manbearpig
New member
Laugh with me on this one folks...
Long story short... i swapped the transmission chasing a failing plug wire.
Backstory:
1998 4Runner Limited 3.4, auto, 2wd, 301K
We have owned the car since 208K and had only done the maint required to keep it on the road. New shocks, some bushings, oil changes, and a rear axle seal
Recently the car would shutter and stumble when climbing hills and coming to speed on the freeway, but was completely smooth at idle and under 2500rpm. It never threw a permanent code that my code reader would pick up. At most, the check engine light would flash while the issue was happening and would go away once you let off throttle. With this issue rearing its head, 301K, a hanging shift from 2nd to 3rd when cold, and no clue the maint history on the trans, it was decided that the trans was the culprit and swapping it out would be a good idea. Wrong.
So i did it. I got on the phone with a guy at the local mini truck dismantling outfit and had a used 120K mile A340E with torque converter delivered to my garage for $350. I spent the next couple days on my back under the car rolling around in spilled fluid and sawdust (yummy). Of course, i didnt line the torque converter up properly the first go round then ran the bell housing bolts in with an air impact. Hmm wonder why the motor wont turn... Thankfully Toyota mustve known i'd be up in there at some point and designed the front pump tabs so that flunkies like me cant break them off by doing this. The front pump was fine. I got the torque converter seated properly, trans installed flush with the motor, bolted up, fluid in, fired up, kickdown cable adjusted... on the first test drive it did the same shutter above 2500 rpm and when coming up to freeway speed. I was ready to drive it of a cliff.
Got back to the garage and racked my brain about what the problem could have been. Thinking to myself: what causes a drop in rpm and shuttering? I remembered that over the past year, two of the three aftermarket oreilly off brand plug wires had failed and I had replaced the individual wires with spare wires i had sitting around from the motor swap in my 2001 last summer. i popped the hood and saw that one remaining grey aftermarket plug wire sitting there next to the two black oem wires running along the timing belt cover. It only took about 5min to swap the plug wire to the #6 cylinder.
Boom. Problem solved. Pulls hard above 2500rom, no shutter, no stumble.
Moral of the story:
Dont swap trans unless you have to and do your diagnostics. It wasnt all that hard and I'm glad i know i can do it now, but the process sucks with a floor jack and the car on jackstands
Long story short... i swapped the transmission chasing a failing plug wire.
Backstory:
1998 4Runner Limited 3.4, auto, 2wd, 301K
We have owned the car since 208K and had only done the maint required to keep it on the road. New shocks, some bushings, oil changes, and a rear axle seal
Recently the car would shutter and stumble when climbing hills and coming to speed on the freeway, but was completely smooth at idle and under 2500rpm. It never threw a permanent code that my code reader would pick up. At most, the check engine light would flash while the issue was happening and would go away once you let off throttle. With this issue rearing its head, 301K, a hanging shift from 2nd to 3rd when cold, and no clue the maint history on the trans, it was decided that the trans was the culprit and swapping it out would be a good idea. Wrong.
So i did it. I got on the phone with a guy at the local mini truck dismantling outfit and had a used 120K mile A340E with torque converter delivered to my garage for $350. I spent the next couple days on my back under the car rolling around in spilled fluid and sawdust (yummy). Of course, i didnt line the torque converter up properly the first go round then ran the bell housing bolts in with an air impact. Hmm wonder why the motor wont turn... Thankfully Toyota mustve known i'd be up in there at some point and designed the front pump tabs so that flunkies like me cant break them off by doing this. The front pump was fine. I got the torque converter seated properly, trans installed flush with the motor, bolted up, fluid in, fired up, kickdown cable adjusted... on the first test drive it did the same shutter above 2500 rpm and when coming up to freeway speed. I was ready to drive it of a cliff.
Got back to the garage and racked my brain about what the problem could have been. Thinking to myself: what causes a drop in rpm and shuttering? I remembered that over the past year, two of the three aftermarket oreilly off brand plug wires had failed and I had replaced the individual wires with spare wires i had sitting around from the motor swap in my 2001 last summer. i popped the hood and saw that one remaining grey aftermarket plug wire sitting there next to the two black oem wires running along the timing belt cover. It only took about 5min to swap the plug wire to the #6 cylinder.
Boom. Problem solved. Pulls hard above 2500rom, no shutter, no stumble.
Moral of the story:
Dont swap trans unless you have to and do your diagnostics. It wasnt all that hard and I'm glad i know i can do it now, but the process sucks with a floor jack and the car on jackstands
