New member, strange question.

[suprarook]

Hey everyone, my name is Frank and I am an owner of a 1997 4runner and a 1992 Supra, I chat with the guys over on supramania.com's forum and look forward to getting and giving whatever information I can on this forum. It's always good to learn your vehicle if it is going to keep on ticking.
I have just one 'off' question. I am having a VERY difficult time location a transmission in my area (Northern Illinois). It is a 4x2 model auto tranny for the V6, kind of an odd combination, and this trans is difficult to find around here. I was curious, since I need my truck for work and it's not running currently, can I just purchase a 4 wheel drive model automatic trans and install it ??
I know this is stupid question but I need it running and the 4x4 tranny's seem like a dime a dozen 'round here. From what I have seen the only difference is the front drive shaft section, and won't it run in 2 wheel mode with it being installed onto automatic truck, sorry for the book here but any info will be GREATLY appreciated...

 

[RR90]

Hey everyone, my name is Frank and I am an owner of a 1997 4runner and a 1992 Supra, I chat with the guys over on supramania.com's forum and look forward to getting and giving whatever information I can on this forum. It's always good to learn your vehicle if it is going to keep on ticking.
I have just one 'off' question. I am having a VERY difficult time location a transmission in my area (Northern Illinois). It is a 4x2 model auto tranny for the V6, kind of an odd combination, and this trans is difficult to find around here. I was curious, since I need my truck for work and it's not running currently, can I just purchase a 4 wheel drive model automatic trans and install it ??
I know this is stupid question but I need it running and the 4x4 tranny's seem like a dime a dozen 'round here. From what I have seen the only difference is the front drive shaft section, and won't it run in 2 wheel mode with it being installed onto automatic truck, sorry for the book here but any info will be GREATLY appreciated...

Hey suprarook,
Welcome to the board... I'm kinda new myself, but have found these threads extremely helpful. There's a lot of good & very knowledable people on here who know LOT's about toyota's. Unfortunately I'm not one of them.... I know nothing about tranny's, but you mentioned you're looking for one in Northern IL but it's a rare find. You might try a place (off the beaten path) in Marengo, IL called Remke's Garage ( http://www.remkesgarage.com). I used to work with & have known the owners (Tony & Joe Remke) for many years. To the best of my understanding, Remke's is only one of handful of shops in the Chicago area and\or state that can fix or repair almost any type of tranny in-house becuase they have the most of the equipment to fabricate (if necessary) tranny parts. It might be worth a call to see if they can either fix what you have, or possibly find what you're looking for. This is not an ad for them, and I've haven't talked with either one in while. A majority of their work is commercial, but they also welcome and do auto service work for most make and models.

There's other forums within toyota-4runner.org such as the classifed section that you might also find the tranny you're looking for.

Hope this might be of some help (at least to start with anyway)
RR90

 

[suprarook]

Hey, thanks for that post. Yeah, I've heard of that shop, it's worth looking into for sure. Also, I did run through the classifieds and didn't see anything that matched my needs. I just asked if I could use a 4 wheel drive trans because long time ago the front drive shaft on my 4x4 Blazer 4door broke and I drove forever on just using rear wheel drive. This situation is different this is just temporary to get me back/forth to work until I can find a very suitable replacement for my existing trans or wait for a rebuild. There is a place in Wisconsin not too far from me in which they have in stock 4x4 transmissions that are fairly cheap.

 

[Bigpeekay41]

Hey funny you should ask this, i just installed a used tranny on my 1997 4runner 2WD in Feb. And i asked around for a few weeks to dozens of different places and found a good 2wd tranny for $400, 176k miles and a 6 month warranty.

As far as putting a 4wd tranny in your rig, I'm fairly sure it wouldn't work and it would be causing more harm then good with all the time of installing the new tranny. Do it right and get the tranny that fits the 2wd 4runner, it may take a while to find one but in the long run it will be worth it.

 

[suprarook]

Good advice too, how was the tranny replacement, any tips u can give me if I can find a 4x2 tranny soon?

 

[Bigpeekay41]

Well I am not an expert by any means, i had a family friend help out who said "i won't do if for you but i will tell you how". We just followed the steps in the Chilton book. It wasn't actually that bad, it took alot of time but just follow the steps, unless you know how to do it your self.

I believe in the Chilton it says to take out the starter and the shifter, we didn't have to do that. And be careful with wires, make sure everything is connected the way it was or your sure to have a check engine light come on afterwards.

If you get stuck, message me the problem and i'll see if i can help out

 

[suprarook]

Cool, thanks for that. I located a suitable trans from Florida and it should ship out Monday and I will have by Thurs? maybe. Regarding fluid and filter and all that, what is a great thing to do with the new trans before installing, is there any tips on inspection and part replacement while it is out ? Note: the seller said that it had 88,000 miles, good but hard to believe but we will go with that.
Also, during my trip to St. Louis in spring, maybe it was the worlds biggest wooden wagon that put too much strain on the trans...haha Pic is a little large I am new to posting pics here, will shrink next time I post pics.

 

[Bigpeekay41]

If your truck is not already running because of the bad tranny, i would start taking it out now so when the used one comes you can compare.

Dexron II or III i believe is the fluid and the filter can be picked up at pretty much any auto store. I would stick with the original speedometer cable because it fits your car, but no big deal to switch it if the new one is in better condition. Just check if and nuts or bolts are rusted or bent on the new one, if so you can just take parts off the old tranny.

Oh and this might save you big time, before you uninstall the old tranny, take pictures (yes take pics under the car) it might save you when you get stuck installing the new one

Whats the problem with the old tranny anyway?

 

[suprarook]

the problem started about 2 months ago, I turned right onto a "blind" turn and 55 mph traffic was coming up quick and I had to REALLY accelerate to avoid an accident and my accelerator pedal got stuck and traffic up ahead was coming up quick and I applied the brake to the floor and pulled up on the parking brake while shifting into nuetral and the trans/brake was unresponsive and car was still accelerating ? (I don't know why, but that's what happened) So I threw car up into park and pulled up hard on e-brake and had to spin around the corner onto another road to avoid hitting stopped traffic and the truck still did not slow down much. After a few seconds the trans kicked in and the rear tires locked up.
Ever since then there has been a shudder when stopping and proceeding at stops. I guess I ****ed something up inside and it's time finally has came, I figured that I would take my chances on a used trans out of running vehicle more than the 1500 bucks at minimum that it would cost for a rebuild and gear replacement.
Poor truck :violin:

 

[Bigpeekay41]

hmmmm, kind of the same thing with mine. When i would just start mine and put it in drive it would almost kick out of "lock" mode on my rear tires, it was weird. Then finally all things went bad and D- was now neutral, N- was still Neutral, R- didn't work, and 2nd and Low were neutral. anyways, yeah time for a new tranny.

88k miles seems like a good one.

Can i ask how much it set you back? and is there a warranty?

 

[suprarook]

260 for transmission, there is 3 month warranty on the trans itself not my labor or anything that might go wrong due to faulty installation. But I don't plan on botching it up, this will be transmission change # 3 from various cars and a few clutch changes so this should go smoothly.
I am assured this is running trans, I can't be 100% guaranteed on that but running is better than not, and it's not that much of a cost setback so I will jump at it and hope for da best. Are 97's prone to tranny issues?

 

[Bigpeekay41]

97's are not as good as the 96's, but 97 are still decent, pretty much all toyota stuff is good.

let me know of any questions, you probably have a lot more experience then i did when i started installing the new tranny