I was trying to pull the front drive shaft out of my first generation 4runner parts-mobile. Not as easy as I hoped. It has an auto tranny and it's way more crowded with transmission cooler lines around the front transfer case output than my manual tranny p/u. Couldn't get a wrench on the flange bolts at the transfer case in any spot where I'd be able to turn them. If I had a couple of those shallow swivel sockets I might be able to do it, but i don't. I could also drop the crossmember and get to those bolts, but three of the crossmember bolts would have to be torched off due to rust. Anybody else have his problem with the t/case driveshaft bolts on an auto tranny model? Any solutions?

Also I should ask, just so I'm not totally wasting my time. The flange bolt pattern for an auto tranny t/case output and drive shaft are the same as for a manual? -- Matt

 

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It was also quite tight on my 2nd gen 4Runner, but I remember being able to get it with combination wrenches.