rimpainter.com

OK guys, the CV axles are out and every bolt I can find that is attached to the front diff housing is off; however, for the life of me I cannot wiggle the diff out! It seems like it's caught on something near the rear (output shaft to the transfer case). There is a rubber bump stop type thing that seems to be preventing the diff from coming out.

Argh, I am frustrated and hungry. Any help is appreciated. I will get back to this tomorrow.

Oh and for the record, I am doing a diff swap (the entire housing and all)




(<----- front diff)

sschaefer3

The front diff is in with 3 bolts. The 2 that get replaced typically with a diff drop, and the rear 3rd one, that takes a special allen head to get out.

Kong's years ago had to buy something from the Snap-On man to make that 1 bolt easier to get out.

sschaefer3

The allen head is recessed in a hole on a crossmember.

You can look at Casey's 2wd to 4wd conversion pics, The casting is the same and see the mounting points.



Next to the "no oil" tag is the threaded bolt hole.

transalper

You need a big honkin 12mm allen wrench to unbolt the third mount.

Also be careful not to damage the 4x4 vacume tubes on the top of the diff. It's kind of a pain to disconnect them, but you can avoid bending them if you unbolt the tubes from the diff before pulling it down. Make sure you keep track of where the tubes attach to the diff.

rimpainter.com

Steve-

Yeah, I got that special allen bolt out, but I cant seem to get the diff up and off that bump stop thing (flex bushing?). That picture helps though.

I am going to give it another go later today. I think I was just frustrated and it was quitting time yesterday.

Thanks for the reply.

Jay-

Thanks, I did unbolt that little piece that holds the electical connection and vacuum tubes on. Man, the front diff swap is harder than the rear swap IMO. :pat:

arjan

I'll be doing the same thing within the next three weeks hopefully. I've had the wiring in place for quite a while now, and have a second car available for a couple of weeks. This will be the time to take the rear axle out and make the required changes for the elocker. I am also changing everything to 4.30's.

rimpainter.com

I finally have both front diffs out. Man, I must say, the front swap sucks. The second time was much easier, and went much smoother, but there is one bolt in particular that gave me a ton of trouble. Towards the rear of the diff housing there is a rubber grommet/mount. The grommet is held in by a strange allen head bolt, and two other bolts (above the crossmember). What a pain! Not only that, but I stripped the drain plug bolt on the 4.30 diff. Still not sure what I am going to do about that. Maybe weld a socket into place or something.

Anyway, I am on the home stretch.

Good luck arjan, it's a bit of work. The second car thing will be very necessary. I am glad I am not in a time crunch.

I did get to drive my 4Runner with the 4.30 rear, and I can tell the difference. The acceleration is better, and I have a non-functioning locker (for now).

Albuquerque Jim

Good job Christian, not easy but worth it.

arjan

Christian, I dealt with a stripped drain plug on my rear diff on my previous (1991) 4runner. I managed to get some grip with a small pipe wrench. I bought the smallest one I could find and it gripped just enough to loosen the plug a quarter turn. From there it was easy.
Of course this is a lot easier when the diff is out.

sschaefer3

If you want me to weld a socket to it, bring it by BEFORE you put it back in. Welding upside down and in that tight of a spot is more than I want to bite off.

On the floor is no problem.

rimpainter.com

Cool, thanks Steve. I will throw my arsenal at it, and see how far I can get.

I appreciate the offer. I will let you know.

rimpainter.com

The white 4Runner is back together and all is good!

Thanks again for the help everyone!

Albuquerque Jim

Did you put yours back together yet?

If not, you should seriously htink about putting a Truetrac in there...they're not that expensive and certainly better than open diffs.

sschaefer3

The Tru-Trac is an excellent idea if you don't see your self shelling out for the ARB RD90 and Comprssor.

rimpainter.com

No, mine is not back together yet. Tru-trac eh? Interesting idea. I might have to think that over.

Any recommendations on where to get one? I would imagine I would want this installed by someone, as I have had just about enough of this front diff (drain plug is still not fixed).

Steve: I am attempting to use a local welder (just down the street) on Monday to get this plug out. Tempe is pretty far; if I am going to drive that far, then I might as well get a rear bumper too (but my wife would kill me)

arjan

I just finished changing my front diff out. I now know about the 2 pain in the rear bolts holding the rear bushing.
I came up with some less then friendly referrals to the toyota engineer who designed that. Next time that diff comes out is with a cutting torch.
The oil filter becomes nicely accessable when there is no diff tucked up there. Sounds like a good excuse for a SAS.
I never disconnected the CVs at the wheels. I just took the 4 bolt on the bottom A arm out, so I could move the whole thing out of the way.

rimpainter.com

A BL helped a lot on this! But the donor rig was a serious pain! Grrrrr...

Glenn

I got my TruTracs from Drivetrain Direct. They had good service. They originally sent the wrong unit for my rear differential. I hadn't sent the wrong one back when I got the right one via 2nd day ... at no extra charge.

rimpainter.com

Thanks Glenn. Unfortunately I have had this in for a while now. But I will keep it in mind for the future.

Glenn

Note to self: READ the date of the original posting.

Glad it is all together now.