'96 Tacoma 4x4 Front diff removal

Hello everyone, thanks for reading this.

Just wondering how the *#$!$)*& to get the !#$%)!*&! front differential off this truck on which I'm working.

I have removed the halfshafts, undone the driveshaft, undone the stupid-a$$ convoluted allen "nut" which holds the diff to the cross member. I was under the impression that this amount of dis-assembly of the truck would yield a differential. Alas, I was mistaken. Do I need to pull the @!#$)*!!%!@%#!@#)*(&)(& engine to get the @#)%$!#%!# %)(*&)(*&)(*& differential out or what??

I am merely trying to change the freaking oil pump.

I hate this truck!

Reply to
Nza
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Is the differential obstructing the oil pan?

Reply to
Ray O

I checked AutoZone to see what the instructions were. It says to remove the differential...

Sorry...

Reply to
Hachiroku

Obstructing maybe not the oil pan itself, but at least the removal of the last couple screws that hold it...

Since I vented with that last post, I unbolted the engine mounts. I will remove the oil pan tomorrow. Makes me wish I had just un done the engine mounts to begin. It seems with the engine unbolted (and the exhaust undone from the downpipe) that I will have enough room now to remove the oilpan. What a friggin pain.

I am glad I am not a toyota dealership mech.

Reply to
Nza

no reason for you to be sorry. You weren't the brilliant engineer that designed this horse shit.

Thanks for looking it up and trying to help. You are one of the most informative bastids on this newsgroup. Thanks for your help every time! *I* am sorry that some stupid liberal fuckwads think that this is the place to discuss politics (and subsequently get destroyed). It seems that most people in this country will not be happy until we are all living in tents with no electricity and using camel shit to keep warm and cook food. Oh yeah, don't forget, we need to all wipe our asses with our left hands because the left hand is dirty. I say to you: GIVE *YOUR* MONEY AWAY! I WANT TO KEEP

*MY* MONEY!

Oh shit! Why are we even discussing cars? We should be discussing tents and sand and pure poverty. My bad, buddy!

Reply to
Nza

Welcome to our discussions. I look forward to more from you.

Reply to
badgolferman

LOL! There are plenty of times I feel like booking a flight to Japan to punch some engineer in the nose! And not just Toyotas, but on my Subys, too.

On my Mazda, the only real OOOPS I could find was the fill for the

5-speed. You have to pull the speedo driven gear from underneath, and then conjure up a 3 foot long funnel to fill the damn thing!

I try! Like I said, these things can be frustrating! Sometimes just getting a glimmer can help.

Unfortunately, I'm guilty of this myself. I try to keep on topic with the cars, but every once in a while I hear something that I think needs exposure. And we certainly have a forum for that here, don't we?!

I don't hold their Liberalism against them half as much as they do for me being a Quasi-Conservative. What I do find amusing is that the people that would give the farm away to illegals will jump on a Conservative with unbridled fury.

That reminds me of something I've been meaning to post here. A dairy farm that uses cow manure for energy. They leach off the methane and burn it, and produce enough energy to power their operation plus another 120 homes. What's left afterwards is potting soil and fertilizer. Looks like a win-win to me. You use the fuel and then sell what's left afterwards.

Then, last week, I hear the price of cow manure is at an all time high!!! (No kidding, they mentioned it on NBC Nightly News...)

But I digress. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Reply to
Hachiroku

No sweat. I don't see anyone else trying half as hard as you to give real information about the cars as well as life.

The real "saviour" of the earth will be the person who finds a way to run power plants with just the gases from shit from the "water purification" plants around the country. SHIT is the future. It's abundant and *RENEWABLE* LOL!!! ...it could be turned from a "nuisance" into something useful.

Reply to
Nza

I did find this:

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This is a 2005 Tacoma service manual. I keep forgetting about these guys!

Reply to
Hachiroku

Cheers for the link!

I did finally manage to get the oil pan off the engine. I unbolted both engine mounts and the exhaust and hoisted the engine enough (with the diff unbolted and flopping around as well). I could not, however, pull it out from the bottom. I had to come out the top with it after I removed the oil pickup. What a pain in the rear...

Reply to
Nza

I thiink that's a job I woud have *paid* to have done! ;)

Hope you kept a copy of the manual for further reference! These are usually Factory manuals and come in handy.

Reply to
hachiroku

Yes, the manual definitely helped untold amounts.

