Rear diff troubles

[russ_]

The short story is this: My 4rnr must have been in an accident before I bought it. Lots of evidence points that way including the POS aftermarket axle shaft that was in the drivers side rear. I discovered this when I did bearings and seals. The shaft was junk and really unusable. I scored a set of used shafts from a member here and installed the new/used shaft on the drivers side and thought everything was going to be fine. Well it's not. It feels like the locker is engaged all the time. It's like I'm running a spool. I crawled under it tonight after work and pulled the e-locker actuator out and tried to move the rack with a screwdriver and it wouldn't budge. Now I'm pretty certain the the replacement shaft came from a non-locker axle, but I didn't think there was any difference since I only found one part number for axle shafts when I was looking for new ones. Is that wrong? Have I done serious damage to the diff? Really need some help on this one.

 

[russ_]

Come on, somebody has to have some knowledge to share.

 

[Rockdawg84]

Russ
It sounds to me like the locking collar in the Elocker is stuck. Is this a new issue since you swapped the axles? If you can't get the collar to slide with a screw driver then you may have to pull the 3rd at get a better look. I don't believe that there are different axle shafts for Elocked and NonElocked rear ends. Let us know what you find.

 

[cj80cruiser]

Hey russ, sorry to hear you're still having trouble with your 4runner. AFAIK the rear axles should be the same, elocker or not.

 

[russ_]

Thanks for the input guys. I managed to get it worked out over the weekend. The locking collar was stuck and I couldn't budge it with a screwdriver. I jacked up the drivers side rear and pulled the axle shaft assembly out. Still wouldn't budge. Just as I was about to give up and start pulling everything apart to pull the diff out, I thought maybe I should lift the passengers side up to completely unload the diff and viola, the collar moved like butter. Somehow I must have gotten it wedged in the locked position when I was putting everything back together last time. The rear end in this thing has been big fun.

Here's the POS axle shaft before replacing it with the one I got from cj80cruiser:

 

[Rockdawg84]

that is one jacked up shaft. I'm glad you got it fixed.

by the way I need to see some pics of your 85. and how do you like your orbiteyes? do you have them front and rear or just in the rear eye?

 

[russ_]

that is one jacked up shaft. I'm glad you got it fixed.

by the way I need to see some pics of your 85. and how do you like your orbiteyes? do you have them front and rear or just in the rear eye?

After learning more about everything to do with the rear end on this thing, I'm almost positive that shaft is a Doorman replacement shaft. I'm also pretty sure that the heat-treating on that shaft was not done adequately, hence the "tearing" you can see from pressing the bearing and keeper on. When I tried to re-assemble it the first time, everything practically fell into place, no press needed. That's why it lasted like 2 days before it did this:

That's why the whole axle came out from under the 4rnr to get cleaned up and cleaned out. Then of course, I had to slap a coat of paint on it before putting it back under there.


As for the '85, the springs are the non-orbit eye springs. When I was building that truck, it was supposed to be a driver too. After hanging around several guys running the full orbit eye setup, there was way too much body roll for a street driven vehicle, at least for my liking. I've got some pics in another thread - http://www.toyota-4runner.org/sale-...r5-xtra-cab-6500-grand-junction-colorado.html