3rd Gen 4Runner - Linked FJ80

Mine's noisy too but regular oil change says otherwise. A VF1 for a RF1A be nice

 

This is more noise than my geared cases ever were, crawl box even popped out of gear while driving (detent spring?). I need to take a look inside.

 

Which crawl box are you running? My NWF case was popping out of gear on hard decel, I put in a heavier detent spring which helped a lot.

 

Duh, just read post #1. Yeah if you didn't see the updated instructions from NWF, they're now recommending the heavier detent spring from an electric shift case.

If the vehicle being used with the EcoCrawler has a manual transmission, it is recommended to upgrade to the stiffer detent spring for the EcoCrawler. If the donor case is an electric shift, the stiffer spring is found in either shift forks of the transfer case. If the donor case is not an electric shift, the part number for the recommended detent spring is:
Toyota Part Name Toyota Part Number
Compression Spring, Electric Shift 90501-18091

 

Thanks dude, appreciate it. I’m running an auto so maybe not required but worth a shot? The donor case was a manual shift so definitely not the stiffer spring. My crawl box shifter has a good amount of play in it (both on the rear case are tight).

 

I'm not sure how much a manual trans vs automatic would make a difference, but yeah I would think it would be worth a shot to see if it helps. It's a pain in the ass trying to swap the spring out with the case in the truck.

Mine still occasionally pops out of gear in certain situations, I'm about to split the case back open and see if I missed a snap ring or something.

 

Agree for sure. This is the last time I’m going to try to make these cases work…tired of pulling them out.

 

I was having trouble with my crawl box not engaging fully. After I took it apart I found that the key that the shifter sits in as well as the detent ball rides had a short side and a long side that wasn't allowing the shift fork to engage properly. I swapped the key so the short side was engaging the crawl box which helped but under a heavy load it would still skip teeth because it still wasn't fully engaged. I then ground down one side of the key where the detent rode and built up the other side with weld moving the engagement point and I haven't had any more problems. I'm not sure if this is your problem but I hope it helps.

 

Thanks for the context, i'll be checking this out as well once i build up the motivation to work on it again. Much appreciated!

 

I hope it helps, once I got all that done they are working great. I can definitely understand not wanting to pull them out again though. Good luck and keep up the good work. The rig is awesome.

 

Glad they're working well for you, thanks for the encouragement. I'll get them pulled and go through them completely before throwing in the towel.

 

I think I've had them out three times now. I'm hoping it's a long while before I have to mess with them again. That's just how it goes when you do custom stuff. I hope they will work well for you once you get them dialed.

 

I've built a few gear driven crawler setups and never had an issue which is the reason i'm considering going back. This project is my lowest priority so at a certain point i'm not willing to sacrifice time and would rather go to something tried and true even if it's more expensive. I'll give it one more shot and hope they quiet down/stay in gear...i may be sending you some pics to double check i didn't screw something up lol. Thanks for responding and helping!

 

A few updates...

• The issue with the front case popping out of gear is only with manual transmissions...so i'll upgrade to the stiffer spring just in case, but may not solve the issue.
• NWFab instructions show 2 versions of the VF2, one with syncros and one without on the 2wd/4wd gear (they recommend removing the syncro). They weren't aware of any VF1 differences, but I have 2 VF1's and one has a syncro and one doesn't. There are also more differences between the VF1 cases...but nothing that would indicate a problem with the kit.
• I did find some metallic paste on the front split bearing/race, but the bearing still felt ok. I did add some bearing grease to hold it in place initially which could have blocked oil flow and caused the noise? I'm going to replace both split bearings using only assembly lube this time, replace the detent spring and hope for the best.

 

If you have the cases apart you can spin the input shaft and mess with the shifter to see if you can get it to pop out of gear. That's what I did to figure out why it would only pop out under load. Since I moved the shift point to gain the proper engagement it's been working great. I also have a manual transmission. Hopefully you get on the right track.

 

Cases are back in and quieted down, hasn't popped out of gear yet. Still haven’t gotten it offroad due to life. Got a cheap airplay unit in, rock lights installed, and got the speedo working. Tried running the 4th gen abs sensors through the abs module but no luck…ended up using the tcase sensor which was pretty simple. Not necessities, but I’m going to redo the tcase mount to a cradle style and build a rear bumper at some point then this things about done.

 

Where did your front mount land in relation to the stock lower link mount? I was thinking they would land similar but am realizing I was way wrong.

and did you move rear axle centerline back at all?

 

If you can give me a reference point that i haven't cut off i'll pull a measurement. The rear axle must be moved back a little bit...basically cut off mounts and centered the axle so at full stuff i didn't have to trim anything.

 

Nice build. Almost similar to my 4Runner build. Are you running disc brakes in the rear? Don’t think I saw it on this thread.

 

Thanks dude! It’s a 4th gen 4runner axle, stock disc.