cadman

I picked one up at Ferman's in Santa Ana. A little on the dirty and greasy side, the castings appeared to be in one piece with no visible cracks or any thing broken. Still had the mount attached to it. It came off a 1985 4Runner and is a top shifting version.





The first step was to clean the cases then tear it down and rebuild it. I bought the Major Rebuild Kit from Trail Gear because it was a little cheaper than the kit from Marlin. Looking back, I should have bought it from Marlin instead. When I started to reassemble the tc, I came across problem #1:

one of the gaskets is cut incorrectly.










Taking an Exacto knife, I elongated some of the holes and with the gasket mounted on the two dowel pins, there was just enough room, and I mean barely, to get all of the screws through without distorting the gasket. There was a small hump at one area that I could feel as I assembled the case, but I used the orange Toyota FIPG that came with the ORS kit and it should be leak proof.

Problem #2 was Trail Gear left out the flange nuts. I sent them an e-mail and the nuts came two days later. Very good service, but this should not happen.

Problem#3 - one of the large bearings is missing it's retainer ring.

Problem #4 was the absence of one bearing. Looking at the picture of the kit on their website, I don't see it, but they say the kit contains all bearings. By this time I'm not happy with them and I need to go to the Toyota dealer to order shims (which do not come with the kit) so I'll just get the bearing & ring there. At least I know I'll get them. A few of the bearings have no ID on them at all, no sizes or manufacture names. Will these hold up? I guess I'll find out as I put on off-road miles. My previous experience with Trail Gear has been good, but I give them a thumbs down on this project.


From Marlin I get the 23 spline input gear, which comes complete with bearing and covered with cosmoline, or something like it, and two new flanges. The bolt pattern on the U-joints is slightly different than whats one the existing flanges, so this is an excuse to get new ones. Thumbs up for Marlin.


Problem. No way to get the M8 screw in. The 4WD indicator switch blocks the hole in the adapter plate, so I drill, tap, and install a thread insert for a M6 screw. I have to use a shcs to bolt from the opposite side, a hex head won't fit here. I did not drill out the threads from the case, it was not needed.








Finished. I bought the new flanges after this picture was taken. You can see them in the tranny install pics. I also needed a 4WD indicator switch with 2 leads. The one that was on the tc only had one. I got a 2 wire switch from Marlin.



The next time I have the transmission out, I'm going to drill a hole for a breather tube and connect to the breather tube on the extension housing. As I understand it, these gear driven transfer cases breath out of the shifter opening.

RobG

Thanks for the engine info, I'm starting to keep an eye out for a good 3.4 deal just trying to get some info so I know a good if I come across one.

Your work is really clean, and great pics and description. Thanks.

Is that 8mm to 6mm change common or is that something you came up with?

Where are you located in OC?

mt_goat

I wish Marlin would have used that FIPG on my dual cases, the paper gaskets are seeping oil. Oh well... maybe my Budbuilt crossmember will never rust keeping it wet with gear oil. Someday I may pull it off and put FIPG in place of the paper gaskets.

cadman

I'm in Mission Viejo. Are you in Huntington Beach? I used to live near Warner & Bolsa Chica until I got married.

I have no idea what anyone else has done or if it's just my combination of adapter plate, tc, and extension housing. An 8mm won't fit on either the adapter plate or extension housing side as is, but the 6mm will and it had to be a shcs instead of the hex head. When the opportunity comes up I may counterbore the adapter plate and use an 8mm low head shcs. I would also need to turn the OD on the 4WD switch.

cadman

Here's an update - just looked at MC's website and that hole/screw is not used in single case applications:

http://www.marlincrawler.com/htm/tra...te_instal.html

So there you have it, my own modification. I wish ORS would have included that info in their instructions. I would still do the mod to the plate, but I wouldn't be wondering if I screwed up or something.

cadman

Yea, I can't see using gaskets without some type of sealant on these cases. These things are definitely leak prone.

RobG

Yeah, I'm in Huntington. From the pictures I thought you might have been as well.

So some how I missed why you went with the geared case. Looks like you have the original chain case in and then are swapping in a gear case? I assume it's to put in the 4.7 reducer but I didn't see that mentioned.

cadman

The Tacoma and 1995.5 and newer 4Runners have the transfer case output on the left side, and earlier generation IFS trucks & 4Runners are on the right, so using the tranny from any of the 3.4 vehicles requires swapping in an earlier gear driven transfer case, which outputs on the right.

I still have the stock gear ratios in my tc. This is the case that came with the tranny. If anyone is looking for one, it's for sale.

RobG

I guess there is such a thing as a stupid question. Thanks for enlightening me.

cadman

No such thing as a stupid question. By the way, if you do the swap, you can ignore everything about the tranny and tc since you have a 5spd. The 3.4 will bolt right on to your stock tranny and you don't need to replace anything.

