My w56 transmission out of my 1990 pickup went out and I was in the process of rebuilding when i broke a part. I found another w56 forward shift which he said came out of a 1988 but after looking at Marlin Crawlers identification chart they only came with top shifts? It IS a forward shift that this guy is selling. So my question is would any W56 forward shift be a direct swap or are there minor differences between generations that would not allow me to do this?

 

Years back I pulled a W56 out of an 88 4Runner and it was a top-shift. Forward shift W56's started in 89 I think. Anyways, I found this post by BigMike from Marlin Crawler,

Actually the W56-A and W56-B both use the same identical bearings. The only difference would be for the 1989 1st gen 4Runner W56-B which features a double sealed 5th gear bearing, but it is still the same bearingas the other 85-88 W56s without the seals.

The obvious difference is the aluminum center plate, which does offer a weight saving, but we'd probably side with the cast iron W56-B version offering additional strength.

Internally, I believe the only difference between a W56-A and B is that the A uses a 10mm shoe and groove for 5th gear, whereas the B/C/D/E all use an 8mm shoe and gear.

The important changes didn't come until 10/91 when Toyota started changing bearing sizes, followed shortly thereafter with 3 piece synchros and added reverse gear brakes for the E models.

Looks to me the changes between the forward shift versions are all internal and should interchange without problem.

 

I did see that post by BigMike. I just needed at least a second opinion before I pull the trigger .