toybota

Mainly on no throttle deceleration I get a rumbling noise. It does it sometimes on light acceleration. It goes away if the load is on the trans. I was wondering what it could be. Everything shifts great and feels fine it tows fine and the noise is not affected by 4wd. Any help will help alot. Also I tried to get under the ride and rotate the drive shaft when in gear. I do not feel any movement and i do lube the u joints often. Also the fluid level is fine. I was thinking of changing the filter and fluid and see if that helps at all. Thanks for the help guys hope I can get this resolved. ~Derek

GSGALLANT

Does it sort of sound like marbles rattling in a can, muffled a bit? Try taking apart the transfer case linkage pivot point, lubing it, then putting it back together. That's what fixed it for me.

Here is a picture... it is the black cylindrical looking thing near the bottom center of the picture.

93toyrunner

I have the exact same problem that has been bothering me for a while now I thought u-joints but have not gotten far enough to look at because it only gets driven one weekend a month because of school

hbom

I have the same problem, there is a rattle / box of marbles noise coming from the underside of my truck (1995 4runner 3vze automatic - Australian Hilux SR5 with right hand drive). The sound comes on deceleration, especially on a level or down hill surface under breaking. It sounds like loose gears rattling, or loose linkages.
The axle is well greased, and all U joints are tight. The automatic transmission shifts fine. The truck doesn't get all the power it should, but that might be engine flaws like vacuum leaks that I missed.

I have packed, and re-packed the grease in the transfer case linkage pivot point... twice. I exchanged the pivot point cylinder for a used junkyard one.
No luck. I still have the rattling sound.

So, I checked the transmission fluid so I can do a stall test on the torque converter (pending as I need to get some more fluid - it's Christmas and everything is closed). If that tests as good, the next place I'll be looking is the gearbox or the flex plate bolts.

So, anyone have advice? Is the transmission / gear box on the way out... or is it just a fluid issue that I've missed.