Swapping Input Shafts for FJ Case for Manual Transmission

As some of you may know, RST forums had a lot of good info on there but now all the links are dead. I was able to pull up this page using a web archive machine and I wanted to preserve it for future readers. This is literally just a copy and paste as I have not done this yet.

This is done to swap in a transfer case out of an automatic FJ cruiser into a second gen 6MT.


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There have been a lot of people who have asked if you can make the electronic shifting T case of the current generation Tacoma's into a manual shifting case and although there has been one that I know of that has done it, it is not in my opinion the best way to go about getting a manual t case into the new Taco's.

I have posted up here what I feel is the best way to accomplish this but there are still those that want to see why you can't just stick a lever on this case and make it manual shifting. Because of this I have taken my Tacoma T case apart to show you why it can't be done at least not to my satisfaction.

I also did this because there are those that have the 6 speed Tacoma's and want to put the FJ Case into their trucks. You CANNOT just get a six speed T case from an FJ and swapit into your Tacoma. The six speed FJ case is a full time case with a center differential and it is longer than your stock case. Problems with fitment arise. The best way to do this is to swap the input from your case into the automatic FJ case and then install that into your truck.

First, lets get into the Tacoma case.

From the outside it looks just like the FJ case with the exception of not having any shift levers and and motor hanging from it's rear. But then you open it up an a new world awaits you.

Getting it open is as simple as pulling off the front drive flange and then taking out the twelve 12mm bolts that hold the front half to the rear half.

In this photo you can see the front half has the planetary gears in it and the rear half has the shift forks as well as the hi/lo and 4wd gear sets. Another thing you will notice is that the shift forks are upside from the common configuration of most other Toyota case's and it has one shift rod that controls another internal shift rod. Because of this one rod you would have to rig some sort of lever off of te back of this case t move this rod. The problem with that is once you take the motor off of this case there is an o ring that keeps dirt out and oil in the case that will now be gone. I don't like that option.


This is the inside of the FJ Cruiser T case. Notice that the two shift rods are a the top of the case and not at the side of the case like the Tacoma's is.


This is looking at the planetary gears and the oil pump in the front portion of the case.


Here is the back half of the case and it holds the hi/lo gears, 4wd, as well as the shift rods and forks.





Now, for those that want to put an FJ Case in the six speed Taco's this next section is for you.

If you can't find an FJ Case from a six speed but you have one from the auto FJ, your going to have to swap the input shafts from one to the other. Since they they are basically the same, the easiest way to do this is to just swap out the entire planetary gear set with the input shaft from the front of the case's. This way you don't have to get into taking all those gears off of the input shaft and thats a pain.

First thing you have to do is take the oil pump and pick up off. There are three 10mm bolts that hold the pick up on. Take those off and out comes the oil pick up.

Oil pump behind the pick up.


Oil pick up with screen. You can see some of the sealant that Toyota used on the screen. There is anlso a magnet on the bottom of it to catch any metal particles.



The oil pump once the pick up is removed. There are three 10mm bolts that you need to remove to get it out.




Once the pump is out you can now turn the case over and remove the input shaft cover plate. There are five 12mm bolts that hold it on.


Once that is off you'll see a snap ring that is holding the planetary gearset with the input shaft in the case. Remove that snap ring and the entire gearset will come out of the case through the inside.







UPDATED INFORMATION

In the picture below are the two different input shafts that you'll find in the Tacoma and FJ Cruiser t case's. The huge one is the 22 spline six speed input shaft and planetary gearset and the smaller one is the 23 spline automatic input shaft and planetary gear set. You'll also find the 23 spline case in the 2.7 4 cylinder Tacoma. As you can see the six speed input shaft is huge compaired to the 23 spline shaft from the Automatic transmission trucks. Everything else is the same with the exception of the front plate so they are a simple swap if you know what your doing.



The front of the case minus the input shaft and planetary gears.



Now, when you swap in the six speed planetary gear set into the automatic FJ case your going to need to change the rear ring gear in the planetary gear set or the hi/neutral/lo shifter will not work properly. Following is what you'll need to do for this swap.

Here are the two planetary gear sets side by side. the one to the left is from the automatic and the one on the right is from the six speed.


