Hardstripe

So my new 4runner has a bad reverse gear. When I shift into reverse, I have to hold it in gear, and it clunks loudly trying to throw itself out of gear violently, every rotation. It usually succeeds at popping out of gear rather easily, and when it does will grind until things slow down enough to go back into gear again. I got a transmission I believed to also be a w56 but turns out it is a g58, you can tell by the bolt pattern on the rear end of the transmission, as well as the number of bolts on the shifter. So scrap that idea, cant find any used transmissions locally for a reasonable price that are top shifters... does a forward shifter fit into a 1st gen 4runner?

Anyways, it looks like I have to teach myself how to rebuild a transmission. Anyone know of any good threads / manuals / walkthru's / advice for rebuilding a w56?

Here are some pics- Where is the reverse gear located on this tranny?

MudHippy

The online 93 FSM has the w55/56 service procedures.
http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...nualtrans.html
That'll help for sure.

I don't know about fitting a forward shifter, or have any other relevant details for ya. Sorry.

If it were a R150F, then I would. I've still got one of those I intended on rebuilding. After tearing it apart, I looked high and low for a cheap rebuild kit for it to no avail. So, I decided to go the other direction. Luckily, I was able to find one in great shape with only 105K miles to replace it. Cost me $150 vs. $300-$400ish for a full rebuild kit. One o' these days I'll prolly get around to it though(like when I finally wear that one out too).

Good luck!

Flash319

I am subscribed. I have a few of these that need rebuilt. I looked into it a few years ago and for a few of the bearings (input and some driven shaft bearings) were well over the price of a used trans so i never bothered. I wish I had rebuilt it at the time because since then I have gone through 2 other "yard" trans.

Let us know the kit you buy, where and how much. I couldn't find a deal anywhere and Marlin doesn't sell them anymore according to their web site. They wanted $400 + anyway.

Hardstripe

hey flash- yea i figured there would be some interest, i havent seen ANY w56 rebuild threads, which is very suprising to me. As far as kits go, ive found alot of different ones ranging from 100-300 bucks.. I will be doing a little telephone work to find out where the bearings are made, I think alot of the cheaper kits have chinese bearings.

Hardstripe

So I got to tear into this thing a little today- dont do what I did and take it apart before draining the oil- its messy when you do it that way. Heres the drainplug.



Drain it...



take out this bolt on the shifter guide



Now remove all the bolts holding the two pieces of the transmission together



tap it apart with a rubber mallet and remove the shifter guide from the rail



remove the shifter rail (inner view once the transmission is taken apart)



I knew this would be here... if you find this in your oil, your off to a bad start hehe



View of left side



View of right side



More crushed up gears



chewed up gears



This is probably my reverse... not much left of it.

Flash319

The one I tore apart looked much the same. My 5th gear was like your reverse. Also the input shaft gear was missing a lot of teeth. My problems with these are always the input bearings go then the shafts start floating around destroying everything.

There must be a problem with oil getting to the input bearing. (I have gone through 3-4 in 10 years, used trans but same problem on all of them) Is the input bearing the major cause of this mess?? or was it just a broken gear that started chewing everything...??

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

I have the guts of a W56 in my dad's basement... Just the shafts and gears, supposedly they are all in good shape. Actually, now that I think about it I also have my old W56 with 250k miles - replaced it because of a bearing noise but everything else was okay... PM me if that sounds interesting to you at all.

Hardstripe

You talking about the input bearing on the transfer case? If you check, you can see in the first couple pics, the input bearing is fine. This is all damage from broken gears I am suspecting.

Hardstripe

heh, flash you got to excuse my mistake here, after spending some time with it i realize that the only way oil can swap between the transfer and tranny is if the seal is broken- i drained my transfer and there was zero metal shavings in it, thankfully.
After pulling the other side of the tranny apart it is obvious the input bearing is in great shape, but the rest of the gears are trashed. This means it was a reverse gear problem- reverse was probably broken by someone letting the clutch out halfway habitually while in reverse, breaking off teeth, and those teeth running amuck inside the oil.
So whata this means for me is.... all my gears are trashed. rebuilding this transmission would cost me over a thousand dollars in gears. the good news it......

FREE PRACTICE TRANSMISSION!

I figure what the hell, if im going to learn on any transmission, this one is a perfect candidate- you guys can see what mistakes i make and we can all learn from mine, harmlessly on a pre-broken transmission!

Hardstripe

So i began the other side by taking off the bellhousing of course...

