Looking for the plastic year in the rear tailgate window regulator, if anyone knows where to get one
Tailgate gear
- Thread starter nodak55
- Start date
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These are getting tough to come by. Here is thread a couple years ago that may be able to shed some light on who may be able to help find way to secure or create one.
Good Luck!
Good Luck!
I was able to find a local business to print one for me.
The uploaded the file to the Web for anyone to use.
The uploaded the file to the Web for anyone to use.
Hey J Mack. I'm trying to find a gear for an FJ55 i'm restoring...Not looking for a freebee happy to buy it if it's still available? Thank you!
I'd also be appreciative of anyone pointing me to where i can find a 3D model of the gear so i can try making some nylon gears to help the next fj55 owner in a pinch! All of the previously used 3D print shops seem to be MIA
Sorry I sent off my only spare gear I had here..
I think the 3D print file is out there if you have someone that can print one for you.
Appreciated!
My original tailgate window gear cracked in half right through the hub. It looks like one solid piece of plastic with no metal insert. I’m replacing it with a gear made from the @J_Mack shared STL for this part, so I asked a professional 3D printing shop to walk me through the options and trade-offs before ordering.
The part, as measured from the STL:
Options offered: SLS nylon, MJF nylon, SLM metal, CNC machining, and vacuum casting.
What I ruled out and why:
What I’m ordering (i'm ordering 2 nylons and 5 vacuum-cast and will make them available for anyone who needs one down the road until they are gone):
Bore plan: The shop is shrinking the double-D opening by about 0.06 mm total. A slightly tight bore can be filed to fit, but a loose one can’t be fixed.
I’ll test-fit both versions on the shaft and run them against the worm, then report back on which one works best.
The part, as measured from the STL:
- 55 teeth, helical at about 10° (it runs against a worm)
- 2.015" OD (51.2 mm), 0.38" thick (9.65 mm)
- Double-D bore, about 0.505" wide (12.8 mm) with flats about 0.345" apart (8.8 mm)
Options offered: SLS nylon, MJF nylon, SLM metal, CNC machining, and vacuum casting.
What I ruled out and why:
- Metal: A metal gear would wear the worm, and the worm is the harder part to replace.
- Glass-bead MJF: It’s stiffer, but the glass makes it abrasive and more brittle, and a window gear sees shock loads when the glass hits its stop.
- SLS: It’s very similar to MJF, but MJF has a smoother surface and tighter tolerances, and I wasn’t worried about the small price difference.
- Dyeing and coatings: The shop warned that dye can slightly change dimensions in tight spots, and the double-D bore is my tightest feature. So I’m skipping dye, paint and bead blasting.
- CNC in real acetal (Delrin): It’s a good option for accuracy, but the helical teeth make it expensive. I’m keeping it as a fallback.
What I’m ordering (i'm ordering 2 nylons and 5 vacuum-cast and will make them available for anyone who needs one down the road until they are gone):
- MJF PA12 nylon, 2 pieces, natural gray. It’s tough and slightly flexible, and it handles heat better than the cast resin. Typical accuracy is around ±0.2 mm, so I expect to file the bore to fit.
- Vacuum-cast “POM-like” resin, 5 pieces. It’s cast from a high-precision resin master, and the shop is aiming for ±0.1–0.15 mm, which should be better on the teeth. Supplier numbers are 80 Shore D, 70 MPa tensile and 12% elongation. Its heat deflection temperature is only 80°C, and a tailgate sitting in the sun can get close to that, so I’m treating it as a test piece. “POM-like” is a polyurethane resin made to imitate acetal, not real acetal.
Bore plan: The shop is shrinking the double-D opening by about 0.06 mm total. A slightly tight bore can be filed to fit, but a loose one can’t be fixed.
I’ll test-fit both versions on the shaft and run them against the worm, then report back on which one works best.
This is great, please keep us posted. Good info here and appreciate the leg work you have done to help others!
Appreciate that. I'm restoring my first FJ55 in almost 30 years and even back in the mid-90s...I was foiled by a repeat-failure of this ridiculous gear situation. Once on a road trip to pick up my girlfriend's belongings in Las Vegas. When we arrived to start loading we couldn't open the tailgate to load her stuff. This is a lifelong quest for a final resolution. Now if I could only find some taillight gaskets!
Let's not be so hard on that ridiculous gear, I'm pretty sure it was Toyota's first ever attempt at an electrically powered window. They got better. I've been not-restoring my Pig for 40 years now, changed that gear on mine a few times. Changed a few on other Pigs too. I always kept a spare, they were cheap and easy to get, until 2009 or '10
Fun with Dealers...(trace Pig content) - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/fun-with-dealers-trace-pig-content.49268/
@fj55-100 did a run of gears some years ago, I've been running one of his for I-forget-how-many years. More info and recipe here
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yeah...you are right. Those gears should be considered a "consumable" instead of a forever part and it was a solid effort. The FJ60 design solution is obviously a direct response to those issues. I feel pretty confident in the latest 3D printing tech getting us to something that has some serious durability. My guess is a lot of these issues are also related to bad felts, degraded weatherstripping and alignment challenges. If any of those impede the gear it's clearly going to be more likely to snap.
Thanks for doing this. @CruiserTrash did a run not too long ago. His website says sold out but he may be able to run some for you/us…?
55 Series Rear Window Gear
Did the rear window in your Pig stop rolling down? Sometimes the cause is the aging plastic gear inside the tailgate. Here’s a replacement for that! These gears are built to last, made out of super tough, abrasion resistant, heat cured urethane. Just like the original design though, this gear...
cruisertrashparts.com