PreRunner 4x4 Conversion Journey Thread

If assembly is the reverse of disassembly than I can say from my junkyard disassembly experience that it's a lot easier with the engine out.

 

The outer cylinder of the bearing is polished chrome, one side has a black band, the other is chrome and yes it does say Koyo/Japan on it.

 

Yes can confirm this, the bearing does say Koyo still but the box it came in was JTEKT. There is a little disclosure sticker on the box too that states Koyo is now made by them.

 

Awesome I just picked up this exact jack on marketplace lol

 

Cool that's good to know, I'll have to convince my brother to lend a hand on the big install days

 

I used a transmission jack - there's no way you're going to bench press it and also be able to get bolt holes to line up, at least not on your own. The trans jack is a PITA but at least you can somewhat hold it steady while you maneuver it into place. The Timmy video really had it right - I believe they jacked up the whole engine & trans to get clearance over the crossmember?

I ended up, with the back mount, one bolt mostly tightened so it could swing, one bolt out, eventually worked it over the crossmember, then had to cut a wrench in half and painstakingly slip the 2nd bolt into its hole and screw it in. Do not recommend that route. Took me like 4 hours.

 

I swear I was able to do this on my own without a jack. I was surprised I did like that after trying other stuff including with a transmission jack. Its really not that hard unless I got lucky.

 

idk how you could have dropped the rear mount into place with just your hands. I literally had to work with a pry bar and even then it was not straightforward. Perhaps you did the Timmy method?

 

Yes I did the Timmy method which would be almost like bench pressing on there.

 

Getting the rear driveshaft cleaned up, the last major restoration part I need to finish. I used some citristrip to remove the paint and it worked amazing, peeled off like gel in a couple hours. Repainting tomorrow.

Question for those familiar with double cardan joints, so I wanted to put some grease in there to make sure nothing was clogged up, and as I was pressing grease into the middle zerk that lubes the center area, I noticed that the cup area (kind of looks like a ball joint) didn't appear to be getting grease. It was getting pushed out the top of that area near the other u-joint as shown in the pic, but the bottom cup was dry. Anyone know if I should be inserting grease directly into this area? I cleaned out the whole area really well beforehand so I'm not sure where the old grease was. I just want to make sure this unit is viable before reassembling everything and paying to get the whole thing balanced. I see there are some rubber bits in there too (one wrapped around the bottom "cup") that I know nothing about.

 

As long as there is no binding and the movement is good and smooth, just call it good. You can replace them but it can be a real PITA.

 

Should be fine, just finding the path of least resistance

 

Yeah I've read that rebuilding them isn't practical. Paint is drying now so once it's ready I'll really pump some grease in there to flush all the old stuff out and see how it's moving, but I suspect it will be fine, nothing is currently binding.

 

Put the new OEM u-joints in the front driveshaft today, essentially finishing the work on that (will get it greased and balanced). I wish I took a better before pic but you get the jist, it was in a rough state, and looks great now.

My only concern with this is I'm having some trouble really gauging the correct "free play" in the u-joints. Basically I have the c-clip as closely pressed to the flange as it will possibly go all around (referencing this part of timmy's video), and there is a slight variation in how freely everything moves. There is no binding or anything, but I'm just not sure how much easy movement it should have. The FSM describes a tolerance of 0-0.05mm in axial play, I don't have any axial play on either of the joints in either direction. The problem is if I wanted to get more free play, I would have to reduce the thickness of the c clip as there is no more room currently to tap the cup bearings outward with the clips fully seated. My only thought was could the fact that I painted the yoke/flange be coming into play? Technically the c clip sits on top of the paint, which might account for one or a half thou of space? Is it worth popping all the c-clips off any scraping away the paint in that area? I feel like I'm overthinking it I just wish I had someone to gut check me on it.

 

I think you are overthinking it. Thats just my opinion

 

I think you're probably right lol

 

What he said…if it needs to clear .0001”, Rustoleum sure as shit ain’t gonna stand in the way for long.

 

Y'all were right, once I filled the new u-joints up with some new grease, they are smooth as butter, crisis averted. The double cardan is a wonky joint, if I had an extra driveshaft I'd try my hand at rebuilding it, maybe when I take the prerunner one off I'll play with it.

 

I probably should have done this much much earlier in this process with it being the single most important part of the swap, but I finally drained the fluid from the donor A340F, and it's looking mint. I'll upload a pic once I drop the pan to replace the filter, but am very happy it appears to be clean. It's really making me wish I could've used the transfer case that was originally mated to it as I'm sure it was equally well cared for, but such is life.

 

Solid project, thanks for taking the time to write it up.
I’m getting ready to do the swap soon, got the Solid axle swap going on mine.