NRM

so after several months of grinding/vibration coming from somewhere in the driveshaft i took my '95 runner into a shop and they've diagnosed it as worn out pinion and carrier bearings in the rear diff. and wanted to replace the entire center section of the diff. for almost $1000 total including parts and labor. i'm wondering if this is a feasible project to undertake myself with some help. i do almost all the work on my truck regularly but i've never opened up the diff. so those of you that had, is it worth saving some money and doing this myself? and does anyone know a good place to buy the parts (bearings and so forth) that i'll need?

AH64ID

Personally I wont touch gears, i'll do most anything but them. Too much to mess up if you have no gear experiance.

There are lots of places to get all the stuff online, I have gotten mine from 4wheelparts. You'll want to remove the axle housing and clean it out really well. I used a pressure washer and degreaser on mine. Any leftover metal is bad.

NRM

yeah i just drained and replaced the fluid in the diff. to make sure everything was ok and there was no metal on the magnet at all so at least my wheel bearing are fine, but yeah i'm a little nervous to be messing with the gears too

littlerunner

find a used 3rd member & change out the whole thing,may as well rpl the axle seals while your there,you dont have to do anything to the gears if you do it this way

snap-on

a replacement thrid is the best opition IMO.

and they can be had for ~300 depending on ratio.

wrenchmonster

A used assembly is probably the most economical way to go. However, I wouldn't be afraid of trying your hand at gears if your experience level, knowledge and confidence are strong enough. I don't understand why people will rebuild their entire engines and yet be afraid to touch gears. It's not THAT difficult of a job, imo. Still, if you are going for inexpensive, buy a whole assembly. Run a pattern, replace seals and bolt it up. Definately cheaper (though not better) to R&R the entire assembly. Good luck.

NRM

I'm just hesitant to buy a used one and put it one for fear of not knowing whether the same thing is gonna happen six months down the line. i would definitely prefer to rebuild mine because then i know exactly what kinda shape its gonna be in, but i guess it just depends on how much i could find a third member for. The shop that checked it out game me an estimate of around $1000 for either rebuilding it for replacing it.

airrikk17

thats doesnt seem like a bad price for a rebuild , i hope you have better luck finding 4.88 gears then i did when mine went bad. we had to do some searching , and i was the one who finally found them for the shop. .

airrikk17

reggie 00

Its not to hard to do gears. It is alot of attention to detail.

If you have to you should be able to get the third M out and take it to a shop and have them do the gear install. Around here its about 150-200 to have the gears installed and set up.

You can do it yourself, its a time consuming thing that gets very nerve racking sometimes but it can be done.

This guy has some really good tips and tech.
http://gearinstalls.com/

1000 is way to much your paying someone to do stuff you can do if you put your mind to it.
at least get under there and pull the third out and see whats what.

stevrock

$1000 is not too bad for a rebuild.

The diffy in my car is looking at 6-8 hours for replacing the bearings alone.
They also said the bearings are cheap, the expensive parts are the gears.

reggie 00

It would take someone that did not know what they where doing 6-8 hrs to do the bearings. A shop will charge you according to what the time book says is the time alloted for the procedure they are doing, that rarley is the acctual time it takes. They make their money doing a 6-8 job in 3-4 hrs. You are also paying someone $65 or more an hr to work on you rig. There are alot of things that a person even if they have limited experiance can accomplish if they choose to apply the effort. And think of the money you could apply to get possibly a better part since you are not forking over all that labor money. Get to know how that rear end works tear it apart, rebuild it, yes you may not get it right the first time but you will the second time i bet. The third time you go to do it i bet will be in the dark, when its raining , 100 miles from nowhere, by yourself.

Been there, lost the T-shirt, wont be back.

JMO

wrenchmonster

Well, generally speaking I agree with you Reggie 00. I don't think people should be afraid of the gears, but I also don't think it's as simple as you make it out to be, hence the associated cost of rebuilding a rear end.

Not only do you need the knowledge, but rebuilding an entire rear end can include some serious toolage that the average diyer doesn't want to purchase. For example a press, bearing pullers, in-lb dial indicated torque wrench, ft-lb torque wrench, micrometer, dial indicator, etc. There are also tools for inspecting and measuring housings too. So the relative cost of the parts coupled with the purchase or rental cost of the tools can be a deal breaker for a lot of folks.

It's true what you say about labor hours. But remember too that equation works the other way. I've spent 8 hours aligning a Ford and got paid 2.5 hours for my efforts. Beating the clock is the name of the game, but beating the clock usually means having specific prior knowledge of the job at hand. Most techs, even a good experienced tech, can usually only break even on labor time the first time a job is done.

NRM

i appreciate all the input. and i am hesitant to fork over that much money to have someone else work on my rig. although i don't really have much experience working with gears, i'd rather take this as a chance to figure it out, but at the same time i don't wanna end up *#$%ing my gears up. I was quoted a little over $100 for the two main bearings, and then there's also the seals and everything else, but still way less than the 300 the shop quoted me for labor. the biggest issue for me, as someone pointed out is that i don't have all the specific tools needed for the job and my resident mechanic (my bro who's a certified airplane mechanic) is only gonna be in town for a day or two so there's limited time but i still think i'm gonna try to tackle this.

reggie 00

All true.

The first time i was faced with doing gears and bearings i had to get some tools together. I got an inexpensive magnetic dial indicator and mic from Harbor Freight, paid about $30. I had stuff pressed out and in @ my local machine shop, paid i think 50 or so. The two torque wrenches i had and anyone who does anything other than oil changes should have them IMO.
I honestly did not give the housing anything more than a good once over.

I do know how he numbers game swings both ways. Worked plenty an afternoon @ my uncles shop and found that out. Even now i own my own company it still a fight to stay ahead.

My whole point was just to state that there is nothing a person cant do if they try. And am i not right when i say it is very important to know how to work on theses things if you plan on doing any type of wheeling .

JMO

NRM

i've checked in with a few parts stores and i'm trying to get everything together for this but i'm not sure what the ring gear size is and the guys at the store didn't seem to know either so what's the size for the 4.88's? He said its either 7 or 8 and some odd inches.

reggie 00

YG T8-488 8" TOY 4.88 R&P Toyota 8.0 4.88

Straight from Randys website. I do believe they use Yukon Gears there.

For the most part 4cy non turbo run a 7.5"
V6 and 4cy turbo do the 8"

Good Luck.

tc

Not true. All non-Taco 4WD rear diffs are 8.0". NonTRD Tacos are commonly called 8.4" diffs. TRD Tacos with the elocker use 8.0" gears that are interchangeable with the preTaco trucks. I think 2WD trucks may have had 7.5" rear diffs.

All IFS front diffs are 7.5", but Taco (and I think 3rd gen 4Runner) and later are "reverse rotation" and not interchangeable with the earlier ones
http://home.4x4wire.com/erik/diffs/

reggie 00

Sorry,

I went and really read the whole thing again. I was mixing things together to much. Thats what i get for rushing. I was thinking to much about a conversation i had the other day on the cons of using my 83 rear axle under my 90 4runner.