finally got the front diff out of the Yoda, and dropped the oil pan. and look what I found in the bottom of it:




that's right...ALL 4 thrust washers. 2 of them look ok, but the other 2 are pretty mangled. one is just worn down, and scored, but the last one, is all twisted and deformed....

I think I know where the knock was coming from.

I got tired of laying on my back in the gravel, so I stopped working for today. but hopefully next week sometime I can crawl under there and pull the main bearing caps to see if the crank is Fubared *crosses fingers*

 

Wow!!!!

vmax84

 

it was still running when you decided to drop the pan? Only a toyota

 

amazing was it still running ?

 

wow! that makes me wanna cry...

 

yep, ran fine. had to feather the throttle to get it to start. and it had a nasty knock, but it drove onto the trailer to get here, and then back off under it's own power.

it's had essentially zero miles on it since the knock started. as soon as the PO heard the noise, she pulled over, and it's only ever been started since then to idle a little for diagnostics, or to drive on/off a trailer a few times.

I'm hoping it didn't damage the crank on the way out...

tomorrow I'll pull the #3 main bearing cap, and see what's behind it....wish me luck!

 

well, I got to pull the main bearing caps yesterday. and saw good things. the crank was visibly shifted ~1/4" toward the front of the truck. which explains why 2 of them look fine, and the other 2 are destroyed....

Jeepsus says that at some point in it's very recent past, someone *tried* to do a little preventative maintenance, and something went wrong. They wouldn't admit to it's exact nature, but probably something like drained the oil and filled the tranny, or filled the crank case with the wrong stuff....

anyway, the thrust washers have 2 grooves on one side. these are to deliver oil directly to the surfaces that are in contact. well, I suspect that either oil pressure was lost, or if the wrong stuff was used, those 2 washers stuck to the crank. this caused them to spin against the main bearing/block for a moment, before falling out. then the crank shifted, and the other 2 fell out.

and because of the crank shifting, it started knocking.


sooo....new main and rod bearings (might as well since I'm in there). new thrust washers. new oil pan gasket, new oil pickup gasket....and cross my fingers.



on a humorous note, I noticed that there was a spark plug caught between the motor mount bracket, and the base of the block. there's no way to get it out without lifting it back up through the bracket a good 6" out the top. someone must have dropped it while changing them at one point...and it's been there ever since.

 

How did your bearing project turn out?