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4runner refresh

it looks like its set wrong. too much contact to the outside maybe i am wrong

Two things I won't touch... Auto transmissions and diffs.
But I have seen enough patterns and had enough failures to know that one is crap.

Shoot, I had one setup in the mid-90's where the installer bent the ring gear... Richmond warrantied that set... but not the other set the installer setup so bad they made it about 50 miles... :homer:
 
toyota diff are easy to adjust. its jst spanners correct. and shims on pinion.

you should mess with it just so you can learn, and its all ready fucked so what will it hurt. AND nitro gear has a cray sale on toyota gears. i saw some as low as 65 $ so its a cheap to lean.....:beer:
 
So it's from yota masters and I called them today and sent them some pics

I talked to Austin there and he went real deep into explaining how the heat cycles break in a r and p and how the rem polish will keep it colder and prolong that process

Also with rem polishing when setting the gear lash they rely more on the manufactures stated height than the pattern

And he thinks it's ok and building up a hard face

He made a note in his records that I contacted him and said to keep an eye on it and if I have any problems to call back

Idk how I feel about it, on one hand that's the best case answer for me, but on the other it hasn't filled me with confidence

I'm going to sift thru the remaining oil and see if there's any big shavings

If not maybe I'll cram everything back together and drive it to work next week and add like 500 miles to it to see what happens
 
it looks like its set wrong. too much contact to the outside maybe i am wrong
I agree. Did this to a set of gears I put in my 93 back when I was like 19. Only took a few hundred miles to start getting crunchy at low speed.
toyota diff are easy to adjust. its jst spanners correct. and shims on pinion.

you should mess with it just so you can learn, and its all ready fucked so what will it hurt. AND nitro gear has a cray sale on toyota gears. i saw some as low as 65 $ so its a cheap to lean.....:beer:
This. A harbor freight bearing press, a bearing splitter, some pinion shims, and a basic low effort spanner tool is all you need to do yota gears. Only easier axles than these are ford 9" with the dropout pinion support.
So it's from yota masters and I called them today and sent them some pics

I talked to Austin there and he went real deep into explaining how the heat cycles break in a r and p and how the rem polish will keep it colder and prolong that process

Also with rem polishing when setting the gear lash they rely more on the manufactures stated height than the pattern

And he thinks it's ok and building up a hard face
That sounds like a load of shit to me but I've never used gears with fancy coatings/ polishes so...
He made a note in his records that I contacted him and said to keep an eye on it and if I have any problems to call back

Idk how I feel about it, on one hand that's the best case answer for me, but on the other it hasn't filled me with confidence

I'm going to sift thru the remaining oil and see if there's any big shavings

If not maybe I'll cram everything back together and drive it to work next week and add like 500 miles to it to see what happens
What saved the gears I mentioned above was making a slight adjustment to pinion depth to move the contact back into the center of the ring gear and running them. Almost like that little crunchy crunchy episode never even happened, and they're still in there turning the 38s today :homer:

Another way of looking at it is that by the end of another 500 miles you'll know for sure if it's fucked :lmao:
 
I know all the gears ive had built make a little bit of glitter during the break in period, but definitely not that much. Hopefully he's right about it wear polishing itself (kinda sounds like bs to me).
 
I agree. Did this to a set of gears I put in my 93 back when I was like 19. Only took a few hundred miles to start getting crunchy at low speed.

This. A harbor freight bearing press, a bearing splitter, some pinion shims, and a basic low effort spanner tool is all you need to do yota gears. Only easier axles than these are ford 9" with the dropout pinion support.

That sounds like a load of shit to me but I've never used gears with fancy coatings/ polishes so...

What saved the gears I mentioned above was making a slight adjustment to pinion depth to move the contact back into the center of the ring gear and running them. Almost like that little crunchy crunchy episode never even happened, and they're still in there turning the 38s today :homer:

Another way of looking at it is that by the end of another 500 miles you'll know for sure if it's fucked :lmao:

I know all the gears ive had built make a little bit of glitter during the break in period, but definitely not that much. Hopefully he's right about it wear polishing itself (kinda sounds like bs to me).
I might have to start setting up my own gears from now on just to simplify this process :homer:

And I think the guy really isn't sure but doesn't want to warranty it until there's no doubt that it's truly fawked :laughing:

We shall see, I'm running thru all my options now cuz I've got a Rubicon trip Aug 18th and a Fordyce trip on labor day
 
I might have to start setting up my own gears from now on just to simplify this process :homer:
Everything I do I have to do myself because of this exact shit. I cannot trust anyone to do any job on my vehicles and take any amount of care about it. :mad3:

And I think the guy really isn't sure but doesn't want to warranty it until there's no doubt that it's truly fawked :laughing:
Send him this :flipoff2:
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Moar poo welds!

