4wd swap question

[budke]

No, before this gets to serious, I'm going to say that this is all hypothetical. My nephews father has a 97 4runner that he doesn't use because he got a newer one and I may possibly acquire it for a real good price in a couple months. Its a 97 with 200k miles, that's all I know so far. I've only looked at it when pulling out of the driveway and I didn't see any CV shafts so its gotta be 2wd. I'd like to maybe swap it to 4wd. Now, my main question is is the t-case mated to the transmission or can I just add the front diff and a t-case with shifter and drive shafts? On all of my previous jeeps, and well, all jeeps that I know of you can just bolt on a t-case and some linkages and some drive shafts with a 4wd front diff and have 4wd. All the write-ups I've read they swapped the trans out as well so I could never see if you can just bolt on a t-case.
I'm a jeep guy and rather mechanically inclined so I'm fairly certain I could swap it to 4wd rather easily. Maybe even put a solid axle in the front or keep it IFS for comfort since I already had a SFA vehicle for all my rock crawling needs. My main use for this would be a DD to save me some money from the 12mpgs I get in my jeep and for taking to strictly camping trips so I can fit more stuff in the back and maybe some wheeling. Most of my camping trips include some wheeling that I prefer to do in my jeep since its more capable, so taking the 4runner would just be mainly camping and maybe some tame trails through the woods and to get to some good fishing holes out in the woods.
Now, I know absolutely nothing about yota's, well, really any foreign car, so I'm looking to you guys for some info.

 

[TheFatGuy]

while its something that's doable, its not as easy as its in jeeps. take a look at COB's build so you can see what you need to do.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/61636-cobs-4runner-timeline-pic-heavy.html

 

[budke]

I've already looked through that thread, well, most of it, and didn't see anything of a t-case removal. He had just swapped in a trans and t-case so I'm not sure if you can just add on a t-case.

 

[the great him]

the 2wd trans will not accept a transfer case, you will need the transmission and transfer case from a 4wd rig if you want to do the swap

 

[Stockwell45]

If you already have a wheeling rig and will just be using this on dirt roads for camping, just put an elocker in the back. Way cheaper and less headache

 

[budke]

the 2wd trans will not accept a transfer case, you will need the transmission and transfer case from a 4wd rig if you want to do the swap

Damn, that's what I was afraid of.
I've read the write-ups on it and it looks fairly simple, just to much hassle.

 

[budke]

If you already have a wheeling rig and will just be using this on dirt roads for camping, just put an elocker in the back. Way cheaper and less headache

Yeah, I'll probably end up going the route of some sort of selectable locker or limited slip and throw a winch on the front. If I do end up getting this 4runner it will become my DD and save me some money over driving the wrangler getting a lovely 12mpgs. Then I can wheel the jeep harder since I won't have to worry about driving it to work. lol

 

[the great him]

Damn, that's what I was afraid of.
I've read the write-ups on it and it looks fairly simple, just to much hassle.

i dont mean to be a dick here, but if you saying pulling 12 bolts or how ever many hold the trans in is too much work, then doing an SAS is way out of your league... and you should probably find a new hobby. and i dont know of any vehicle (to include jeeps) that you can simply just bolt a tcase up to the back of the 2wd trans and be good... all transmissions that i have ever seen that have been for 2wd vehicles will not accept a transfer case. you need a transmission designed to have a transfer case bolted to the back to make it work, and like wise, you can not just unbolt the transfer case from a 4wd vehicle and then bolt the drive line back up to make it a 2wd.

while the internals of the transmissions might be the same or close, the cases are different between 2wd and 4wd vehicles and are not interchangeable.

 

[budke]

i dont mean to be a dick here, but if you saying pulling 12 bolts or how ever many hold the trans in is too much work, then doing an SAS is way out of your league... and you should probably find a new hobby. and i dont know of any vehicle (to include jeeps) that you can simply just bolt a tcase up to the back of the 2wd trans and be good... all transmissions that i have ever seen that have been for 2wd vehicles will not accept a transfer case. you need a transmission designed to have a transfer case bolted to the back to make it work, and like wise, you can not just unbolt the transfer case from a 4wd vehicle and then bolt the drive line back up to make it a 2wd.

while the internals of the transmissions might be the same or close, the cases are different between 2wd and 4wd vehicles and are not interchangeable.

But the 97s have the push button t-case, correct? That's what I've seen from what I've read, though I haven't done too terribly much reading. A 4wd swap on a jeep is a weekend job as everything is already there for the swap minus the front axle, trans, and t-case and cutting a hole for the shift lever. It already has all the wiring needed for the speedo and any sensors and such. I'm not saying it would be hard, just not sure if its worth my time to do it on this, especially wiring up a button for the 4wd and any other sensors which I hate doing. Electrical is not my thing. Plus the having to get new spindles and this and that and the other. An SAS swap wouldn't be too hard really. weld on some control arm mounts or leaf spring mounts which is simple work and I already have a solid front axle complete minus brake calipers and rotors. I would just end up using that if it came to it.
But, this is all hypothetical. I don't even own it yet. I'm getting too far ahead of myself. lol

 

[the great him]

no, only the limiteds have the multi-mode tcase(the push button you speak of), the base and sr5 has a standard tcase no bells, no whistles, manual "J" shifter. you can take a trans from any 4runner without a muti-mode. id also recomend getting the drive lines from the donor vehicle as well. i dont think you will need new spindles, i think the 2wd spindles are the same as the 4wds, they are just capped because they do not have the CVs.

notice the caps in the spindles? you might have to press new bearing into the spindles but i think they are the same spindle, maybe someone else can chime in and confirm or inform other wise.

 

[budke]

Well that makes things much simpler. Bolting up a linkage with a manual shifter and cutting a hole for it is easy stuff. I had read in another write-up that the 2wd spindles don't have splines in them for the CV shafts. If I did find a donor vehicle I would just take the spindles off of that instead of pressing in new bearings unless the bearings on the 4wd spindle are toast. In that case I would do what you mentioned.