Transfer Case Rear Output Shaft - Shifting Keys Question MT/AT w/o ADD

Adding for future reference... found on a 4Runner site but the info (especially the shift keys and retainers) is solid. Attached each as a PDF - no more broken links

Disassembly
https://www.to4runner.net/disassembly-933.html

Inspection
https://www.to4runner.net/inspection-934.html

Reassembly
https://www.to4runner.net/reassembly-935.html

*EDIT* Adding another PDF, VF2A_FULL.

 

so a friend of mine is doin a 4x4 conversion and when he got his transfer case these keys fell out. Question here is does he need to take the t case apart to get them back in?

 

Oh man. How did they "fall out" if its not split (the case)? So essentially, yeah. He's going to need to pull the entire thing and put it back together. Its a pain it the royal azz. Take as many pictures as possible from different angles before disassembling to note orientation.

 

Only if he wants to be able to shift into 4H on the fly. Without those keys you lose that ability. Other then that the case will work exactly like it should.

 

Dude, if you weren't 290+ miles away, I'd head over and buy your trans and tcase. lol

 

If my rig doesn't sell in a month or two I'll end up parting it out. I'll tag you if I do.

For the record, my stock case is missing the shift keys. Long story short, when I was building the crawl box I ordered another T-case so I could still drive my rig while dialing in the crawl box. That t-case came packaged really well with about 1,000,000 little styrofoam packing nuts. After I got done bench testing the case/crawl box I went ahead and installed it. Then I threw out that box. I had to dump the packing nuts to make the box fit in the recycling. After I dumped them into the trash one of the shift keys was stuck to a piece of tape.

WTF is that? Pulled up the FSM and saw the shift keys. Then rummaged through the garbage can to find the other 2. FML.

So I called up a rebuilder in Ohio that I found online. I talked with the tech about what their function was and if I was completely fucked and would have to pull the cases. He informed me that the only allow the case to shift on the fly and serve no other function. It was either pull the cases and fix it or live without shift on the fly. So, 4 years and many hard wheeling miles later, I still can't shift on the fly. lol

 

Oh, see that would just kill my OCD hahaha. How in the hell, I mean right... WTF

Its not difficult to put them in. Well not after wracking your head into the wall trying to figure it out since there is so little documentation out there. To be honest, I think I have it ready to go back together. Once that last bearing arrives, I'll swap it in and then will reassemble. If it shifts, then I know its good to go. If it doesn't, it is going in the damn dumpster.

 

Jimmy, came across this and while somewhat different it gives a really good visual on how the shift keys are placed and secured. Take a look. Video will start at relevant section, just click play.

https://youtu.be/YSGV9zqKxBQ?t=664

 

Thank you guys for the help!!

 

Wrapped up the press work on the transfer case today. Decided to replace all the bearings since I had the thing apart. 27 year old t-case, might as well refurb it. Having a shop press makes the conversion process so much easier.


Also, replaced a crap ton of seals as well as that shift lever sub assembly with the breather nip which broke off.




Going to check the shift key placement again tomorrow and cofirm everything is fine before sealing it up. Prior to sealing it up, will share pics here.

 

Super impressed.

Remind me again - this is an A/T case? When you're all done, if you have the list somewhere, I'd love to see the list of bearings and seals you replaced, since that would make my rebuild life a bunch easier. I'm doing an M/T though.

Edit: clearly I need to learn to read, since your images are of the replaced seals and bearings. I'll let myself out.

 

Yep, A/T. I will absolutely include a list of parts. I have found that partsouq.com has been resource to bookmark when drilling down to components. Start off with the VIN from the vehicle and it's cake from there. I've also used them to order parts as well. Shipped from Dubai so transit time has to be taken into account. Still, I have to give them a thumbs up for making it happen. First order I placed took about 10 days (which is about the same as McGeorge for me). Placed another order on 5/30 and it arrived today. One of the bearings was showing as a 7-10 lead time so I was prepared to wait. Amazing it showed up today.

Just plug in your VIN and head over to the powertrain section. You'll want the transfer case and then transfer gear assemblies. If you mouse over them and pause it'll throw a tooltip with info on 2-4 selector, ADD, etc. Why there are multiple choices of the same sections.

 

Yeah, this is definitely the approach I'd take, and great to hear about partsoug. My concern, really, is that I'll miss a bearing or seal, and then have to one-off order when I'm already in the middle of the project (like you). Always nice to "cheat" off a list that someone else has already put together and knows to be complete! Thanks again for doing this, and I look forward to the final write-up + photos + list of parts.

 

It won't be as detailed as your reports but I'll see what I can put together.

I don't recall seeing if you ever cracked your failed tcase open or not and tracked down the failure point.

For this case here, I think I could have gotten away with just that one bearing which was noisy and felt grindy, along with doing all the seals. Still, having it apart and knowing one bearing had issues I decided to just take the leap.



Looking forward to see how the M/T rebuild goes.

 

I had a friend in Montana buy a parts truck and not use the transfer case. It was a manual transmission j-shift case with 180K, although he poorly packaged it when he sent it to me. It arrived with all three keys flying around in the box. Case doesn't look damaged otherwise.

I doubt I'll touch the case for a while because I don't want to be the first person to test a manual transmission case with the longer input shaft on an auto trans. And it's my automatic case with ~330K starting to make noise now.

 

And honestly with their age I've wondered if just ordering the part number below is the move. ~$2500 is a lot but if it's truly a new case from Toyota I'd be avoiding a long costly rebuild of my current case or a sketchy unknown eBay case. The options below seem to indicate a j-shift case with the "w/o 2/4 selector" phrasing. And I don't really care if it's from a ADD truck since my current January/1996 manufactured 4Runner case was obviously ADD. Or maybe I'm crazy and I should order a ~$500 eBay case from an auto truck and get going on a full rebuild.

"Tacoma. 6 cylinder. Without 2/4 selector. With auto disc-diff. 4-runner. 6 cylinder. With sr5 model. From 3/96."
36110-35321

 

Not sure but I know if I ever have to replace the one I installed, I'm going to do a hard look at the late model FJ Cruiser / 4Runner cases. They had/have manual J-shift cases and from everything I have looked at, it certainly seems like the exact same design. This is based on ripping into the part diagrams on partsouq and the part numbers are the same.

So far so good with the "1995 Tacoma" transfer case I grabbed off eBay. This was the one that had damage to one of the mounting points (fortunately it was a straight through and I just bored it out slightly). With the missing shift keys, I do encounter intermittent grind when slipping it into 4H or 4L (even with the transmission in P or N). Those shift keys make the synchro work correctly I believe (?).

If you order a new case, let me know how it goes.