Rear third is back in, but I've got the front apart because my alignment spontaneously changed while driving home from the Rubicon

Everything was tight, nothing bent, nothing broken, maybe one or two knuckle studs were a little looser then the other but not bad

Dug into the knuckles and found one side the spindle nuts weren't tight to the wheel bearing/hub assembly, not sure if that was really the problem but I'll replace the wheel bearings on both sides to be safe

But while I had the knuckles apart........ Might as well add a 5th stud

I bought premade brackets cuz I didn't want to cut and grind metal in my garage with all my bearings and rear end exposed in there

So $90 shipped and then $15ish bucks for some grade 8 hardware and extras and here we are


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Might as well try out some Nord lock washers

Just got me thinking that maybe I should run Nord washers on the knuckle studs nuts

Probably not a big deal seeing as how I haven't had any lock washers on these this whole time :homer:


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I have nord locks on my bead locks, they are pretty sweet!!

I don't have to worry about lock washers on my knuckle studs, they just rust into place:laughing:

I really need to do the 5th stud mod
 
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I have nord locks on my bead locks, they are pretty sweet!!

I don't have to worry about lock washers on my knuckle studs, they just rust into place:laughing:

I really need to do the 5th stud mod
:laughing: nature's locktite

And it took some time, and since you're drilling and welding on you're knuckle you gotta take everything almost all the way apart
 
:laughing: nature's locktite

And it took some time, and since you're drilling and welding on you're knuckle you gotta take everything almost all the way apart
I would probably do it on my spare knuckle and then install that, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it
 
Update on the rear diff is..... it's surviving :flipoff2:

I ran the Rubicon for MCR Aug 18 plus the road miles to get to and from there, which is 200ish miles for me

Drained the oil and it's about normal looking

Maybe not completely normal but way better than before

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Trip report for the Rubicon:

it was a blast! It's been a couple years since I've ran the whole trail

Left my house 5am, trailhead 830am, on the rocks 930am and springs by 4pm I believe

I got a little love tap from my buddy when he lost his brakes behind me on a downhill :laughing: luckily it was just bumper to bumper

Rained like crazy that weekend, but luckily only had Cadillac hill to do in the wet

Surprisingly good traction even with all the water, that was really my first time wheeling in wet weather

Other then a good dent, nothing went wrong on the 4runner

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Trip report for labor day:

Quick turn around from the last trip, and a whole lot more rain, went to Fordyce, wheeled in committee, went down the main trail a little bit and camped at the waterfalls

Rained pretty constantly friday-sunday, not hard but just consistent

Again, surprisingly good traction in the wet

We wheeled from the waterfalls up to winch hill 3, then turned around and went back to committee and wheeled up committee to meet up with a buddy who came late, and then headed back to camp

Next day we wheeled down from the waterfalls to winch hill 1 and back

Following day we packed up camp and wheeled out committee

I need to drain the rear diff again and see how the fluid looks, but the runner did good, couple new dents, I'm pretty sure my rear leaf bushings are blown but that's not the end of the world


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i lived in ventura CA for about 8 years. got damn spoiled with that weather. rain only happened a couple times a year. maybe more for el nino.... so i understand quite well. :beer::beer:
 
thats cute... first time wheeling in wet weather... :lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:
Yeah, I got a kick out of the CA / Southwestern guys who came out for the KOH Rausch Creek Qualifier back in the day...

"Man! There's like trees everywhere! Like, you have to watch out for them! And mud! Even when it is "dry" it is still muddy! And everything is green! There's shit growing on all the shit!" :lmao:
 
I forgot to mention that I figured out why my front wheel alignment spontaneously changed, it's just the holes for the tie rod in my steering arms getting wallowed out a bit

Initially I had just regular grade 8 washers in between the arm and the heim to raise the heim up a bit, which allowed some movement apparently

Replaced that with the setup in the pic below, nice safety washers that are 1/4" -3/8"

That should help keep it from moving

If the hole in the arms get any worse I'll drill them out and add a sleeve, but this might fix it




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Moar poo welds!

Rear third is back in, but I've got the front apart because my alignment spontaneously changed while driving home from the Rubicon

Everything was tight, nothing bent, nothing broken, maybe one or two knuckle studs were a little looser then the other but not bad

Dug into the knuckles and found one side the spindle nuts weren't tight to the wheel bearing/hub assembly, not sure if that was really the problem but I'll replace the wheel bearings on both sides to be safe

But while I had the knuckles apart........ Might as well add a 5th stud

I bought premade brackets cuz I didn't want to cut and grind metal in my garage with all my bearings and rear end exposed in there

So $90 shipped and then $15ish bucks for some grade 8 hardware and extras and here we are


PXL_20230729_220959254.jpg
PXL_20230729_231228225.jpg
PXL_20230729_232426430.jpg
PXL_20230729_224311482.jpg

Where did you grab that bracket from?
 
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