In the next two photos you can see the big gear. The inside teeth on that big gear are flush on the automatic case but they are stepped down on the six speed case.
The first photo is the automatic and the second photo is the six speed.



There is a big c clip that holds this gear in. You take that c clip off and out comes that ring gear.


This is the gear from the automatic case. Notice that the teeth on the inside are flush with the ring.


Here is the planetary gear set without that ring gear.


Both planetary gearsets side by side. These internals are identical between the two.


These are the two ring gears side by side. If you look close you can see the difference between the two.


And this is the mess you'll have on your work bench when your in the middle of doing this swap.


So there you go. If you are doing an FJ cruiser t case swap into your six speed Tacoma, your going to have to have this done to your FJ case or you'll have to do it yourself. If you go with an RST FJ case, it will be done for you already.

Now, to put the input shaft into the FJ Case you'll need to do to the FJ Case what you have just done to the Tacoma case. Once you have it out you simply reverse what you did and put the the input shaft from your Tacoma Case into the Fj Case and close it up and mount it in your truck.

That's it folks! Pretty simple.

 

Hopefully the photo bucket pics stay. But with RSTs current situations things aren't looking good

 

Good point. I may as well download them and then reupload them to TW

 

Whew doggy that was a pain in the dick. There are 31 images and every single one I had to open a new tab, modify the URL, and download. Then upload one by one and place in the correct spot in the thread. Bonus though, it got rid of the dumb watermark.

 

You gonna swap to a manual tcase?

 

Yep, I just ordered one on ebay

 

Bro, seriously hard core props been looking for practically this exactly; my FJ case has been sitting on my workbench being a sad too large and heavy to be an effective paperweight because I over think things and get intimidated when it comes to things I've never done like I'm going to brick my truck in a way I can't afford but this really takes the anxiety out of the process.

I owe you a beer, got a PayPal?



Some questions though, (told you I over think)

Are there any seals or gaskets that you recommend changing?

Should I change the oil pump or strainer/magnet?

Can I put the auto FJ's shaft into the Tacoma case and reassemble then sell it as a complete functional automatic trans Tacoma case or would it be a frankenstein that fits neither the FJ or the Tacoma at that point?

If it can't be assembled and sold would it be worth keeping the chain belt or anything else as spare parts? (Other than the actuator motor assembly to sell.)

Thanks mate!

Also over 50k messages!? How the fuuuu...

 

I answer your questions in red:

 

I've never done this, nor did I create this write-up. I just recovered the info from RST's old forum and put it here so it would be saved.

 

So now that I have done this, I thought I’d add some takeaways.

• Open the case in 2HI. Otherwise little synchro keys fall out and it’s a pain.
  
• To actually open the case, you need to remove front driveshaft output. A 30mm socket to undo the nut and a puller to get the flange off.
  
• Remove the shifter
• Undo the 12mm bolts and the case will separate.

This wasn’t covered in wyatts write up above but would have been helpful info. Other than that, this write up covers it nicely. It really was very easy. Just take your time.

 

Damn i always wanted this setup with a crawl box!

 

But Wyatt can easily do this work for you if you promise to send him $700 and never expect a product, he's so awesome!

 

What situations ?

 

Oh just the pulled a pelfry and have gone dark nuking everything they have ever done or posted

 

damn didn’t know that

 

Nothing good:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/beware-rock-solid-toys.687511/

 

In this pic, the case on the right is out of my truck. Notice the O ring on the cover around the input shaft.

I reused the FJ cover, which doesn’t have the O ring. Leaked a bunch of trans oil.

So I would also like to add to make sure you reuse your cover with the O ring. I missed it because it wasn’t in the original write up and I wasn’t thinking.

 

That'll do it. The A750F has a rear seal in the housing whereas the RA60F does not. I do remember when swapping my crawler in, putting the seal housing extention in thus negating the need for the O-ring. If you are strictly swapping an automatic FJ case into a RA60F 6 speed you will need that O-ring otherwise there will be no seal between the transmission and t-case as you found out the hard way unfortunately.

 

On the plus side, I needed to change my transmission oil anyways.