I finally got the thing back together... Let me fill you in on everything I have done to this 3.4:

Was told that the engine needed head gaskets when we bought it. When I put a socket on the crank bolt to undo it, I found that the bolt was less than finger tight. The belt pulley keyway was wallowed as well as the keyway on the crankshaft timing belt sprocket Had to purchase

*replacement* ones of those. Once I got the heads off and to the machine shop, found out that passenger's side head was cracked. Machine shop supposedly welded the crack then resurfaced the heads. Did a pressure test and heads held pressure. Installed new water pump, new oil pump, new timing belt and rollers...... got it all back together.... I neglected to hook up the temp gauge the first time we took it out because I just didn't see that it was disconnected.. Engine didn't run rough at any time, but after ten miles, the header tank of the radiator blew out (stress fracture from previous bonehead owner and a ditch). As soon as we saw steam, we shut down the engine and let it cool... we called a ride, went back to the house, then towed it home with the tow rig. Running it today with new radiator and the gauge hooked up, the temp gauge keeps going up to the red. Once it starts getting close to the red on the gauge, the engine starts to run a bit rough.. Pull over and rev the engine in park/neutral, the gauge will come back down to between 3/4 and 1/2.... The fan clutch doesn't seem to coincide with the gauge position at all -- it engages randomly. Maybe an air bubble in the system?? Should I jack the front end 20 feet in the air?? argh.... had this problem with a 735i once after replacing the head gasket... took forever but finally burped the cooling system after scaring myself too many times with the temp. gauge.. i am hoping I haven't blown the head gaskets again already.... any input would be great... damned V6s.... my mom's geo metro has more coolant passages in the head than the 5vz.... no wonder the 5vz overheats
Reply to
Nza

Update:

Just went for a 20 minute drive. Engine runs smoothly, has great trottle responsibility.

If I drive normally and let the engine go into 3rd and then OD and chill at 1500 or so RPM, the gauge immediately starts to climb. Shifting back into 2nd (and raising the RPM to 2000+) makes the temp immediately start to plummet once again. The more I drive, the less it seems to do this, but it still is worrysome. Hach, would appreciate your input on this one.. this is the first 3.4 I've done. Runs much better than I would have expected, 'cept for the stupid overheating problem... It doesn't stall or sound rough either. It sounded rough once today, but we shut it down immediately...

Reply to
Nza

One of the techs who used to post frequently here ran into a similar condition that turned out to be something stuck in one of the coolant passages in the block. Whatever was stuck came out when he disconnected the radiator and back-flushed plain water through the system.

Since you seem to have a fair amount of experience working on engines, I'll assume that you had the heater water valve fully open when you filled the coolant and used a new radiator cap on the new radiator.

Reply to
Ray O

The random engaging of the fan clutch seems odd, you may want to remove it, heat it up with a hair dryer or heat gun, and see if it locks up properly.

Also, is the fan shroud in place?

Reply to
Ray O

Hmmmm... sounds interesting. I guess I will try the back flush. I'm sure something could have made its way into the coolant passages

-- probably a huge georgia brown recluse spider.. LOL Who knows.

I have to admit, I did do the heater valve fully open when I filled it, but I have not bought a new radiator cap yet. I will purchase one of those today.

After I posted my last message yesterday, we went for another drive. Seems now the temp. gauge rides in the middle unless you move the heater lever to 'cold'... if you have it on 'half hot' to 'fully hot', no problems at all.

Reply to
Nza

Okay, I 'll try that hairdryer stuff.. Yes, the fan shroud is on.. I'm sure i'll get this sorted eventually... it's nice to have some people off which to bounce this stuff

Reply to
Nza

It sounds like the little extra bit of cooling from the heater is enough to prevent problems. Radiator caps are pretty cheap so start with that, and check the fan clutch.

Reply to
Ray O

Replaced both... still doing the same thing. Once it cools down again this afternoon, I'm going to backflush it..

The cooling system is not over-pressurizing, so hopefully the head isn't still cracked/cracked again... argh, this is annoying!

Reply to
Nza

Flushed it this afternoon after it cooled down sufficiently. I let plain ol' water run through there (put a flushing tee in place of the heater valve -- i'm not cutting a $40 molded heater hose that would take two weeks to get where I live..).. let it flush for at least 20 mins to half an hour..

I took the thermostat out before I did the flush.. closed the system again and left the thermostat out of there. Filled with plain water and ran the truck for at least 20 mins and drove it around the block a couple times... (would have been enough to make the gauge start to climb before without heater on). Couldn't get the gauge to come up even to halfway... so .. Obviously, my test of the old thermostat was bull$hit... I must have heated it too much and fail-safed it...

Needless to say, I feel rather idiotic! At least my brother is smart enough not to overheat the thing..

Thanks everyone for the help! I appreciate it!

Reply to
Nza

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