BassAckwards' AWD Turbo 2TR-FE

wow, too much cool going on man!

 

Howdy Kent! Pretty excited to get this assembled. Although i havent figured out how the shifters are going to work without sacrificing a cup holder

Evening John!

 

Got the AWD case split yesterday and overcame several hurdles due to a lack of instructions for the VF4B. Ended up referring back to the FSM for the FJC and was able to get the input shaft removed. But that’s where my luck ran out, and i was unable to separate the gear that needs to be swapped over to the NWF input off of the old input. Tonight i made a tool to be able to use a jaw puller on it though, so im going to give it another go tomorrow once that arrives. Here’s a bunch of pics i took yesterday.












also i found this interesting. On top here is the tacoma input shaft from the Part time 4wd case behind the RA60F 6 speed. And on the bottom is from the AWD case behind the RA61F 6 speed out of the FJ cruiser. They look quite similar and same 22 spline input, but the one out of FJ is much larger at the base

 

Well, got the gear off of the old input shaft with a 3 jaw puller and the tool i made, but as usual, i hit a road block. Tried freezing the NWF input and baking the gear at 450*F for 30 minutes, but still only got the gear on the new input about half way. So it's looking like i get to buy a 20 ton press now bc it's about an inch too long to fit in the vise. Thanks a lot murphy lol

 

I'm all for excuses to buy new tools, but you might try a local shop or fellow TW member in your local threads and see if they could press on that last little bit for you for a couple bucks.

I got the impression that swapping the input shafts was a lot easier than this from the other guy that put his NWF box together, as he didn't mention any challenges like this. I'm not surprised honestly. I will definitely be reaching out when I go to do mine.

 

Yeah i'm a little hesitant to try a local shop around here, as i have a general distrust for shops and i live in the middle of no where. Also, if something gets messed up, id much rather be the one to do it so the blame is on me..

I did as well, i figured this project would be a cake walk as i have split about two or three VF2A's and taco cases to swap inputs. These damn press fit parts have been eating my lunch every step of the way though. I will 100% be giving my honest review of how difficult everything was once i finish up the process, and i'll probably post it in the crawlbox thread so others can get another take on things.

For sure man, feel free to shoot any questions you have my way, i'd be more than happy to try and assist

 

Success at last. As usual, it’s all about having the right tool for the job. 20 ton press laughed at this thing

 

Well, it’s been a busy weekend wrenching. Started out by reassembling the AWD case which quickly turned into another battle lol. Got the input swapped in Friday and figured I’d try to test fit the front side of the case. The case would not seat all of the way, so i knew it had to come back apart. Well that went south shortly after when the center diff lock shift fork got pushed from the unlocked to the locked position. This would be like the equivalent of shifting from 2wd to 4wd in a part time case. When this happens and the case is split, there are three keepers and two springs pop out of place and have to get put back in.


So here’s what I was looking at now. At this point I also determined why the case wouldn’t seat all of the way, there were two balls and springs for the shifter that I didn’t remove and they fell down in the shift rail’s slot.



After much deliberation, here’s how the springs and keepers get installed on the VF4B.

And the shift rail retainer has to be flush with the back of the case. When reviewing some pics i took during disassembly this is how i figured out the issue with the shift rail springs & balls.

While i had it apart I swapped in a magnetic drain plug I had.

And a few hrs later finally back in one piece. It was a big victory to get it back together after things literally fell apart lol.


Now onto the fun stuff, gutting a part time 4wd VF2A and building the EcoCrawler







hit a minor set back this morning, figured out why double low wasnt engaging. It turns out the bearing retainer/front cover that seals around the input shaft for the AWD transfer case is too large and is interfering with the gear that engages low and high range on the Ecocrawler



My fix was to pull the auto t-case retainer/cover off the cover and see if it’d fit on the AWD case and it turns out it does, and it also allows double low to engage now. So i’m gonna buy another A/T retainer/cover for the EcoCrawler since it needs one too.


Both cases assembled and functioning


Test fit with the R156F looks great. With the hurst/core shifter, i dont have any interference with reverse and the crawl box high and low. So the real hurdle to overcome shifters looks like for the main T-case placing it to the left of the main shifter. Getting close to my plan for an AWD 2TR-FE! Turbo going on next weekend hopefully if the manifold gets done at ceramic coating

 

Please don’t tell me you’re are going to lay on your back and bench press that massive piece of aluminum and steel into place… Oh, please let us know how you like the Hurst shifter.

 

Great work! If you haven’t put it in the truck already, could you get a measurement from the bellhousing to the transfercase flange? I am curious how much shorter this setup is compared to one with say dual gear driven cases.

 

Thanks man and sure can, ill grab that for you later this evening

 

Lol no way, i will be using a HF trans jack for this exercise! I am running the same Hurst/Core shifter on my R155 right now and i love it. Way better than stock imo. If you're on the fence, i highly recommend it.

Good afternoon John! Hope you had a good weekend brother

 

Hurst/core is the shit for these trucks. Completely necessary in my eyes and one of my favorite mods.

 

Completely awesome project Robert! Some intense stuff going down

 

Thanks man, mine was great! A little tired from all the wrenching, but 100% worth it

Agree 100%!

Thanks Russ! Just got word that the turbo manifold is ready to be picked up from the ceramic coater.. So that's going down this coming weekend finally

 

Can't wait to see this in action with the turbo powering it!

 

Awesome work. Really enjoying watching this build.

The big difference between the flanges you swapped is that o-ring seal that I believe was only present on the 22 spline tcases mated up to the RA60F and RA61F transmissions on the tacos and FJs, and I believe the some similar 4runner applications I am not as familiar with.

Do you know what type of flange is on the tcase that normally comes behind the r156f, and does it have that o-ring seal or not?

The reason I am asking is because I am planning to put the NWF box behind an RA60F, and my expectation is that I would take both the 22 spline input and the o-ring flange off my taco case to mate it up with my trans. I have both flanges (o-ring and non-oring) available from my donor cases, but if I am reading your post correctly, it sounds like I need to pull the flange off my FJ case to make the NWF box shift, but it doesnt make sense that it would mate up and seal to my trans properly without the oring flange of my factory tcase.

Hopefully all that makes sense.

 

She's a looker!!

Thanks man, and yes the R156F case would come with the auto style retainer/cover without the o-ring - the same as the A750F tacos and FJ's, so that's why i need two of them. One to properly seal the trans, and another to allow the crawl box to shift properly. To put your NWF case behind the RA60F, youll need that oring cover for the NWF case, and then for low range to be able to work correctly, you'll need the cover from the Auto Case to put on your rear-most t-case. This is the only way that it'll allow low range on the crawl box to work. The issue i ran into was the cover that normally comes on the RA60F taco cases and RA61F FJ M/T case with the o-ring is slightly larger than the Auto trans t-case counterpart which caused a low range engagement issue.

So in other words, youll need this retainer/cover & the 22spline input shaft for the front of your NWF crawl box


and this without the o-ring one will go on your rear t-case from the auto FJ case- the seal is missing in the pic below but that's the auto trans retainer/cover

 

A few more.