92Shawman's 1992 3VZ-E SR5 Pickup

I see. Well mine has some of the threads but it's not nearly that long. I'll give it a shot, though.
My FSM says to check continuity between terminals, so I'll do that and take it apart if somethings messed up.
Here's someone else's picture that is the same as mine:

 

That might not have been the exact switch but you got the idea.

 

^^^ a project for us when you get here! What day are you going to be here again? I'll be sure to get the office ready for you. Oh! and Pliny gave me an old hi-lift

 

Yeah, definitely. Thanks!

Haha, for sure! I'm thinking the 6th. It also depends on when Jerry can take the bumper off his truck. Pm-ing him now...
And that's awesome! He's a cool guy, I'm glad you guys were able to meet up.

 

Sweeeet. I look forward to seeing it on you truck! I'm trying to sweet talk chris (deadhed61) into his rear high clearance pelfrybuilt. He says he'll sell it for "super cheap" and I like things that are "super cheap"

 

Haha, don't we all...
I hope it goes through for you! Then you'll just have to get a front bumper to match.

Took the truck out today, drove it around at freeway speeds and no noises or anything, so I'm very pleased! Then I took it out to a dirt road and tested the locker. First went up this bank without the locker on, started skidding and it didn't work. Then flipped it on and went right up!
I'm officially locked!

And the parking brake light keeps switching on and off randomly...

 

Replace/test that switch at the end of the arm. Or check the bulb in the dash.

 

Yeah I'm gonna check the switch first. I really hope it's not in the cluster 'cause that's just kinda scary.

 

ARB RD132 Locker install:

After pulling the diff out and doing preliminary checks on backlash, runout, and preload, it was time to start pulling it apart!

Homemade tools...the left is the bench air tester, middle two are spanner wrenches for the OEM adjuster nut and the ARB adjuster nut, and the right is an attachment for the companion flange to get some leverage while tightening and loosening the pinion nut.
DSCN9751_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

For the bench tester, we had an old compression gauge with a schrader valve and I just had to find a T intersection and a fitting for the bulkhead thing that the air line connects to on the diff housing. The compression gauge was threaded with 1/8" NPT so I got a three-way female 1/8" NPT T and a female to female adapter fitting for the schrader valve. Then proved the tricky part that I had to search all over the place for...a fitting to go from 1/8" NPT to 3/16"-24 for the bulkhead. I went to probably a half-dozen different places and no one had it but I eventually ended up at Marshall's Industrial Hardware in Miramar and I found it! I was super excited to finally find a fitting that worked. All told I spent roughly $10 in new fittings, and the official ARB bench tester is I think over $50.

And the bearing kit from Cruiser Outfitters:
DSCN9753_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Started with unstaking and removing the pinion nut:
DSCN9754_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Pulled the washer and companion flange off that:
DSCN9756_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Kinda destroyed the oil seal trying to get it off...we weren't concerned because we had a new one to put in anyways.
DSCN9758_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Oil slinger underneath that:
DSCN9757_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Then we went to the other side and undid the adjuster nut cap bolts to get the diff out. Remember to mark the caps so you know which side they go on. We just used a punch and put a little mark on one cap and the housing next to it. Good ol' one person holds tightly while the other takes them off...
DSCN9762_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

And it's out!
DSCN9768_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Also remember which side those adjuster nuts came from.
DSCN9769_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

New vs. old
DSCN9775_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Then we unstaked the ring gear bolts and took that off:
DSCN9779_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9781_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Used a socket wrench on one side to help hold the diff in place and the breaker bar on the other to loosen the bolts.
DSCN9785_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Ta-da!
DSCN9788_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Just tapped the ring gear a little with a plastic hammer and it came right off.

Then we pressed the pinion out of the housing. If we were trying to reuse all the bearings we probably wouldn't have had to do this anyways, but we should've pulled the outer bearing out first instead of just pressing it out, but we didn't care so we just pressed it out.
DSCN9792_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9793_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Then we tried to get the big inner pinion out...

DSCN9799_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Unfortunately it was stuck on there pretty tightly so we ended up bending the splitter a little bit and it wasn't coming off with the strength of the press. The solution that my uncle recommended was to hit the bottom of the press shelf with a big hammer while the press was pushing down on the pinion so that it added a shock to the press. Probably not the safest thing but it worked!

DSCN9809_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

My pinion only had one washer between the head and the bearing, which means that I have the big V6 pinion head. In the gear install I was following, the guy's v6 4runner had an additional thick washer between the bearing and the head, which meant that he had the 4-cylinder pinion head. Apparently there's a lot of talk about the difference in strength between the two but Zuk seems to think that it doesn't matter.
DSCN9810_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Took the bearing races out of the housing, too. They looked pretty good with minor wear and a few small pits, but not bad for over 200,000 miles.
DSCN9804_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9805_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Everything's all cleaned up and ready to go back in!
DSCN9812_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

 

Great write up!

 

Now for putting it all back together with new bearings and the locker.

