84 Toyota xtra cab pickup. The front pinion is completely locked and won't move at all. The wheels still roll, but the pinion is locked up solid. I noticed this when I put a clutch in the truck,I just left the front driveshaft out for now. It has Aisin manual hubs, and they spin free in both the locked and free position. My question is, what do you guys think might've happened? Run dry and something seized up? I plan on tearing into it to investagate, but I've never pulled apart a Toyota diff.

 

Did you try putting it in 4wd or check the fluid? Thirds are pretty cheap on craigslist, at least around here, so if you have stock gearing, I would just throw another one on if its messed up, not to hard.

 

Get a BFH, and beat it into submission! Or pull the knuckles, pull the axles, and pull the diff. I wonder if there is/was any fluid in it? I bet the previous owners were amazed when gear oil stopped leaking from the knuckle area... Toyota differential gears and no fluid=not good times... lol

 

Just pulled the plug....very very little oil...

I guess I will be pulling it apart to check out the damage.

 

Pulled pinion flange off to look at pinion bearing...

It's trashed.
Going to try and pull apart the rest of it tomorrow after work.

 

It would probably be a good idea to check the oil in the rear axle, as well as in the transmission and transfer case, there probably low on oil as well.

 

yeppers, looks like a complete lack of preventive care..

 

Yea I checked the Trans and transfer when I put the clutch in. I need to check the rear end. To be honest I will prob go ahead and change them out for fresh.

 

That reminds me, hmmm.... where did I put that knuckle rebuild kit????

 

Well I went ahead and dropped the whole front axle. I'm going to clean up the axle housing etc. The pinion bearings in the 3rd member are toasted. Hopefully I can fix it all.

 

The trashed pinion bearing

 

I also have a few questions about diff locking problems. My toyota pickup is a 1984 as well and the other night I went to take off on flat ground in 1st gear and it seemed as though it was not in gear at first however after a few stalls it felt more like something was keeping the front end from turning freely. Almost like the diff had locked up and wasn't allowing me to move at all. Even torquing the engine up to 2500 RPMs and dropping the clutch wouldn't do it. So, would this possibly be a bearing in the diff? Or could it be a knuckle issue? There has been some fluid loss around the knuckles but I don't know if it's bearing grease that's liquified over time or if it is gear oil leaking from the diff. If it's a diff leak then that iwould explain the problem as a bad bearing. Answers?

 

was the front wheel drive engaged when you did this? are the hubs locked? not enough info... but doing a clutch dump at 2500 rpm probably isn't the right approach.

worst case, why not try putting jackstands under the front axle, and experiment with locking the hubs, and seeing if it turns the driveshaft, when you turn the wheels.

 

Yea clutch dump wasn't a good idea. Hubs were not locked and we've started diagnosing the problem so should have it figured out before too long. Just wanted to see if anyone had a similar issue and knew what exactly the problem was

 

Clutch dumps are better served at 4,500 RPM. Helps find the weak links...