RobG

Wow, that is great news! I've been thinking about going to a single or double gear driven case but didn't want to have to redo everything should I do the 3.4 swap.

Thanks!

mt_goat

Sounds like you need to read the ORS tech writeups:
http://www.offroadsolutions.com/technicalarticles.htm

RobG

I'm not serious about it just yet, my 3.0 has 108K and seems to be going strong (relatively speaking). Should I have any problems I will definitely do the research and swap. Also don't have enough cash to do cases and shafts right now either so I haven't seriously looked into that.

Being local I was curious about where cadman sourced his parts and what they were going for. Parts seem to go for a lot in this area compared to other parts of the country. When the time comes I'll read all the stickies posted above.

Thanks for the link, sorry about my ignorance.

cadman

The wires coming from this connector on the 3.4 battery harness will now connect to the stock 3.0 alternator cable, and the ORS harness has a wire that will also connect here. Do not cut and solder them together. You can get the male connector and terminals from Toyota.





What I've been finding out is if a part number is not in a particular dealers database, they will tell you the part is not available. This is especially true with wiring. Some connectors, yes, you are not able to get, but a lot of them can be ordered.

I ordered the connector and terminals from Toyota of Dallas and the should be here early next week.

90980-10941 male connector
82998-12430 terminal
82998-12260 terminal

There are two wire sizes at this connector, so I ordered both sizes. When the parts arrive I'll find out if I ordered the right parts. Stay tuned.

cadman

I now have the transfer case/tranny mounted with a 1" thick plate. I moved the hole patterns from the mount and cross member 3/8" closer from the initial rough measurement.




Both isolators are the same, so the tranny and engine are straight, and are closer to center. I thought I'd be closer, but apparently the isolators were being squeezed more than it looked. Now I know exactly where I am and another 3/32" closer will move it dead center. Depending on what kind of angular change I have at the intermediate shaft and center bearing, I may have to change how thick the spacer is and/or move the bearing up or down to prevent drive line vibration.

This transmission, transfer case and mount combo is completely different than the stock one, so I really don't have a base to go on. Experimentation is the name of the game here. I want to make sure everything is correct when the vehicle moves before I commit to my custom cross member.





The transmission dipstick no longer touches the steering shaft. There is about a 1/4" gap now. Without a body lift, there would be no problems with interference here.

mt_goat

I'm a little confused, did your 3.0 alt plug not fit the 3.4 alt? Is that why you have to order the connecters. My 3.0 alt plug fit my 3.4 alt perfect but I have a 93 truck so maybe thats the difference.

Where did you get that sweet tranny/transfer case mount?

cadman

The stock 3.0 connector is different on my truck. The round one is the 3.0 and the other is the 3.4




I got the mount from here:

http://4xinnovations.com/

Adam makes a nice cross member/skid plate combo,( http://www.tacomaterritory.com/forum...d.php?t=102936 ) but it doesn't fit our vehicles with torsion bars. If I can figure a way to mount it then I'll throw the idea to him and see if he can do it, otherwise I have to go back to plan A and get something fabricated locally.

mt_goat

Oh yeah that's a different plug than my 3.0 came with.

Good price on those mounts, cheaper than new OEM, thanks

cadman

Time to check the rest of the drive train.
I put the intermediate shaft up and it is just slightly long by about 1/8". Without the 1" spacer under the transfer case it would be longer, but still very close. The screws that fasten the center bearing are near the ends of the slots, so I lengthen the far end of the slots for a little extra adjustability.









With the shaft in place, the only reference I have is my wife's 4Runner, which is a 5 speed with stock suspension and a single drive shaft. I don't have a protractor handy, so I have to eyeball it, but the angle of my intermediate shaft looks the same or even slightly less than her's, so I give it a thumbs up. Of course the real test will be when I actually drive the truck and detect if there is any vibration or not.

I'll take it off, clean it, purge the old grease from the U joint, and put a fresh coat of paint on the shaft. No modification required.

The new cross member will remove most of the 1/8" length difference.





The center bearing looks good too. There is compression set in the rubber that indicates how the shaft is normally aligned to it and it does not change when the bearing is bolted to it's mount.





The output flange to the front differential is further back by almost 2", so now the outer tube is short by that amount. The driveshaft does not move on IFS like it does with solid axles, so technically I don't need to do anything about the length, but there is now less engagement between the inner shaft and outer tube. I'll take the driveshaft to get the outer tube lengthened.

cadman

I installed an IPT 4454 cooler. My plan is to install a TRD SC some time next year along with the valve body upgrade from IPT, so a cooler will be mandatory.











As far as location, everyone seems to put coolers in different places and I picked right in the middle of the radiator. There is about 1/2" of space between the two and all I needed to do was drill two holes for the bottom mounts.