While everything was out of the diff housing and before I had cleaned it, we drilled and tapped a hole for the bulkhead fitting. 7/16" drill for a 1/4" NPT tap.
DSCN9817_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Got it all nice and purdy
DSCN9818_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Put the ring gear on the locker. We chose to heat it up in water to put it on. The heat worked great but it started to corrode a little bit overnight after using the water, so if I were to do it again I'd use the oven instead.
DSCN9820_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

We put it on and threaded the bolts in loosely to get it aligned and then we let it cool for a while so it was back to normal size before applying loctite and torquing the bolts down. We tried using the press to hold it in place while torquing but it kept moving around so we just had one of us use the socket wrench on one bolt while the other used the torque wrench. Worked great!

Then pressed the new bearings on the locker. Used an old pipe from the nursery at my mom's work to press it on.
DSCN9823_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

And a different pipe to press the new inner bearing onto the pinion
DSCN9824_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Tapped in the inner pinion bearing race. Started with little taps to get it on the same level as the housing and then pressed it the rest of the way in.
DSCN9826_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9827_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Just hammered the outer one in.
DSCN9830_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Put the pinion gear in with the old crush sleeve as a spacer and without the oil seal and tightened it in for a paint check. Then put the diff in.
DSCN9831_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Preliminary paint check looked like it needed a greater backlash, but reusing the same pinion spacers worked out great.
DSCN9832_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9833_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Also while it was together we tested the clearance between the pinion head and the locker and a set of feeler gauges measuring a total of 0.035" passed through and the 0.04" feelers did not, so that passed the 0.02" requirement for clearance with the locker.

Took it all apart to put the new crush sleeve in and then reassembled with the oil slinger and new oil seal and torqued down the pinion nut. Set the backlash to about 0.0075" on average measured on every other tooth and then did another paint check.

DSCN9836_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9837_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Popped on the air assembly part. Two o-ring seals seat into the little assembly and then that slides onto the bearing journal on the diff. The manual says be careful with those o-rings, so we were and it seems to work!

Routed the copper tubing to the bulkhead fitting and did a bench test at 90psi for 15 minutes. Passed!

DSCN9841_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

DSCN9843_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Wheeled it on over to the truck
DSCN9844_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

It was quite the struggle to try to get it on right. The paper gasket that I got from cruiser outfitters didn't quite fit right so that tore. I went over to toyota carlsbad and picked up a new one and then we struggled with it again but got it in eventually with minimal paper gasket damage.
Then routed and hooked up the air line and it was good to go!

DSCN9846_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

Re-connected the drive shaft, parking brake, brake lines, and bled the brakes and it was all done!

DSCN9848_small by 92shawman, on Flickr



I changed the oil after 500 miles and it was pretty nasty oil but no large flakes, so that's good.

 

So I'm cutting the bed under the tailgate to fit the rear bumper (Oh yeah, bought Jerry's Elite rear bumper, btw) and I'm wondering...Angle grinder with cutoff wheel or saws-all?

 

That's what I'm thinking, too, but after searching a bit it seems that half the people use an angle grinder and half the people use jig saws and claim that angle grinders don't cut very straight.

I'm probably going to go with an angle grinder, though.

Would you leave a little bit and fold it over so there's not such a sharp edge? I've seen people do that on here when they trim their fenders, but I don't know if that's something I should do here, too. I've also seen that when everyone trims their bedsides for high-clearance rear bumpers they just cut a straight line and don't fold anything.

Thanks! Yeah by the time I got back to Micah's the clouds had come in and it was getting a bit late by the time I wanted to go back out so I didn't see anything. I should've done it in the morning anyways. Oh well, no biggie.

 

You probably have better control with a saw. But if you use a cutoff wheel, score the cut first then go for it-I've had way better luck with the cutoff wheel.

As far as the edge goes, just clean it up and protect it with a coating. That's my vote.

 

Sounds good to me. Thanks!

 

Good advice! I get what you're saying about using a reference point or some sort of bracing.
Yeah, I'll just use a file to clean the cut afterwards and put some paint on it. Thanks for the info!

Haha, yeah we'll see when the next time I head north will be. It was nice to see you and Micah again!

Thanks! If you want help and I can swing a trip up there I'll gladly lend a hand. We should probably see how mine holds up before I go doing more, though...don't want to screw other people's stuff up.

 

Thanks!
Another good point...I have one that's 80 grit, I think. I didn't see any finer grit at Home Depot. If you think that's too coarse I'll probably just use a file 'cause I'm slow like that...

Haha, for sure, dude. Let me know and I'll help you out if I can!

 

When ever this thread comes up it makes me real nostalgic for my old '93, that baby was tough as nails. Put 300,000 + miles of fun on it travaling all over the westen U.S.- on many of the same old jeep trails, wagon trails or no trails that you ventured on. Places i would never take a second gen taco. Not a day goes by that i wish i still had it. Thanks for the pictures and bringing back some old memories.

 

Alright, cool. Yeah I tested it on something a few weeks ago and it seemed to take material off really quickly, but good point, I'll try it again on the removed piece. I'll have to take a look at the brands that I have tomorrow, but thanks for the suggestions!

Man the smaller size is amazing for some of those trails! Sorry you had to sell it, but hopefully you can find one again. Thanks for the complement. Let's run a trail and go exploring sometime! Other than that I'll definitely keep those pictures coming.

 

OSH carries some flap disks as well. LWS will usually have a great selection though.