Yamaha+Toyota=Fun

Hey,

In the next couple of weeks I am going to be purchasing a set of 4.88 thirds from Jayson161 here on yotatech. What I was planning to do was drive down to his house and remove my rear third, put on his 4.88 third, and drive back home (he wants my 3rd for his truck). I was justs curious on the process in swaping a 3rd. Correct me if I am wrong but...

Jack up the truck, remove wheels, brake drum, brake lines. Then drain the diff, unbolt the axels, unbolt the drive shaft, unbolt and remove the 3rd member. Then reverse the whole process the for the install.

I was just curious, when removing brake lines will I have to re-bleed the brakes? When re installing the axles will it be hard to line up the gears or should it just slide right back together? When doing this the only other thing I will need to buy is the 3rd member gasket and gear oil, correct? And last estimated amount of time for the whole deal?

Sorry for the long post, Im just really excited to be getting 4.88 in my truck, finally.

Arnold

Yes, you'll need to bleed the brakes when you're done swapping the thirds. There's no need to remove the drums. Just undo the 4 nuts on each side, brake line and e-brake cable. You might have to wiggle the axles a little when reinstalling 'em. Use RTV(gasket sealant) instead of a gasket. It's pretty straight forward and shouldn't take too long to do.

Yamaha+Toyota=Fun

Is there any way to not disconnect the brakes so I dont have to bleed them?

Arnold

Unfortunately, no. Bleeding 'em really isn't too hard. Just go to Schuck's and buy a one man brake bleeding tool for under $10.

Yamaha+Toyota=Fun

I just took a look at the front diff on my truck, it looks like it would be a bit harder to swap that one. How are you suppost to slide out the axel shafts? Just unbolt the from the diff?

jayson161

i was about to ask the same thing, good call. we'll work something out.

bikeguy18974

I just recently got done doing this for the first time myself. The rear is as you and others have said. I tried to do it without removing the brake line as I never bleed car brakes before. There is no way to do it. However you can just disconnect one side and unbolt all the mounting points on the axle. then the whole brake line will slide over to the connected side. I used RTV sealant and it worked great. I had a little trouble sliding the axle back in. But a little wiggling and sliding it out and starting over- then it went right in. I only pulled the axles out like 8inches or so. I used a cinderblock and 2x4 to hold up the brake drum assembly so not to put any undo stress on axles seals, etc.

For the ifs, i had a full third with the axle tubes and all. All I had to do was unbolt the cv flanges and bolt the new assembly right up. (It will reuire knocking out fixed bolts on the differential side of the assembly). If you both feel okay with the other guys setup then you could try this. Not sure if its easier or not but it worked for me.

As for time, I would plan the day for it. Not that the job is that hard but for me everything goes wrong. You never know when a bolt or nut won't come loose. The fact that you are doing two trucks doubles the possibility of trouble.

jayson161

to actually clear things up a lil bit, i wont be swapping his third back into my truck. the guy who is doing my sas has a spair third laying around and thats what i am giving austin with my 4.88 in it. i just need austin's third to replace the one i am borrowing from my fab guy. so we'll only have one truck to be working on.

Flamedx4

Front is a pain, it's not a third member, it's a short axles assembly with a front cover.
You unbolt the 6-bolt flanges from each side of the diff (One side has a short stub axle) do NOT drive out the bolts! If yo have ADD, disconnect the vac hoses and the wire from the switch. Then unbolt the third member - upper bracket on drivers side, rear upper bracket, front bolt in the crossmember. Then drop it out. The diff unit looks like this:

Flamedx4

This is the whole thing...

Yamaha+Toyota=Fun

Hey Jay, to make things easier I was thinking I could just pull the rear 3rd out my truck up here and have a friend drive me down there and then we could do the exchange. It will probally make thing easier. His car gets better mpg anyways.

jayson161

that sounds like an excellent plan austin, if you come down on a weekend i usually wont get off work until after its dark anyways. we should just plan on doing that then. pm me or give me a call later and we'll set it up.

Flamedx4

Just for you - I went and pulled out my front diff (technically it's not a third member) so I could take a picture....
This is what comes out when you pull the front diff:

Flamedx4

...and this is what the front end looks like with the diff missing (the lift makes for a bit more room to work) on 86-95 models.