Squeaky Penguin's (Trip Reports) Build Thread

There are lot of people, or rather, was, on ttora who did.

Granted this has to do more with people running bigger tires.

 

No leaks under the 3rd this morning and didn't break 100 degrees on my drive into work.

Also, got a couple OEM U-Joints on order. Figured I might as well get a spare.

 

What's a good way to tell if your U-joint is bad? Besides squeaking...

 

Can't say I've heard of a U-Joint squeaking. On mine, you can feel/see some rotational play in the joint. I've also seen it where it causes a vibe. Speaking of which, I'm hoping this fixes a high-frequency vibe that seems to have been increasing. Best way to check it would probably involve pulling the driveshaft and rotating and twisting all the joints to see if they're tight.

Missed this one last night too. Pictures of awesome 4runners on Poughkeepsie wall are gladly welcomed in this build. The left line there looked like it was reserved for bigger rigs. Curious to see how you made it up.

 

I know of 3 front diff spider gears failing. Two times on the same obstacle and again on another shaped the same. All 3 times it happened the front ends were bouncing both tires in the air and when they came down in unison,,crunch crunch. So I never ever bounce my front anymore as I was one of those people to leartn the hard way. If I was locked it'd never needed bouncing to make the obstacle.

 

That's how I blew up my rear

 

Thought that was taco bell?

 

One end of the drive shaft is laying on the ground

 

I may have opened mouth too much there as I only have pictures of in progress shots. They don't actually show completion. I had a bystander try and capture the moment for me. This is the direction up the left that works for my rig.




And here going up the right I had to get out and access my situation so took a stuck pic. But you can see how muddy it was.



Way tougher stuff than Poughkeepsie just an hour and a half south. It's like driving on 60 grit sand paper.

Do you have a cheat sheet of one liners written on your forearm just waiting to unload in people?

Lol

 

What exactly did you do for your "form-a-gasket"? I have a small leak from my rear as well. I need to try and pinpoint it, but not too excited to pull it again.

 

I'm no expert on the matter so I would suggest consulting someone else. But here's what I did:

First attempt was using whatever I had laying around. In this case it was some-brand-other-than-toyota-that-won't-be-mentioned-on-this-site-abond. I used a thin layer and smoothed it out with my finger before installing it. Pulling it yesterday suggested i didn't have enough.

Second, seemingly successful attempt, involved a new tube of ultra black RTV. I would have liked to use Toyota FIPG but I can't get that locally. Applied a much more liberal bead, installed the third, snugged the bolts, torqued and hour later, and then let it dry for several hours before adding oil. So far so good.

My install kit came with a paper gasket but it didn't fit. I think it was for a non e-locker.

 

I am betting he used was a Mitsubishi gasket. Just a guess because that is what is the only thing that he has a his house, that would be close.

 

If it was mitsubond it probably would've worked better. Pulled out the old Montero the other day. Engine's showing it's age, now with milkly coolant and excessive exhaust smoke. Needs a new V6, this time with a turbo. Or a V8. Time to learn about engine swaps.....

 

Did you try flipping the gasket? It looks like it would be symmetrical but it's not. When I tried putting mine in first I didn't think it fit but I flipped it around and it worked. No leaks yet.

 

I just figured you had one sitting around so you tried it.

Man that sucks. For what little power it had, it was a fun car. I say we throw either a chevy 350 or a LS1 in there.

 

I'll have to double check the gasket when I pull it. It seemed to fit just fine upon initial install. I'm just bummed to see a slight leak after all of the work toward regearing thus far!

 

Looking at the tools used to clean your gasket surface, you might have a scratch/gouge that could be causing a leak. Or any piece of the old gasket left behind can cause a leak also because it creates an uneven surface.

 

That is very possible. I'll have to take it apart this week and see what I can find. I may have to steal Brett's RTV method to fill any imperfections that may have developed from the "cleaning" process when we we initially removed the rear.









...getting reeeeaaaaal tired of that gear oil smell as of late.

 

I rotated it every which way and it didn't work. None of the holes were spaced wide enough for the elocker studs.

It was Hondabond. Really, it was my error in technique and not the material used.

Oh, and no GM engine is going in my Mitsu. Wonder if I can get a 1UZ in there. Really, that trucks not worth a whole lot, so I need to decide what I want to do to do.

Yep, certainly wasn't excited to pull the 3rd two days after I put it in, but wanted to get it done right.

I spent a lot of time with a razor blade cleaning both surfaces carefully. Although in hindsight, I wonder if it's best to pull the studs, so you can easily clean everything and get a nice, flat surface.

Yeah, me too. I have a slight leak out of the front diff where the driver side CV goes in. Both my CVS are trash, but I have new CVJs waiting for me.

 

For a V8 you can't go wrong with a gm motor. The 350 is one of the most proven V8s out there.

Or do you.