1sennafan

I picked up my 1989 4runner from a high school senior because it was stuck in 4-low and 4th gear & the price was right. Got it home and pulled the drain plug on tranny and out comes about a quart of gray goop and gear chunks.. w56 5 Speed transmission FUBAR! RF1A Transfer Case still good as new.
I found a replacement with Transfer Case online at junkyard “with I was told 110,000 miles on it” no way to really know but had it shipped and installed with in 10 days. Cool investment $700 and a few hours labor.
After installing lunchbox lockers front and rear yea I took it out and wheeled it hard, got it stuck more than once, I drove it to work, Hell I drove it across Texas with no problems. Then I had to pull a car trailer with my “parts 87 runner” on it for about 100 miles after the Chevy broke down that was pulling it.

Yea it will pull that much weight ( +- 6200 lbs ?) but not very fast. I only was able to make 5th gear once or twice on long down hills other wise it was WFO in 3rd or WFO in 2nd up some of the hills. But it did it, made the trip and seemed like every thing was cool.
Several weeks later I hear a chatter in 5th on the highway I never heard before. Checked oil levels and tranny was about a qt. low, I topped it off and chatter was less but still there. Then I hear the same chatter in 1st taking off from stops. It progressively got worse “louder” in every gear except 4th. 4th was always smooth and quiet but all the others were getting worse by the mile and in 5th it felt like it was going to grenade at any minute.
Before it quit altogether I swapped the tranny\Tcase off the other truck and was on the road again. This one was tighter and quieter. It was a better driving \ feeling tranny than the 1st swap I did. I think less mileage on it for sure.
Now after maybe 8 or 9 thousand miles I hear the same faint chatter in 5th again.
This will be 3 swaps in 3 years. Im tired of redoing this job!
My questions are:
1. I read somewhere the weak link in Yota’s drive train is the tranny. true or false?
2. has anyone else had similar problems?
3. how much noise is normal in a tranny with a couple hundred thousand on it?
4. is there a bolt in upgrade?
5. could the lockers be damaging the tranny?

rbmoomba

I do feel your pain. Same situation here. I also have lockers and swapping trannys is a PITA. Looking for options myself

blue_CA_yota

3. I get same noise as you, kind of a chatter..
I can only hear it in 5th, and 3rd, and only under high load.. Cruising at 120km/h in 5th I can't hear it, but as soon as there's a hill it gets louder..

definately interested in the cause/solution to this noise.

corax

The ultimate solution would probably be swapping in an "R" series transmission and matching transfer case.


Might also want to look into on of Marlin's Heavy Duty rebuilds:
http://www.marlincrawler.com/transmi...built-complete

griffinleather

I have a similar noise when taking off in first gear. Its a metal tink tink (best i can describe it) that speeds up and then goes away all together at about 10mph. Also when stuck in traffic doing the stop and go thing it will happen and when I slow back down it feels like the engine is shuttering, and then it will smooth out and idle fine.

its as though the input shaft bearing has wollowed out and is rubbing the fingers of the pressure plate causing a tick tick till it centers itself and when slowing down the clutch disk is off center causing the engine to shake till it centers back up. But honestly, I am not sure. Has anyone has this problem?
Or any ideas/ thank you.