Hilux transmission rebuild (my Labor Day weekend so far)

**1911** · 09-05-2009, 09:13 AM

Some of you know and have wheeled with my #3 son Ross. He left for school last week with most of his earthly posessions in the back of his '84 4WD mini truck, and made it 160 miles to Chillicothe, Texas, where he stopped due to a nasty rhythmic knocking that varied with rpm in all gears except neutral. Got a tow home from a buddy with a diesel pickup and a big two-axle trailer. Dropped the drive shafts, transfer case, and tranny. Tranny input shaft obviously much more sloppy than it should be. Tore the tranny down and found this:

Main gear on the input shaft had four teeth in a row sheared right off! I have owned and worked on a bunch of Toyotas over the years, but this is the first time I have seen anything like this. Ross is pretty hard on vehicles (why he's still driving an '84 with high miles

) but he couldn't pinpoint any specific episode that would constitute tranny abuse. It does have 225,000 miles on the tranny and truck.

I thought I was going to have to put him on an airplane to get to school, but to my great surprise all the parts necessary to rebuild the tranny were available and in-stock less than 30 miles away in Fort Worth. It took us the best part of a whole day to find them though. New input shaft w/ gear, new countershaft w/ all gears (gear on countershaft corresponding to the broken gear on the input shaft had several nicks in it), and a master bearing/seal/gasket set was $360 all together, less than the cost of a round-trip airplane ticket. Ross provided 90% of the sweat equity (it's his truck, and a learning experience to boot).

I had rebuilt several motorcycle transmissions back in the day when I used to make a living as a bike mechanic, but this was my first Toyota transmission ever. It wasn't rocket science, but you have to pay meticulous attention to the factory service manual (something Ross discovered the hard way

),
and pay close attention to how the synchronizers work and fit together, and the location and lengths of several detent balls and springs in the shift fork rods. The thrust clearances on the output shaft are fairly critical but doable with just a feeler gauge and trial and error. The only special tool really needed was a shop press, which I already had. It might have been possible to improvise with some gear pullers, a big vise, and a 2 lb. jeep wrench, but the shop press makes some jobs like this one a snap. One of those things that you don't use very often, but when you do it is so nice to have the right tool.

The finished transmission ready to go back into the case:

Ross has just pressure-washed the outside cases and is re-assembling everything now. He should be driving it again by this afternoon/evening and could leave for school again as early as tomorrow morning.

**cnckart** · 09-05-2009, 09:24 AM

Pretty cool! Thanks for sharing

**Woodsman** · 09-05-2009, 10:44 AM

Way to get 'er done !

**Mtbcoach** · 09-05-2009, 11:50 AM

Nice piece of work there Lee. Seeing it in that state almost has an artistic appeal to my eye. Gotta love it when a bit of time and some local parts can put life back into the kid's vehicle...

MrBigAxe · 09-05-2009, 09:17 PM

Cool thread.

DoWork · 09-05-2009, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Mtbcoach previously said:

Nice piece of work there Lee. Seeing it in that state almost has an artistic appeal to my eye. Gotta love it when a bit of time and some local parts can put life back into the kid's vehicle...

X2. Glad your getting his rig up and running again.

**1911** · 09-06-2009, 05:37 AM

Well, he got it all back together yesterday, drove it through several warm-up and complete cool-down cycles, and took off for Idaho again about an hour ago.

**JoeUser** · 09-06-2009, 09:33 AM

Did Ross have one of these post-assembly moments:

"Hey, Dad, what's this part?"

Naturally, always happens without an assembly diagram or manual (which you definitely had sussed this time, for sure)!

**1911** · 09-06-2009, 10:01 AM

Quote:

JoeUser previously said:

Did Ross have one of these post-assembly moments:

"Hey, Dad, what's this part?"

Naturally, always happens without an assembly diagram or manual (which you definitely had sussed this time, for sure)!

No, but he did have to mount all three shafts and their gear clusters on the main plate four different times because (until the last time) he would NOT read and follow the FSM step by step. Some lessons are better learned the hard way (I had already advised him numerous times to read and follow the FSM).