I know what you mean, so much to do... so little time.

Ordered the LCE short shift kit yesterday and also threw in a couple of JBL 2way 4" speakers in the dash to ditch the blown stockers.

Ill post some pics of the install when the shift kit arrives.

LCE shift kit comes in today. Along with a new set of Toyo Open Country R/T in 31" for the factory SR5 Wheels. Starting to get Excited! Hopefully will have them mounted and have the TuRD aligned some time next week. Probably wont have time to do it this weekend, family stuff. But next weekend will be a test on the RTs while we head out for camping and mild trials in the San Bernadino mountains.

LCE Short shift in, Toyo Open Country R/T 31x10.5R15 mounted and balanced, alignment done. Heading out to the San Bernadino Montanans for camping this weekend. Should be fun testing them out.
It drives so nice now, compared to out of balance, worn Trail Digger M/Ts and a WAY out of spec alignment. Drives straight, no loud MT noise or violent shaking at 65-75. Plus the wheel returns to the center after a turn now!

The only negative thing I have to comment on is these tires are HEAVY! Just one tire (no wheel) weighs almost as much as the (now) spare Trail Digger mounted on my SR5 Wheel! Not extremely noticeable but I can tell. Just means their durable, right? haha

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Loaded down the Runner over the weekend to test out the family camping/hiking capabilities. For the maiden camping voyage we headed out to Lake Cachuma for some hiking/camping.

It did well other than struggling up the hills. My input shaft bearing noise got a little more audible so now I'm on the hunt for a W56-B to swap out. Also started a list of camping aids for the runner that would have been useful. More on that later.

Some pics:
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Old washer drum works as an amazing fire pit, windprroof too!
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Took the runner out to a short local trail to play around for a bit. Consensus... I want lockers.

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Had a chance to hammer out the bent up rear bumper and paint both front and rear bumpers along with the grill.

Did a valve adjustment and solved my ECT sensor issue. No more check engine light! turns out the wires had pulled out of the connector, ugh. Such a simple fix and wasted a bunch of time chasing it down.

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Picked up a used W56 from a guy on Craigslist swapping the input bearing and also throwing in new gaskets and input/output seals. He threw in a sub 1000 mile clutch along with it too.

Hopefully I have time to swap it out this month.

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The popcorn is for the kids, they like watching me work on the truck.

Got the transmission torn down completely, used some scrap pipe from the hardware store to hammer on the new input bearing. Cleaned up the housings with some engine gunk. Installed the new input/output seals. Got ready to put it all back together and it turns out Cobra Transmissions sent me the G series transmission gaskets inside the W56 gasket/seal kit. So now Im at a stand still until they get me the correct gaskets. Mildly infuriating having to halt the process.

bagged everything up and now... I wait.
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Got the correct gasket kit and the W56 with new input bearing is all back together and ready for install. Picked up a new Flywheel have the clutch kit, rear main seal, trans mount and Red Line MT90 ready to go in. Hopefully I can get it done next weekend or the following weekend. Sooner than later hopefully, 4th gear is giving me hell lately due to the bad input bearing currently in the truck. Anything else I should do while I have the trans out?
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This guy parked next to me this morning at the liqueur store. Older couple, had a nice chat with him and his wife. Hes had his 86 DLX since new and it has clean original paint and around 350k miles on the original 22re and still running strong.
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Did you rebuild your donor transmission or just replace the input and output bearings? The reason I ask is it looks like I'm going to go the same route as you. I am experiencing deceleration whine in 4th and 3rd and starting to hear a little whine under load. I thought the simplest (:lol:) thing to do is to find a donor transmission, r-n-r it and install it with a new clutch. I've personally never done this, but at the same time I'd hate to install a new-to-me transmission only trusting the seller on its condition.

Same here but I lucked out on my craigslist transmission. I knew I needed one and wanted to get it ready for install before mine crapped out. The guy I got it from was doing a v8 swap on his weekend toy so he had no use for the trans or the clutch. He had recently replaced it with a working W56 from a junk yard and did one weekend trip with it before he decided to go v8 and front tube chassis. He didnt know the history of the JY trans other than it worked flawlessly when he put it in. I planned on replacing the input bearing at minimum that way I know it's new along with doing new seals/gaskets. It was inexpensive for the gasket kit and bearing anyway, so better peace of mind I guess . He had sent me a video of him driving and shifting through the gears so I could hear it was in good working order.


After tearing it down I noticed it had been rebuilt before, everything looked good so I just stuck with my original game plan and did the bearing/reseal along with cleaning everything. Sometimes you get lucky with a junk yard trans that had been rebuilt like mine was.

If you haven't torn into one before I suggest getting a FSM and following along with it. Its fairly straight forward if you get the right tools for the job. I recommend at minimum doing the input bearing and reseal along with a thorough inspection of all the drive gears and synchros unless they have a receipt for a rebuild or can prove it 100%. If you need to tear it down further than the input bearing and housings then I suggest having it completely overhauled by a reputable trans shop but that could run a pretty penny.

Good luck with everything. Hope you get lucky on a donor

Where I got the gasket kit and input bearing - www.cobratransmission.com

Thanks! I have the FSM and only skimmed the transmission section. I just looked and Marlin wants ~$1200 for a rebuilt. I'll look local too.

Yeah I looked at those too. Way out of my price range. The average price I found for a used one was around $500. I got mine for 200 after shopping around for a while and waiting for the right one. A trans shop quoted me 600 to rebuild my current one with about a weeks turn around.

Well, Im about 2hrs into the trans swap. Got the bad unit out and the clutch/flywheel off. Wonder why it took so long to engage from a stop? New parts ready to go in!

Clutch is packed with gear oil, input seal leak along with about an inch of input shaft play.
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Nice work with the trans and awesome story with that 86 4runner too!

7am to 5pm, Done and Done!

Painted the wheels too!

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Those tires and that faded look is awesome!:banger:

Thanks Guys. It's coming together, slowly but surely.

A guy who lives a couple streets down was walking his dog and stopped to talk to me about the runner. He was telling me stories about his old 87 and some pretty cool treks through the Colorado mountains he took it on. After he left I got back to work, all but 10 min later he pulled up and gave me a box with some old parts he had left over from his runner that was stashed in the garage. A set of locking hubs he never installed, the dreaded passenger seat cable (mine is currently a coat hanger), a couple of center caps for the rear wheels (I was missing one), a 22re ECU, distributor, igniter and coil, the control panel for the HVAC unit and a ton on extra sensors, relays and vacuum sensors! So awesome.

The first gen community is for life!

Swapped out my oil pump for a new AISIN pump along with a new Oring and short depth front main seal to stop the leaking. The PO had no Oring in there and used RTV to "seal" it up. Spent most of the time cleaning off the mating surface and surrounding oil sling from the leak. Took about an hour and a half. Pretty easy job all around.

Bump start method to get the crank bolt loose, pulley was stubborn but persistent whacking with a dead blow hammer convinced it off. Was able to torque it to 116ft.lbs in second gear with the ebrake on and wheel chucks in place.

No oil leaks after driving it around for a few hours and to work this morning but I it developed a coolant leak at some point yesterday, of course. Thinking heater hose as its near the rear of the engine and now its raining so it will be harder to see the drips. Not much loss in coolant so far but need to find it before it gets worse.