It would bug me to have it in there, and aside from what tim said about little pieces jamming into sliding mechanisms etc...what about soft parts like seals

hopefully you can fish it out and if not, like said, drop your TC and rotate it around till it drops out hopefully..... or hopefully doing so does not jam it in place

as far as taking it to a shop and asking their opinion..some shops might just see $$$$$$$$$
" oh man...you got to pull it out and completely take apart..and while we are at it , might as well get new bearings chains and seals "

If you're going to pull it and take it apart, it would be foolish not to put new bearings and seals in it to say the least.

Just out of my own curiosity, how did this happen anyways?

Just doing a standard drain and fill. Wanted to see if the bottle would fit up in the space. Like I said my mind was somewhere else. Stuck the bottle in with out removing the cap, so the cap popped off when I took it out.

Makes sense.

For future reference a fluid pump goes a long way with gear oil. These are cheap and work halfway decently (mine doesn't screw on most bottles though :/)

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b.../w1139/4613599

If you can't force it out with gear oil, I really think you should try the borescope and flexible grabber tool idea I mentioned in post #4. It's only a $50 investment and that borescope and grabber tool could come in handy in the future. Who knows, maybe you could get the borescope and the grabber tool in at the same time and you could literally see how you need to manipulate the grabber tool to get onto the cap. For me, I'd invest the $50 for the chance to get it out and not either have to pull the transfer case or roll the dice like you were thinking of doing and let the gears grind it up.

I do like the other ideas with using a shop vac or air compressor but I'd worry that you might end up sucking or pushing the cap into a tight area and then you wouldn't even be able to get to it with a grabber tool. Right now, the cap might sitting in a spot really easy to get to.

Anyway, that's my two and a half sense on this situation you got yourself into.

I agree, I would put new bearings etc in too...I was just being sarcastic that if he took it to a shop for an opinion....it might go further then needed

too too many shady shops out there that do work that does not need to be done

kind of like popping a cap off a beer bottle ?

yes those cheap pumps are worth having....

Could be worse. Years ago I had a 1990 Camry that lost its transmission. So I found a donor car that just had a rebuilt transmission before it was sideswiped.

I swapped the engine and transmission and put rebuilt cv joint axles in this fwd Camry.


It wasn't a week and my driver side axle came out. It would not stay in. Here the axle broke right were the clip was and that was in the transaxle...

They transaxle ground it up or it got wedged in something and I drove that ride until the car rotted up. Rockers completely rotted out. Many years after that axle broke off.

That is plastic lid. I guess if your super concerned you could pull the transfer off and split it to get it out.

Things happen at least it wasnt hard steel like a section of axle in there. ;)






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I'm no expert but ..... I don't see how this realistically is going to cause any damage. It should get ground up by the gears eventually and as far as shifter linkage goes you would notice if anything got jammed up and even then it wouldn't cause permanent. I'm just lazy though and wouldn't pull it apart for something like this. Drive it for 2 weeks then drain and fill again.
.

Alright I'll do my best. But remember, you literally asked for it (interlock fingers and hyper-extend to crack knuckles):

You probably try to use a fresh ketchup bottle without taking off the safety seal also. And then I bet you go back to the store saying it's a faulty cap.

What would you have done if the bottle tip with cap DIDNT fit during your ingenious dry-run test fit? Would you have returned the bottle thinking that cap was the wrong size. "Ummm excuse me autozone clerk, I asked for TOYOTA gear oil. This bottle didn't fit". Sort of like how a diesel nozzle won't fit in a gas filler neck. (Or is that vice versa maybe? I don't have a small d!ck, so I've never owned a diesel)

I bet you'd go write a f*ckin blog about how gear oil quart tip/cap manufacturers are singling out Toyota owners with their non-insertable shipping caps. Jesus. I'm actually glad it did fit or we'd have a whole different snowflake thread going on here.

At what point did you actually feel like giving up on life knowing that you totally botched a 2 bolt, 2 quart monkey-f*cking-a-coconut job? I'll give you credit that you at least showed enough brain activity to stop everything and consult an online forum of total strangers before even attempting to remedy it yourself.

Here's an option: why not jam it into 4lo, and climb the steepest hill you can find. 1) it allows you to make sure you didn't ruin your transfer case like you ruined any form of mechanical credibility you were hanging onto and 2) you can then use gravity to help remove the cap. (Don't forget to set your e brake and put it in park, and also don't forget to practice walking and chewing gum at the same time).

Alright that's all I have for now in terms of being a prick.

For helping: yes use a bore scope and the mechanic finger. You could use a tiny zip tie and attach the camera to the finger in such a way to be able to see exactly what you're grabbing.

If not, bend a coat hanger or tie wire and just wiggle it around in a manor to try and knock the cap all the way down towards the drain.

Final is to remove TC. If you have money to burn and it's a gamble you can afford, roll with it. All likelihood it will do zero damage. But I don't chance it. Especially if you take this rig to remote locations. My luck, it would be fine for 3 years and then exactly in the middle of a trail long after I forgot about it would chew up a seal and leave me stranded.









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I'll have to admit my first thought was to jam a wire coat hanger in and run it in 4 lo with out any oil. Feel like that would have solved my problem real quick.

thanks for the help.

Tried the vacuum with a piece of 3/8" nylon hose duct taped to it... no dice.

did a drain and fill 3 times. using a clean container in order to re use the fluid. after the third try i spun the front drive shaft back and forth and then .. i guess clock wise.. which pushed the cap to the drain hole. Fished it out with with the little mechanical grabber hands.

Thank you my friends for entertaining my shenanigans.

Way to go!!!

Yay!!! Don’t do that again.