How hard is it to remove detroit lockers from a first gen 4runner and about how long does it take?

 

part one - removing the rear third member

with an impact wrench and hand tools this should only take an hour tops...

place the vehicle on jack stands

drain the rear diff

remove the rear brake lines, cap the ends with vacuum line caps to prevent the fluid from draining

remove the parking brake cables

remove the 4 nuts on the inside of the axle flange

pull the axle assembly out, or pull it out about 4" and support the axle to prevent damaging the seal

remove the 4 bolts from the rear d'shaft/third member flange

remove the nuts from the third member

place a floor jack under the third member flange and bump it up until the gasket seal seperates from the housing

remove the third member - it's heavy

reassemble in reverse order. it's a good time to replace rear axle seals. I don't use a paper third member gasket - RTV works fine. fill the diff, bleed the brakes...

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part two

removing the detroit will require you to completely disassemble the third member. it will require a complete setup to be functional again - a master install kit is required and the gears will need to be setup by an experianced installer.

mark the bearing caps w/ a punch so they can be assembled together when your done. I put two punch marks on the right cap and lower bearing seat...

loosen the adjuster nuts and remove the bearing caps

remove the detroit w/ ring gear

remove the ring gear - this is a bit of a chore, it's almost a press fit

remove the bearings from the detroit w/ a press. if tyou don't have a press, your installer should be able to remove them for you
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the front end is similar - the best directions for that are on the 4X4Wire site...

http://4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/front_end/