doing that side. I am replacing all of them with the new torx studs. I need to decide whether or not to lock-tite them in the knuckle.

I welcome any suggestions before it goes back together. :D

-Mike-
 
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Beowulf said:
Onur says I should replace the brass bushings in both spindles. I haven't looked at them closely but I will probably replace them depending on the cost. I am going to clean up everything tomorrow and come up with a parts list.
Click to expand...

The spindles looked great--no grooving, no obvious machining of the metal by the bearings riding on the spindle.

There were some grooves on the inside of the brass bushing and considering how cheap they are it just seems to make sense to put new ones in.

The wheel bearings looked beautiful--as if they were new. Trunions were looking good too.

Only thing that was interesting was that the rear hubs had little to no grease inside the hub and was full of gear oil--as if the grease had washed away. We'll have to make sure that there is a good grease dam in there before it goes back in.

I must say that I love working on SW vehicles....the ease of disassembly is amazing--on both Rory's head job, Mike's lift, and now the front and rear ends. The bolts, nuts, everything comes off with little to no elbow grease.

And I'll second the work that Rory did...indeed a quick learner. He had the front end apart in less than 1/2 hour.

-o-
 
beno said:
... and considering how cheap they are ...
Click to expand...

Says the guy that works in the parts department at American Toyota... :D

-Mike-
 
pappy said:
Who is doing the regear?
Click to expand...

That is a good question Jon. I talked with Ryan this evening. He is my first choice. He is checking his schedule and will get back to me.

If Ryan can not do it then I have some hard decisions to make:

* Robbie is a possibility but I have not contacted him. I know they would be done right if he would do them for me.
* Zuk is in Phoenix and the Copper State guys use him. His reputation & write-ups are excellent.
* Ship everything to River City in CA where the Norcal guys have their work done...
* Poser on the 'Mud board does 80 gears
* Christo recommended RingandPinionBiz on 'Mud and, of course, Christo could do them but he doesn't like doing long-distance warranty work.
* Kirk with Cruiser Outfitters also does the set up and I believe he is in Salt Lake.
* Ryan and Greg and others have said to try U-joints here in Abq but unless they've done a rear e-locker on the 80-series then I am reluctant to let them learn on mine. Ryan says he has never done a rear 80 e-locker but he thinks they are like the new Tundra rears. (shims)

I really don't want to ship these things for several reasons but it may come down to that.

The issue with the 80-series e-locker rear is the shims. Most places don't have a complete set and you have to have them to properly set up the rear.

-Mike-
 
Beowulf said:
Onur says I should replace the brass bushings in both spindles. I haven't looked at them closely but I will probably replace them depending on the cost. I am going to clean up everything tomorrow and come up with a parts list.
Click to expand...

beno said:
The spindles looked great--no grooving, no obvious machining of the metal by the bearings riding on the spindle.

There were some grooves on the inside of the brass bushing and considering how cheap they are it just seems to make sense to put new ones in.
Click to expand...

So, let's talk about these. I know the bushings on the 4Runner are toast. I have new ones, and they were not too bad $$ wise. But how do they get removed and replaced? And, who can do it?
 
Onur says to cut a length-wise slit with a hack-saw blade, then pound on the brass bushing and it will break in two. Install the new one with a bench vise. He said my 5" home vise would work OK.

We shall see...
-Mike-
 
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Mike,
It would have been much simpler and cheaper to have changed the ratios by reducing your tire size.

That being said, are you going with soft gears (aka Yukon) or hard gears (aka someone other brand).
Never Summer, who set mine up made this contention: Soft gears will not last as long (200k miles) but are stronger for off roading in that the softer metal is more forgiving. and visa versa.

As an aside, my new gears were quite noisy for a few thousand miles.

juane
 
I have not selected the brand of gears because I want to coordinate with who will be doing the install. My truck is at 170k now. A set of gears that will take the truck to ~400k miles will not be a concern for me.

-Mike-
 
Funny, I told him the exact same thing...

juane said:
Mike,
It would have been much simpler and cheaper to have changed the ratios by reducing your tire size.

That being said, are you going with soft gears (aka Yukon) or hard gears (aka someone other brand).
Never Summer, who set mine up made this contention: Soft gears will not last as long (200k miles) but are stronger for off roading in that the softer metal is more forgiving. and visa versa.

As an aside, my new gears were quite noisy for a few thousand miles.

juane
Click to expand...
 
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Very cool. If you decide on River City, send them to me and I'll take them out to Sean.

Since your truck is going to be down awhile, what are you driving in the mean time?
 
A worn/dry spindle bushing can produce a "GRRRR" sound; similar to the freeway awake bars on the right side. If you aren't hearing/feeling this sound then all is ok. Removing these is easy; push one out and press new one in. Some time ago, Cdan started a thread on the proper orientation of this bushing if you want to check to see how yours are oriented.

Locrwln1 is doing the same exact project as we speak. He will have extra shims and other info I'm sure.

I heard a rumor that Zuk doesn't like to work on E-locked diffs?

AA
Toasty in El Centro, CA...
 
Beowulf said:
This afternoon I ordered the gears. The gears are Precision brand. The install kit is supposed to be all Toyota w/Koyo bearings. U-Joints can do the install and they are OK with me bringing in the parts and diffs if Ryan doesn't have the time to do them.

-Mike-
Click to expand...

Mike -

I think you'll be pleased with the Precision brand 4.88 gears. That's what Christo installed for me. They have always been just as quiet and smooth as the factory gears.

You're about to fall in love with your truck all over again!

Don't forget - Super Bowl Snow Run on Feb. 3rd!
 
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