Then remove the bearing cover


the first clues of bad news.... hey that rhymes!


remove the snap rings

now at this point i checked the transmission for other things that might keep the cover in place... ended up removing these just in case, not sure if it was necessary but it cant hurt, really.

smack it with a hammer (plastic or rawhide)

right view

left view

closeup- im pointing to a few grooves with the screwdriver here... these are apparenty oil grooves and not damage.





these are for flash- input bearings


now here i am putting some bolts in the bottom two holes so i can mount it safely in my vice... the fsm recommends clutch bolts with nuts on the other side... i dont have any handy so i just dug in my junk droor for some bolts that poked thru just a smidge, should work the same.



now remove the plugs with an alan key- keep them in order

dont mix them up, theyre all different...

now this next part calls for a special service tool called a "magnetic finger" .... yea.... i dont got that....
so i magnitized my alan key by rubbing it on a high powered magnet i had laying in my shop

now use the alan in the three lower plug holes to remove a spring and a ball. (sorry no pic)
remove the retainer rings on slide 1 and 2- use two screwdrivers, the remover doesnt work well for this portion

now bend the tab down on the lock washers

now remove the bolts on #1 and 2


remove the reverse idler "gear shaft stopper"

take the gear shaft out

now remove #1

Now use your new sst.. magnetic alan key to remove the key

now remove #2

now the alan key isnt long enough, but you can go in thru the side.. remove the next key

punch this retainer pin out

now pull all this stuff out- be careful there is anothe rlittle tiny key that will drop out... look at the pics below.



this is where it came from

NOW the manual says to measure the gap here.. should be a max of .48, but i think im missing something here because this gap is WAY bigger than .48


am i doing that wrong? please let me know.
so here i remove the snap rings on the bearings

start pulling it all off

be careful here, theres some bearings (see pics below)- also dont catch your puler on the lip of the other gears


now remove the retainer ring

now i did this wrong and ˟˟˟˟ed it up.. dont do this like i did...
I pulled the clutch off because my puller didnt want to fit correctly over and behind it

these popped out of the three little inner grooves

grooves

now when i put my puller on there, it fits... but in the back there is a weak metal sleeve or some ˟˟˟˟.. i squished the hell out of it and ruined it... not sure if its a replaced part from a rebuild kit or not. pulling this first clutch baffled me, anyone know the right way to do it?

remove this snap ring


ok now i am taking a break due to lack of tools.. i need some pullers i dont have, got to find someone to borrow them from.

i am teaching myself as i go so please critique and correct me where necessary, this is a learning experience for me and hopefully many readers. lets help them get it right where i get it wrong.

MudHippy

Phew!

I couldn't find it within myself to tell you that after seeing the condition those gears were in.

I'm glad to hear you figured that much out on your own. And you've taken the bad news very well I must say. I have to commend you on that.

Way to "make lemonade out of lemons" there bud. Good job!

It would be great if I could inspire myself to do the same with the R150F that's just sitting collecting dust in my shed. I've got the camera, now all I need is the time and a few more special tools(me too).

xxxtreme22r

again search, post reported for blatantly not searching only to up your post count so you can sell your junk.

HighLux

This should be changed to the "w56 tear down, never actually rebuilt it thread."

What a let down.

Andrewb1369n

Bump bumpeddy bump bump bump! Haha come on we need the rest of this maaaaan

Hardstripe

haha sorry guys, my life just got a little crazy. well that and I currently have a mint 85 4runner with no engine in my garage, a vw 1.9l tdi sittin on the floor, a new marlin transmission on the way, and im mid bob on the beast.... so in other words as soon as I make some decent progress look for that buildup. when I get my rig on the trail for this season you can look for more progress on this thread, i havent forgot about you guys.

Flash319

Just to throw this out there,
I just got my input bearing for my W56 from Cobra Transmission (do a search). I got a genuine Nachi bearing for around $20. My dealer could not get it ($85) backorder.

Andrewb1369n

I just bought a complete bearing kit off of eBay for $200 with the syncros and gaskets. So I'll be doing something like this in a week or so. Gears are good just my input bearing started to make some noise so I'm gonna replace them all. Kinda breaking the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" rule haha

Moonfish

This thread is a trip down memory lane. My w56 started taking a dump. I took it out and did the input shaft bearing. Note, it can be sleeved. And that didn't work for long and I had to tear it down again. I bought a bearing kit from ebay from a bearing company,, National bearing maybe? I got to most of them but couldn't get one. I had to find a place with a press to get it. I didn't take any shafts out of the middle carrier. I didn't adjust anything. It's been 5 years and 40k and it's going fine. I remember the bearings really didn't look bad. Even very light scarring was enough to make them grind.

Anyway, good luck and don't tear your electrical connectors off like I did.

Andrewb1369n

Well noted lol. Thanks for the advice. This place I got the bearing kit from is fast and very high quality stuff so I'm stoked for getting it for so cheap and having a good transaction on eBay. the eBay store is http://stores.ebay.com/TRANSPARTS-AT...id=p4340.l2563

angrybob

I had a different '87 4Runner that I ended up turning within a couple months of ownership because I found my current 4Runner locally with some of what I wanted to do for off-road mods already done. Within this couple of months of ownership, I swapped the w56 out with another used one due to a bad 4th gear.

I don't have it apart yet, but judging from the pics above and the metal that came out of the fluid, I am thinking its a bearing:



It looks like the ball retainer above.

I'll get it apart soon and have a look. My current trans shifts like butter, but it has 180k on it. If I get this one apart and its not a huge expense to fix, then I'll swap it out when the need comes. Only stock drivetrain thing left would be the bottom end then.

To answer a previous question, a forward shift trans w56 C/D/E (89-95) can be swapped in place of a w56 A/B. There is a how to thread somewhere with pics if you want to search. You will have to trim out the floor pan forward of the gear shifter and modify the center surround shifter trim piece by moving the storage bin from forward of the shifter to behind the t-case shifter.