Bumpin' Yota

yes I read his article, but id be willing to bet gadget has one of the most powerful 4runners out there... My tranny may need to be overhauled anyhoo, it has 275k on it and one comple submersion in water in which it sucked down about 3 cups of water!! A change of fluids and filters later its been fine save my reverse gear.....reverse is very very weak.

mastacox

I think a modified valve body that increases pressure will also increase flow through the cooler. I seem to remember reading this somewhere, don't remember if it was Gadget's site or what...

Robinhood150

I just edited my first post to show that I believe my tranny is not normal and has a problem.

thefallman

EEEEEEEEK ----->WATER<------ that not good.. water is in any hydraulic system is practically worse then metal shavings. of course this depends on pressures and on the tolorances involved. ive seen hydraulic pumps litterally destroyed by less then a cup of water. these pumps are of course much larger and higher pressures. but still not good.

water turns harder then steal inside a hydraulic system such as this and will pit the hell out of anything it hits

my transmission has around 285k on it and now is running behind a 3.4 and is as solid as the day i bought it if not better.

marko3xl3

This is without a question the most informative transmission temp thread on YT. Just wanted to thank everybody for their contributions, since I have been looking for answers like these forEVER.

But, I have two more questions I wanna post up (sorry for hijacking).

1) Why an oil thermostat? Wouldn't you want the fluid to be cooled all the time?

2) Gauges. If you have a mechanical gauge...wouldn't the liquid cool a lot through the tubes before it gets to the gauge? I am planning to get one before a cooler (I am S/C'ed) so I can get some baseline comparison, but I want full sweep and Auto Meter only makes mechanical full sweeps. Therego the question.

Thanks in advance!

mt_goat

Isspro makes a full sweep electric gauge and it matches our factory gauges very well. Black face, white numbers, red pointer, and you can get the green bulb condoms to even match the factory lighting. http://www.egauges.com/vdo_mult3.asp...=EVA-R&Units=E

Bumpin' Yota

here's the fun part....ever since then it has had some odd symptoms...

On cold mornings (sub-40's in gainesville) Id go to drive and it would go and drive just fine but it was as if I was in 4LOW, even though it wasnt. In other words it acted as if I had a crawler - you could rev the hell out of the engine and only gain 2mph if that...

Stopping, shifting into P then back into D usually fixed it, though a few times it was really stubborn and took a while to realize it wasnt in ultra-crazy low gear....Since im now back in sarasota with a warmer climate it never did do that symptom

The on cold mornings in temps btwn 40 and 50 1st gear would be fine, but then it would refuse to step into second. OR better yet it would start out in second gear! And you thought the 3vze had no power, you should try starting in 2nd and merging onto US41! lol

Lastly reverse is really weak, in that if there is a hill and i give too much gas, the truck shakes slightly and something makes a howling noise. Needless to say howling = bad so I only did this once, and if I HAVE to back up against a slope or over an obstacle, I put it into 4LO...

These symptoms are actually kinda rare. These symptoms are things ive noticed over the past 4 years of driving. Ususally my A340H is working great with no issues....

Does this sound like something in the VB is bad or stuck, or maybe the reverse clutch pack is shot?




ps - does hydraulic oil actually compress and if so more than water?

marko3xl3

I saw that. I was actually looking to get an Auto Meter gauge to match my Auto Meter boost gauge that I already have. So back to the problem...will the coolant cool significanltly before getting to the gauge?

Robinhood150

Mechanical gauges don't work like that. They use a capillary tube that holds a liquid. The liquid heats up or cools down and which changes the pressure within the tube. The pressure change is what moves the needle.

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/653.cfm

thefallman

Bumpin

to me it sounds like the ultra low gear is actually your clutch packs not engageing all the way and slipping same with the reverse gear.

Unless you flushed the whole tranny or got a new TC its hard to get all the water out. even flushing it. because the water is heavier then the oil and will sit in the bottom of the TC and not flush out. i think you would be smart to invest in a new or at least used TC when you rebuild your tranny soon. which i would suggest you doo sooner then later. the more you put it off with that slippage the more parts you probably going to end up replacing. btw this doesnt sound like something that would be in your VB unless its just water blocking a passage. I think at minimum you need to do a good flush. use the cheapest oil you can get to flush it then after you test it out maybe go up in grade. but dont go expensive because you might just be dumping it again. So anyway um as far as hydraulic or atf compressing no it doesnt. well at least not measurably really

marko3xl3

That makes me look like an idiot, wow .

But it makes sense...a lot of it too. My reasoning of routing the liquid is because I read so from many other equally un-educated posters. Oh well. Thanks a lot!!

FredTJ

Most unlikely, isn't it

At any rate, the tranny fluid should always be checked like any of the other fluids, but, unfortunely, it's one of the most overlooking maint. items for most vehicles.
Check the fluid, both for level and condition every 3 months when an oil change is performed.
If the fluid isn't nice and crispy red, with a nice "clean" smell to it, it's time to change it, and, if it's that way often, there is something going on.

