What trans is in the 1983 Toyota 4x4? I cant find any numbers on mine. Would like to go to a junk yard and pull one. Are there other trans that will work without modifying your rig? This is a 5spd rig.

 

L52. I guess the '84-88 trannys will mate with the engine fine, but you need to modify driveshaft lengths and cut your floorboard a bit. I think any '79-83 tranny will fit with no mods, but unless you're really short on cash I wouldn't want to put a 4-speed from one of those years in. I think maybe the earlier 5 speeds were called something different, but I'm not sure. There's a link around here somewhere.....maybe google "toyota transmission" or something. There's a site that breaks everything down by year.

 

You have an L52.

You can put in an L45, L50, or L52 without mods.

 

my understanding was the 4 speed from thoes years were allot more reliable and could take more abuse than the 5 speed, on my 82 toyota 4x4 it had a 5 speed lost first and second, i slaped in a 4 speed and not a SINGLE problem

 

Yes the 5 speeds had an issue with a bearing...can't remember the name...which wasn't big enough for the load that 5th gear put on it, especially since rpm's weren't really high enough to use 5th gear until the truck was going over 60mph, so if people were driving along for hours at 55 or 60 in 5th, big load on the tranny. Throw in some oversized tires...and the transmissions weren't holding up as well as a Toyota should.

Depending on what you plan on using the truck for, either would work. I wouldn't use a 4 speed in mine because my truck will see a lot of highway time. If you're mostly offroad with yours, then yeah, 4 speed would probably be a better choice. This is why Marlin makes the L52HD 5 speed. It's supposed to address that problem with a larger bearing.

 

imput shaft bearing??

My 5-Speed (in an '83) is a little wierd

 

Yeah that sounds right. I guess Toyota took care of a bunch of calls on the warranty when it started happening, and they put in a slightly larger bearing, but it was still a weak point, since the size of the spot for the bearing only allowed them to go so big. The '84 trucks had an even larger bearing that solved the problem. I guess what Marlin does is bore out the hole to allow for a bearing the size of what the '84+ trucks had.

I'm very happy so far with my L52HD, but I'll be paying it off for awhile, too...