Tranny just crapped the bed

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UPDATE:

Truck is ready. Lex Tech called and told me he had initially misdiagnosed the transfer case, and when he went to do the work today he discovered his mistake. It ended up being the right hand front axle and companion flange. I'm going to pick it up now. Total for that work, plus getting my timing belt and water pump done was right at 2k. So... apparently everyone was wrong. :flipoff2: Needless to say, I am thrilled with this turn of events. Thanks with all the help guys, and I am super satisfied with Glenn's performance at Lex Tech. :cheers:
 
I have been reading and lurking. Glad it ended well for you.

:)
 
sacmaster said:
UPDATE:

Truck is ready. Lex Tech called and told me he had initially misdiagnosed the transfer case, and when he went to do the work today he discovered his mistake. It ended up being the right hand front axle and companion flange. I'm going to pick it up now. Total for that work, plus getting my timing belt and water pump done was right at 2k. So... apparently everyone was wrong. :flipoff2: Needless to say, I am thrilled with this turn of events. Thanks with all the help guys, and I am super satisfied with Glenn's performance at Lex Tech. :cheers:
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well... now you have an extra $2K that was forecasted to be spent but wasn't, so you should stimulate the Land Cruiser vendor economy by getting some new Christmas mod's for the rig. Bumper? Sliders? Lift? knock yourself out. Tell the wife we said it was OK... :lol:

:cheers::cheers:
 
Glad it turned out so well....yep, he is honest and wont screw you when he easily could have said he did the whole thing when not needed. Great news!!!
 
Trunk Monkey said:
I'm skeptical. T-cases generally don't just blow up. There are plenty of other weaker things before and after them.
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I win.

Still an odd thing to break. Did he give you any indication what happened or how the damage occurred?
 
When I blew my front diff I ended up calling a bunch of people and getting different opinions... At one point someone tried to convince my it was definitely a transfer case problem... Christo with Slee Offroad was one I called at one point and he told me he had never seen a 100 series transfer case break... 100's do have their know issues with some things like the weak front diff on the 98-99's... My original call to Slee ended with their opinion being I'd screwed up the front diff... Sure enough after talking to others and getting mud opinions it was the front diff but many people did not think it was... I guess sometimes you just don't know until you start taking things apart to fix them tho... I'm very glad you got out for less than expected... I wasn't trying to be a ass either in my previous post but as many others stated (Slee as well) the transfer case problem just sounded very strange... Aparently the 100 tcase is very well made... Sounds like the work that you had done was also about typical for those repairs... Cheers and happy holidays!
 
He showed me the axle he took out of the truck. On one end the grooves were nice and shiny and the lip was intact. On the other end, which I believe is the end connected to the wheel, the grooves were all mangled and the lip was gone. His best guess was that whoever had been in there last forgot to put the clip that holds whatever is attached to that (he told me but I forgot) back on there, and it has just been jiggling around on there and finally let loose. Sorry for the crappy explanation, but that's the best I can do. I took pics; let's see if they work.

Also, the boat I tow is an 18 foot Hydra-Sports Center Console with a single axle trailer. I think it weighs around 2500 pounds wet. I also tow a jon boat infrequently.

I will say the axle must have been messed up for a long time because the truck drives a lot better than it did. It feels tighter and more solid, especially when I go over bumps.
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wildsmith said:
so scottm was on the money in post #9 ;)
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Dammit, you're right. I call them hub flanges, not drive plates.

So, one lesson from this is that you could have locked the center diff and still driven. Looks like there might be some heat scoring on the axle shaft. Wonder if the hub was loose also?
 
scottm said:
Drive plate would have those symptoms, cheap and easy fix. Locking the center differential would allow you to drive home. ~$60 part and an hour with hand tools would fix it.
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So just wondering since you appeared to be right from the get go.....do these make noise when they are going out? I am still getting a mechanical whining noise from what sounds like the passenger front side? This noise does not go away when the truck warms up.
 
options2 said:
So just wondering since you appeared to be right from the get go.....do these make noise when they are going out? I am still getting a mechanical whining noise from what sounds like the passenger front side? This noise does not go away when the truck warms up.
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Many years ago the guys down the street who do waterjetting for me aquired a broken 80, dirt cheap. I stopped to look at it, it had the same symptoms. I called up IdahoDoug, he said drive plate, and it was.

So I don't know the answer to your question and I'm not a particularly good mechanic, or knowledgeable about this, just related to someone who is, and got lucky on this one. But I am a mechanical engineer who tears apart cars for fun, and it did make sense to be a drive plate.

I've wondered how a LC would drive with a stripped drive plate and the center diff locked, I think we've talked about it on the 80 forum. There was some discussion of getting a damaged drive plate drilled out so the splined shaft wouldn't have any jagged edges to catch on as it turned in it. It was assumed it would be noisy and cause more damage to the shaft if you kept driving it.
 
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I would really like to see detailed pics of the splines on both sides and the inside of the drive flange. to me the side that connects to the drive flange does not look stripped, neither does the drive flange. The only thing that is odd is that the outer piece of the splines (outboard of the snap ring) is gone. I think that is what the OP refers to as the lip. It looks like the splines were not engaged on the drive flange, except for the "lip" part and that is what eventually gave out and got rounded off. It looks like the rest is just dirty.

I enhanced the picture as best I could. The driveflange and axle shaft looks intact. Maybe someone put the snap ring on, then the drive flange and pushed the axle in all the way and it drove on just the small part of the splines. Only reason I am saying is that if it moved back and forth on the splines, I would expect them to be cleaner than what they are.

I have also never seen a drive flange strip on a 100 in normal use. Only very high mileage 80's with the thinner drive flanges.

I am still confused on the adamant diagnoses of a transfer case in this case. Moral of the story, do not accept the diagnoses unless they actually looked at the parts. I got the impression from the OP's previous post that the shop was pretty sure, otherwise why order a transfer case.

Really just pointing this out for other readers to make sure they actually ask shops what a diagnoses was based on.
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So the snap ring was screwed up by someone, fell off, the splined shaft slid in 'till it was barely engaged, and the teeth on the very end ground against the teeth on the inner edge of the drive plate? That would make a heck of a racket and do exactly what happened here.

It does make me wonder about the analysis and the fix. Does he know this ordeal is being chronicled on Mud? Not that this was a screw job, but would like to hear more. A bit of time with a file and some careful cleaning would get you going in this situation, but maybe some more disassembly and checking and re-greasing was prudent.

Edit: a complete birf & bearing disassembly, cleaning, and regreasing would've been the minimum fix considering where all the metal chips and shavings would've gone.
 
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I had a 94 4 runner a while back... driving between Laredo TX and Mexico City going around 80, car in front of me swerved and I jumped a rock or something big and it hit the bottom of the truck hard... my head hit the roof and my car full of effects went everywhere... pulled over, inspected.... saw nothing ....... until lost power 9 months later. Turned out hit bent rear axle housing and pushed out the drive shaft into the wheel (I am luckiy my weel did not come off)... so that the splines were only 1/5th engaged. .. about 9 mohts later and 10K miles it stripped out... I can say during that time no noise or drivability issues... and dent in rear axle housing damn hard to spot... they only noticed it on re-assemply when new shaft woudl not go in all the way... my point to all this ...

1. no noise or dravability issues noticed.
2. when I put it in 4wd to get home... dribablility horrable... front wheels would chirp on any turn with any accelleration..
3. lock your diff to figure out where the problem is in the driveline.
4. If I was in a car in that case I would ahve been toast....
5. fun story to tell
 
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