I lloked a gen II 4Runners for close to 3 months before I finally purchaed the one that I just got. These were private sales and dealer lots.
Not a single one had clean tranny fluid. *ALL* of them had fluid that hadn't been changed in a long, long time, fluid that was yellow/brown, burnt and smelled just a bad.
Pretty amazing I thought, but it goes to show how neglected the auto tranny usually is



Yup.


Best,
Fred

timw.

Hey everybody, first of all, I must say that this thread has been most informative. I definitely appreciate everyone's input. I thought that I would throw in something extra that I found out that relates to an earlier argument regarding the a340h and how it "shares" fluid with the transfer case. Some quick background first... I joined yt shortly after purchasing a 92 4runner because I was wondering why my "a/t oil temp" light was coming on after a bit of highway travel (60-75 mph for approx. 30-40 miles). After swapping everything from the tranny filter, ATF twice, radiator, aux tranny cooler etc etc etc., I was reading some thread (i apologize for not remembering which) about the xfer case and the argument that insued about whether or not to fill transfer case from the backside as opposed to the dipstick tube. To make a long story not as long, I did the "finger check" through the hole in the top part of the backside of the case and did not touch any fluid. I added 1.5 qts of Synthetic ATf to get the level high enough to where my pinky had fluid on the end of it. My transmission has been running ALOT cooler and I have yet to throw a light (even when my stupid tcc lockup solenoid isn't working). Pretty amazing for me, so if you are trying to diagnose heat issues and think your fluid level is right on, make sure to check under that plug on the back of the transfer case to ensure that everything is right on, before proceeding through your diagnosis check list. Thanks for your time, rock on.

Robinhood150

Good tech there Tim. Thanks for sharing.

marko3xl3

The transfercase shares fluid with the transmission? Are you sure about this?

timw.

that is my understanding, but from what i've discovered it doesn't appear to be quite as simple as that. Many people feel that all one needs to do is fill the fluid through the dipstick tube which must not be completely accurate or at least not in my case. (1992 4runner, a340h auto tranny).

timw.

my tranny temps were getting so hot before i checked the transfer, i couldn't even believe it! Normal driving in o/d was eventually pegging out my guage at 250 (which means it may have been exceeding that). From what I can tell now it is almost like i was running with my tranny 1.5 qts. low but when i would check my fluid level (which became a borderline obsessive-compulsive behavior on my part) via the dipstick it always registered within the "hot" marks. I checked my fluid after bringing the vehicle to operating temps (tranny temp guage: between 150-175) then switching through all of the gears as well as shifting vehicle from 2hi to 4lo to 4hi etc. before checking the dipstick. BTW, i put the vehicle in neutral with e-brake on when I checked the level.

trythis

They defintly share the fluid, check the FSM. Fill from dipstick.

thefallman

K guys sorry i didnt cover this earlier, I had quite the discussion with myself and a few others and a Major brainstorm over this little bit of toyota engineering.

The A340H is one of the most screwed up and complicated things toyota has done to date. but no worries here's the explination

the A340H Shares Tranny fluid with the Valvebody portion of the transfercase. this is because there are no seals inbetween the transfercase and the transmission. and also for the ease of filling it makes filling the transfer case a hell of alot easier. The problem comes that the fluid in the valvebody/pan portion of the tranfer case DOESNT share by any measureable means with the rear lower portion of the transmission. this means that if you drain the plug in the rear on the bottom of the TCase you have to fill the plug on the middle back of the Tcase. Otherwise you will be running the TCase Lower Portion Dry that is also the reason the Rear lower portion of the TCase has its own Pump and Cooler.

This whole convoluted setup is made even more confusing by the fact that when you drain All 3 plugs and fill the Rear lower portion of the T/Case and the Transmission up to thier proper levels the T/Case PAN/Valvbody Portion will still be empty, UNTIL you start the truck the first time after refilling the transmission. It will then move fluid from the transmission back into the T/Case Pan and you will then have to put more oil into the transmission.


FYI
I just did all this when i did my swap. the FSM says 7.5 quarts i believe is the capacity of the tranny and T/Case Dry. Excuse me while i laugh at this. I dont know exactly why but when i did my swap i did leave the plugs out of the trannny and T/Case for several days but it took at least 8quarts min to get it refilled. granted i did take the pans off which i recommend because in the tranny pan alone after draining the fluid thru the plug there was another 1-2 quarts. Same with the T/Case.

snap-on

while moving off the org topic of temps... tis still good A340H tech....

When i had mine pulled out durring my motor rebuild i cleaned the trany filter. (ie drop the pan flush it out etc.)

i put 8qts in mine not including the 2 or so i pumped into the rear of the transfer case via the fill bolt.