Turns out my 1994 4Runner has a bad rod bearing, among other things

Took a much-needed break from my day job to get started on this today. So far I've opened the fill port on the front diff to make sure I could, put it back loosely. Then I opened the drain and drained out all the gear oil. It was super nasty, dark gray.

Question: Is that bad?

Question: Any suggestions on what gear oil I should use when I fill it back up?

Then I marked the vacuum hoses and their metal counterparts with blue and red paint pen, and detached them.

Question: Autozone doesn't seem to have anything labeled 'vacuum hose' on their site. What should I be looking for if I ever need to replace those?

I started to try to unbolt the CV axles but -- surprise! -- they moved. So I'll have to wait for my wife to give me a hand (or foot more likely) on the brakes for that tonight. I went ahead and PB Blastered those bolts to let them soak in the interim.

Hopefully I'll make more progress on this later this evening.
 
I spent over $4500 on a reman engine and a shop to install it. There are always issues and problems but you're bound to get by cheaper than I did if you do all the labor yourself. Good luck with this! :wof:
 
Autozone will have vacuum hose.

Are your rear wheels still on the ground? Chock the rear securely, then put the truck in 4wd and 5th gear or Drive. That'll hold the CV shafts in the diff so you can unbolt them without them spinning. Do the hub nuts and clips in the hub first though. Got your 54mm socket?
 
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KidVermicious said:
Autozone will have vacuum hose.

Are your rear wheels still on the ground? Chock the rear securely, then put the truck in 4wd and 5th gear or Drive. That'll hold the CV shafts in the diff so you can unbolt them without them spinning. Do the hub nuts and clips in the hub first though. Got your 54mm socket?
Click to expand...

that will only work if one of the fronts is still on the ground too.
 
KidVermicious said:
Are your rear wheels still on the ground? Chock the rear securely, then put the truck in 4wd and 5th gear or Drive. That'll hold the CV shafts in the diff so you can unbolt them without them spinning.
Click to expand...

Oh.. duh. Yes, they are chocked and on the ground.

KidVermicious said:
Do the hub nuts and clips in the hub first though. Got your 54mm socket?
Click to expand...

No. :( Time for more shopping! I didn't see anything about the hub nuts and clips in your writeup. I can't just unbolt the half shafts?

EDIT: So all of this?. I need to replace one of the CV axles anyway and I already have the part, so NBD. Aside from the giant socket. I think the biggest I have is like 27mm at the moment.

EDIT: 54mm socket ordered. Hopefully will be here Friday. In the meantime I may try pounding out the bolts with a wooden dowel.
 
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nevada said:
that will only work if one of the fronts is still on the ground too.
Click to expand...

Hmph, you're right.

brocktice said:
No. :( Time for more shopping! I didn't see anything about the hub nuts and clips in your writeup. I can't just unbolt the half shafts?

EDIT: So all of this?. I need to replace one of the CV axles anyway and I already have the part, so NBD. Aside from the giant socket. I think the biggest I have is like 27mm at the moment.

EDIT: 54mm socket ordered. Hopefully will be here Friday. In the meantime I may try pounding out the bolts with a wooden dowel.
Click to expand...

You know what? I'm remembering wrong, you don't need to pull the hubs to get the CV out. I've never done a CV shaft without doing bearings, so I'm getting my repair jobs mixed up. Unbolt the hub dial (do you have manual hubs or ADD?) and remove the 12mm bolt and c-clip in the end of the shaft and it should be free of the hub.

You'll want that socket eventually anyway, so don't cancel the order, but you don't need it to pull the CV shaft. Sorry for steering you wrong.
 
Only had about 30 minutes after the kids went to bed, but I got the front wheels all taken apart. Now I see why I need a 54mm socket -- that thing is enormous! I will in fact need one. The (an?) idiot who owned it before me managed to bust off a wheel stud, and it appears that can't be replaced without the socket.

Got to admit I'm nervous now to get under the car sans wheels, but it's sitting quite solidly on 6-ton capacity jack stands, and before I took the wheels off I gave it a good running shove from every direction, and I'm 6'1" tall, 195 lbs, it didn't budge.

It was pretty hard getting the cone washers out. Someone put red RTV or something similar all between the thing that the cone washers hold on (covers the 54mm nut) and the thing behind it (in which the 54mm nut appears to be situated). It was so bad that one of those bolts came out cone washer and all. It didn't appear to be snapped off so hopefully all that will be fine.

Hopefully tomorrow on some work breaks I can get closer to dropping the diff and then the oil pan.
 
The cotter pins holding the castle nuts on the upper ball joints are bent around underneath the nut. Seems really hard to get off. Am I missing something?
 
Also looking at the FSM, I guess the reason there was RTV under the flange is because it's supposed to have a gasket, but the internet appears to have never heard of this gasket. Anyone know where to get one or am I going to be RTVing it again like the last guy?
 
Just unbend the cotter pins and flatten them with pliers. If they're really bent or rusted in, you might need to cut them and drift them out the other side. You don't wanna reuse them anyway if you don't have to.

What flange, what gasket? You lost me.

Definitely clean the RTV off those cone washers, and use antiseize when you put them back in. I tap the side of the hub next to the cone washer and they shoot right off.
 
KidVermicious said:
What flange, what gasket? You lost me.
Click to expand...

If you don't have ADD that might be why. The FSM says when putting the flange back on (which is only on models without freewheel or locking hubs, i.e. ADD models) to put on a gasket before the flange. I think that's why there was RTV in there. That gasket appears to be unobtainium. Or I'm seriously misunderstanding something.
 
KidVermicious said:
Just unbend the cotter pins and flatten them with pliers. If they're really bent or rusted in, you might need to cut them and drift them out the other side. You don't wanna reuse them anyway if you don't have to.
Click to expand...

Yeah mine are all FUBARED anyway, ordered some more (top&bottom) for in-store pickup. Getting to be a regular at Autozone.
 
Tried for a while last night to get the CV axle bolts off, no dice. Not enough room for leverage. I think I'm going to add a Ryobi impact wrench to my cordless tool set.
 
Ended up getting a Kobalt corded electrical impact wrench -- I needed to use an extension but it got those CV bolts right off! Now if I could just get enough torque on the darn ball joint castle nuts.
 
Soak 'em in PB Blast overnight, then use a long breaker bar. I've got a three foot chunk of pipe that I slip over the end of my breaker bar if I really need to break something loose (hello, pitman arm nut).
 
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