First off: 4runnah, 1993, 3.0, Automatic with A340H tranny, 4wd

On my way to work one day and I lost power while driving. 4runner would not move in L, 2, or D. It did move in reverse at first, but after a couple of minutes it did not move in R. As of today the 4runner only moves in 4LO. Anything else, and it goes nowhere. This includes 4HI. Does anyone know what will cause this? Transfer case/ transfer case out of fluid? Tranny fluid is clean and up to level.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

Just a guess sounds like you might have some brakes locked up.

Does the transmission and transfer case shift ok??

Did you smell anything when this happened ??

Any loud bangs or strange noise??

 

yes the transmission was shifting fine prior to this and the T-case as well, and it still does. No I did not smell anything when this happened nor did I hear any loud bangs or strange noise when it happened. I should have mentioned that this has happened to me once before at a 7-11 but it only lasted for a couple minutes and it hasn't happened again till now. And now, its not going away.

Could you explain the whole brake lock up thing, because I am not sure if I am understanding the whole concept haha, I am not an experienced mechanic at all

My "rear anti lock" light is illuminated and has been since I got the 4runner a couple of months ago.

 

If the brakes locked it might not have power to over power the brakes, but in 4LO the gear reduction in the tcase might do it. easy to test put in neutral release the parking brake and see if you can push it on flat ground. I don't think this is the case because you would have an extremely hard brake pedal or smell something burning noticeably awful. too many variables because you have no idea what the previous owner did, like wrong fluid in trans, or tried to move a mobile home. might be time to change the fluid and filter and have a look.

 

just remembers something on a friends truck, about a month ago he could not get it in 4Lo. the transmission mount broke and had the tcase shifter hitting the floor, but his is not even a Toyota. hope it helps

 

Welcome to the club! Cheers!

Well; we need you to troubleshoot this. So go get a copy of the FSM, and you will have to learn fast. The faster you learn the faster this gets fixed.

Does the truck lurch going into gear? does the engine rev freely in gear? Does it drive properly in 4lo? If so you probably have some busted wires on the transmission or T-case and you need to pull and inspect.

 

Well there is only one answer.transfer high gear drum fluid pressure leakage and burn the clutchs. This is a very common problem ,the oil rings eat the drum and doesnt seal any more,you can dissambly your transfer from behind without tranny removal and get the drum to the lathe to fix it and get some teflons ring from an auto tranny shop and cut them to the size of the drum.sorry no pics when i have done this dozen of time

 

I have been trying to trouble shoot it with an online manual that I found. And it doesn't
Lurch going into gear. It does rev freely in any gear besides 4LO. And yes, it drives properly in 4LO. Pulling the tranny off is a little much for me to do as I don't have the tools, but if need be I can get someone to do it

 

Is there anyway to be sure of this? Can the t case be removed without removing the tranny?

 

25 years rebuilding transmisions ,trust me. And no, the transfer will not come apart in one piece,will need to disassembly in pieces but not a hard job if your mechanically inclined. Just lift very high from rear ,sit in front of the transfer and have fun.

 

25 years rebuilding transmisions ,trust me. And no, the transfer will not come apart in one piece,will need to disassembly in pieces but not a hard job if your mechanically inclined. Just lift very high from rear ,sit in front of the transfer and have fun.correction its called direct drum .www.omegamachine.com/db/Toyota-Transfer-Case-Direct-Drum.asp

 

Thanks a lot for all the info, I'm going to get into it as soon as possible. my friend has a couple of parts 4runners that have the same tranny. So basically I can't just swap out the transfer case with a used one?

 

No. Can swap the direct drum instead

 

ilikai

What was the outcome if one? Im having the exact same problem, to a tee. Also my ignition key wont come out stuck on acc.

Thanks

Brandon

 

 

Hi FOlks. Time to ressurect an old thread and see if the previous posters have some advice since there issues in 2017.

I seem to be having this same problem. After a LONG drive, 13 hours from LA to MOAB, 3 days wheeling, and 6 hrs into the drive back. No sounds, no bangs, nothing to say there is an issue. Stopped for lunch. Then 2HI and 4 HI wouldn't really engage. 4Lo engaged. then got speed, then shifted to 4 and 2 HI. Was able to drive another 7 hrs without incident, but every gas stop had same scenario. Seems like somethign doesn't want to engage at first, but when engaged it operates normally. So, maybe I get lucky and someone from 2017 responds to say how they fixed their issue.

 

You have to take it to a place that can fix the xfer case. You did not say how many miles on this rig, but I suspect you have worn out the xfer box. Shop around and find someone who can actually do the work without ripping you off. This is not going to cheap for you to fix at shop prices. Unless you want to do it yourself.

The trans and xfer share fluid and are co-joined. So, the front part maybe Ok for a while but the day of reckoning is coming. While you still have time get your wallet ready.

 

1. What transmission do you have? I'm guessing the A340H, but it's printed on the driver's door jamb.
2. Do you have any codes? http://web.archive.org/web/201408161...31diagnosi.pdf (Probably not, but don't skip this step.)

I doubt your problem is in the electronics/solenoids. The No. 4 solenoid does the shift from 4H to 4L, but the shift from 2H to 4H is with the mechanical linkage. If it shifted "by itself" from 4L to 2H, I would start by inspecting the linkage. http://web.archive.org/web/201408161...33manualsh.pdf

You could certainly have an internal clutch issue, but even if you have to have someone tear down the transfer case, they will benefit from knowing the results of FSM testing.

 

Go to my post #7. Your transfer case direct drum is starting to die. Solenoid are only for shifting, you should be able to move back and forth with no electronics.

 

Hi Scope and Mandy tuning and thanks for your responses. Mandy, because 4 low engages fully and without issue, I am having a hard time understanding why that is the case if the drum is starting to die. Wouldn't that drum have a hard time engaging in 4Low as much as 4H and 2 wd? Mandy if you are right and it is a matter of getting a new drum, can I just replace it instead of machining and Teflon? I don't really understand this fix.

Scope, the symptoms are identical to the original post.

Because there is correct engagement and forward motion when i put transfer in 4 low, I deduced that the transfer case is the issue. It seems that the clutch pack is not engaging to connect the transmission output shaft to the transfer case rear output shaft. However, for some reason it does engage in 4 low. The fact that it does engage and stays engaged perfectly fine and the rest of the transmission works perfectly fine once engaged, tells me that the clutches are good to. SO, some sort of pressure loss when the drum/clutch try to engage in 4HI and 2 wd modes.

Yes. A340H transmission.

I do have the FSM but I haven't found where it walks me through trouble shooting a TC issue like this. Just says disassemble and inspect.