Ok so my good buddie just got an 85 4-runner and at 55mph the drivetrain sounds like poop. so we droped the rear driveshaft and grabed ahold of the pinion and the thing has about 2 inches of wiggle in it! needless to say its got to have some work to it. we are thinking its the crush sleeve and have alredy orderd the part.

The question is we were looking into replacing the ring gear, and online its saying it should be an 8" ring with a 30 spline pinion. (to match up with the 4cylinder auto) we pulled the yoke off and counted the splines and its got 27 witch we think is what matches up to the 7.5" ring gear.

So again the question is what the hell is in this thing an 8" or a 7.5" ring gear???

any help would be apreciated as we are going to go wrench on it now

Thanks a lot.

 

85's had 8" diffs at the front and rear. 30 spline is the axle side gears

If you have that much play, your bearings are prob bad also. Our 85 was so loose, the pinion gear was hitting the ring gear carrier inside the diff. Resetting the crush did not help. Ended up grenading the rear. We bought a used diff for $75 that felt tight

 

Used 3rds with stock gears are fairly cheap.. Cheaper than new gears and getting it set up right. I probably have a good one if you can't find it around your area.