Background: I have a 2WD automatic '85 22R "xtracab" for which I replaced the head, timing cover, gasket set, etc last year -- "learning by doing". Next, I bought a 2WD '85 automatic 22RE parts truck and am still dismantling it. So that's about the extent of my mechanical experience.

There's a 4WD manual '87 22R regular cab (w/ flatbed) for sale here ($1600). The owner says it "drives great in 2WD" but "4x4 needs work". I'd like to know if it's possible to use such a truck as a 2WD vehicle, and how best to do that?

Could I remove the front driveshaft and cap the transfer case and differential? Could I remove the transfer case and install the correct propeller shaft to the rear axle to make it permanently 2WD, capping the differential on the front axle?

I can't find any threads on this. I imagine most people would want to fix and preserve the 4WD capability, but... just entertain this 2WD idea, if you please! :-)

 

people in the desert scene do it a lot. they keep the trans and TC but remove the front driveshaft, axles, diff and cap the spindle where the axle goes so they still have a 2low option.

 

If you're going to leave the front diff and transfer case, why remove the driveshaft? it won't hurt anything if you leave it in 2hi the whole time?

Now if you're going to go the route of removing the diff and modifying the front to a two wheel drive (prerunner style I'm guessing)suspension there would be either fabrication needed or money spent on prefabricated parts.

If you take the transfer case out, I'd imagine you'd have to swap a 2wd transmission, or swap whatever is necesarry to make it mate to a driveshaft, and get a longer driveshaft.

 

not to sound like a dick but.....
why dont you just fix the 4wd?
or leave it as is to have your 2wd with reduction gears??
or buy a 2wd?

 

^X2. Fixing the 4WD would be a hell of a lot easier than removing it and trying to make that work.

 

I'm interested both in what's reasonable and what's possible. It sounds like removing the front driveshaft is perfectly acceptable and an easy thing to do which will have no adverse effect on the differential or transfer case if I leave them in. That's what I wanted to know.

I don't have a lot of trucks to chose from. At any given time there are one or two for sale here. I'm sure I'd "fix" the 4WD problem in the future, but obviously I'm an amateur and don't know how to right now. It would be nice to use it as a 2WD in the meantime.

 

No reason to remove the driveshaft. If it works in 2wd leave it alone. You should have manual hubs and when unlocked, the front diff doesn't spin, and neither will the front propellor shaft. Assuming the hubs are working.

 

If I jack up the front of the truck, the front wheels should spin freely with unlocked hubs, right? He's already got the front driveshaft disconnected at the front differential and wired up "out of the way" beneath the body of the truck.

 

That would explain the 4wd problem, tell him it won't work without the Driveshaft connected.

 

Umm. He removed the front driveshaft yoke from the front diff because he sheared two different shafts at the diff connection point while towing on two separate occasions. That is the general "problem". The shaft which is currently "dangling" is non-functional.

But again, this is not about diagnosing the simplest solution to a "problem". I am interested in the full range of triage options.

 

Sounds like it's got some busted up gears. I'd open up the front diff and/or the t-case. Or first you could jack up the frond off the ground, lock the hubs, and turn the wheels or the pinion flange to see if there's any binding in the diff, if there is, there's your problem. If not it's probably the t-case, but a sheared drive shaft would result from the diff binding, not the t-case so I would start with the diff.

 

Aha. So with hubs locked and front driveshaft off, I should be able to spin the front wheels and the diff gears should be spinning happily if nothing's amiss, whereas if the diff gears are gnarled up somehow, the wheels won't spin so nicely. And with hubs unlocked, the diff is therefore not engaged in any way, so it won't affect the wheel motion even if it's jammed somehow?

Bonus question: has anyone ever used the transfer case's front driveshaft output as a power take-off connection point? Can't find any threads on 22R + PTO.

 

If you turn the diff by the pinion flange with the hubs unlocked everything will turn except the wheels. I just suggested locking the hubs so there's at least a little load and you could also turn the diff by turning the wheels too. Even if it doesn't feel like anything is wrong that doesn't mean that there isn't a problem under normal load at normal driving speed. This would just be a quick way to possibly get an idea where any binding may be coming from. Really, the best thing to do is just pull the cover off the diff, or pull the whole diff its self and have a look inside. Check the CV axles too. Normally it's pretty obvious when they're going bad, but you never know.

 

Kinda confused here. Its like you are entering an octopuss in a three legged race.

Whatch gonna do with a pto? What is the goal for the vehicle. 4wd not needed at all?

 

b-fake, thanks for the explanation. I've never worked on a differential or CV-axles, so it would be a learning experience.

HighLux, I think perhaps we have different philosophies of life. Where I come from (world of computers, bikes, gardening), far-out ideas, so long as money is not a limit, are not questioned, they are aided and abetted, because experiment leads to invention and knowledge and the other great things in life! I want a PTO to run all the implements you might have found on a small farm or mining operation in the 1940s -- augers, tumblers, drills, combines, balers, forklift, bucket arm, brick press, shredders, extruders, conveyors, etc etc. There's a fun group of people developing open-source versions of all this equipment: http://opensourceecology.org/

 

The only problem I see with this is that the transfer case is in the middle of the truck, and the front driveshaft output is, well, facing the front. Where all the front suspension is. If you really wanted a PTO, I would suggest either finding a way (if its even possible) to make a junction and route a shaft out the back or side... or trying to find a heavy duty PTO transfer case (like found in super duty pickups) and modifying it to work from your transmission/transfer case output.

 

Yeah, either the hydraulic PTO would need to fit under the truck directly on the transfer case output spindle or I'll need to cut a hole up through the bed (or the cab, it's kind of right at that annoying interface there) unless I take power with a driveshaft to the front of the vehicle. Some tractors have a sprocket on the output shaft and use a chain to translate power up to a second shaft in a more convenient position. Seems like the only common use for PTO in a toyota pickup is for a winch, but can't seem to find any good threads or videos on installing PTO winches, though there are lots of winch competition videos!

 

No problem, I hadn't seen the inside of a diff myself until last summer. It's pretty easy to understand how it works when you can see everything moving inside.