Transfer case or transmission leak

start to see a pattern

3rd gen, manual transmission



this is mine

 

Mine wasn't as bad as yours for my 3rd gen. On my 1st gen, that is what it looked like. Whoever owned my 1st gen must have neglected it because when I went to change out the transmission fluid, well, there was none. Changing the fluid smoked the transmission as I suspect it freed up some metal shavings on the inside of the case. Anyway, I'd check/add tranny/tcase fluid, but your truck looks a lot cleaner (newer) than mine. I'd take it to Toyota if you're under warranty.

To follow up on my truck, the only times I've seen it leak is when I've been driving trails in 4wd. Maybe running for extended periods in 4wd hi/lo, or running through ponds up to the doors, was my issue. Either the oil gets hot enough to thin out and push past the seals, or I was leaking out water. Hopefully you're covered because it was kind of a PITA putting new seals in my 1st gen. Sorry man.

 

I remember hearing kinda loud audible click when I engaged 4L a couple of days ago.
The truck has been driven in 4H every 2 months for about 10 miles, but rarely was in 4L, maybe that broke the actuator?

Or could be the seals, but yeah, the truck got 7k miles on the odometer so I'll get the dealership to look at

 

Just a few days ago i noticed my truck slammed into gear a few times. Upon further inspection I noticed i had a leak where the T case meets the transmission. I bought the input/ output shaft seals but i cant find any detailed posts or videos on getting the job done so im stuck right now because toyota wants $2000 to get it done.

 

I’ve heard of guys dropping only the transfer case. That’s what I would recommend. Take out all the bolts that hold the transfer case on and using a floor jack, or ideally a transmission jack, pull it aft and out. It’s just splined in like the transmission into the engine. Then you can drive a new seal into the transfer case out on the ground, and there should be enough room under the truck to do the transmission output seal. If you’re going to do the job yourself, buy a transmission jack with the money you will be saving. The ones I’m thinking of have adjustments for pitch angle.

You will just need to take your time putting the transfer case back in. You don’t want to mess up the new seal you just put on the transmission output shaft. An extra set of hands would be best.

If you don’t tackle the job right away you need to put gear oil back into whichever is leaking.

 

The t case isn’t too heavy so a floor jack can help hold it as you jimmy it out. Once the drive shafts and electric connections are out it’s not too many bolts till it slides off . Once out you can inspect it on a bench top and put in gaskets or seals. The transmission and t case are separate sealed parts. If it’s leaking at the face where they bolt together that’s odd because there’s no fluid in that space between input and tail shaft. That might mean the o ring seals for the shaft coming out of the trans or into the t case are leaking into that void space.

alternatively you can get an electric pickup and never worry about transmission or t case BS ever again .

 

Thats sweat not a leak, they may charge you time to look at it.

Toyota, and all other manufacturers need to see droplets to warranty.

 

Well, I took mine in to the dealership they diagnosed and repaired it under warranty, it was not nearly as bad as that
I guess it depends on the particular dealership

 

so i took it upon myself to drop the transfer case and try out the seals myself. It was pretty easy and i would have been done in probably leas than 2.5 hours. Come to find out the bearing for the transmission output shaft failed and tore up the seal and now i have to take it to a shop because it doesn’t look like i can get the outer part of the bearing it out without dropping and splitting the trans...

 

Well, good job on your part. Not the best luck though.

It’s been a long time since I looked at a parts diagram, what do those 6 bolts do surrounding the transmission output shaft? Would that allow access to the bearing, or whatever it is?

 

I noticed that area seemed to have its own section so i took all the bolts out and i can now get to the other side to replace the bearing. I’ve never dove into any type of trans or transfer case work but I figured ill save myself some money and be the Test subject for anyone els who wants to know how to do this because i couldnt find information or pictures anywhere.

 

So is it confirmed that a bearing is smoked right there? It was too hard to tell if that was the outer housing of the seal, or even the seal spring that was all chewed up in there.

I will say it’s kind of convenient that the rear of the transmission had a bearing housing.

 

The bearing came apart and tore up that seal and seal spring pretty bad. Ill be ordering a bearing and seal spring from the dealer tomorrow.

 

Let us know how it goes. I'd be interested to see the carnage vs the new parts once you have them. Hopefully reassembly goes smoothly. Sure beats spending $2k.

 

UPDATE.

Finding this bearing has been a pain. I went to toyota and they gave me a bearing but it was too big. I went up there to get the correct bearing and me and the parts guy spent an hour and 20 minutes looking at Toyota's diagrams and surfing the web trying to figure out what bearing was correct so they could refund me and get the right part. After no success they gave me a part number and said to call LKQ to see if they had the entire extension housing and hope it came with a bearing inside. I asked what they would have done if i had brought it in and they ran into this problem and they told me they would have sold me a new transfer case or transmission. On top of the $2000 they wanted just to replace the seals which took me an hour and a half.


I ended up taking the blow apart bearing to my work and searched up the numbers on the side of the outer race (nsk 6008) and after some browsing i found one on MSC industrial supply for less than $40.



i checked the dimensions and they are basically identical so im going to freeze the new bearing and drop it in with some retaining compound because the old one seemed to of spun on the outside a bit. I will update again after i put everything back together.


I will add pictures later.

 

Alright so the bearing went in flawlessly, i got the truck back together and after waiting the 24hrs for the rtv to cure i filled the trans and took it for a drive. Seems to be alright. Only problems so far are there is a ticking noise so im going to investigate that more. Also my 4x4 light was flashing so i pulled the plug out and sprayed it with electric parts cleaner and saw some trans fluid come out and now the light is off so I’m just worried about the ticking.


I wasn't sure the tq spec to use for the extension housing bolts so i went with 30ftlbs and that seemed to be nice and tight.

 

Nice job buddy. Do u remember the msc part number?

@Jowett seems to be a part hound, maybe he can find the OEM one?

 

Toyota stopped offering this extension housing bearing back when they introduced the 5 speed automatic. They require purchasing the complete extension housing for over $500. It appears the earlier 4 speed auto has the same 6008 series bearing and the part number is 90363-37001. It's a just a standard 6008 in a Toyota box. NSK or Koyo are the likely OEM.

 

You're a beast, man.