92 TOY

just frustrating, but I prioritize and re-prioritze alot and unfortunately my truck gets shuffled to the back alot. we'll be OK. my legs are kinda banging right now....walk alot at work and so many hours are starting to beat me. 2 more days and I get a day off.

8T8 4RUNNER

got to drive my truck today
it is the 5 speed, so, that was a little weird, but, i think it will get easier as time passes.

hopefully getting my learner's permit in january

92 TOY

gotta say, Joe did not do too badly. didn't even stall it. made him stop short of the top of the driveway (pointed uphill) and he said "oh, this is the starting on a hill thing you talked about".....it lurched a bit but he didn't stall it. we made a left out of the driveway and went down the road about 1/2 mile. made him turn it around and drive on back. then when we got t the house I made him pull in the garage. I told him he was gonna thread the needle because he was avoiding the wife's 4runner and parking next to mine in the garage, without driving into the house. he did well. but he does have some understanding of how not easy it is to drive a stick. many more lessons to come. and to make matters more interesting, these are skinny country roads, and in total, we had 3 oncoming vehicles to avoid.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

RIGHT ON, JOE! Serioiusly.... I've been anxious to see this day coming, hahaha... Sure, you're not my kid..... but I'VE BEEN THERE.... AND SO HAVE MY KIDS, hahah... So yeah, it's exciting cuz I KNOW how stoked I was to get started!

HAVE FUN, ...........SAFELY, Buddy! Congratz!

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

CONGRATS Joe!!!.. Bet you were on cloud 9? Nothing like driving a truck that YOU made to run. Really happy for you. Being a little nervous is a good thing. It is the over confidence that will get you into a pickle. Sounds like you did great for the first time. You driving a 5 speed is something else also. You would be amazed at how many grown ups that cant drive a manual tranny. I am sure January seems along ways off from now but it will get here. Congratulations again.

Jerry.. I have a step-son and teaching him to drive and has got to be at the top of the list for one of the most nerve wracking experiences in life there is. But Joe is lucky for someone to have had the patience to go thrugh a build and then to teach him how to drive it. How many other kids get that chance? You deserve a big Congrats too!!

Great job again for the both of you.

92 TOY

thanks guys.

92 TOY

what a fantastic day to fart around with the garden hose.

the long-awaited installation of the thermostat is complete. going to run some water in the system today to make sure no leaks. will let everything setup until about noon and then fill it with water. as long as there are no leaks, will drain it and put in a 50/50 mix of Toyota RED (should be called GOLD for the damn price!) and distilled water.

hoping this is going to take care of some idling issues. I'm thinking that the non-operating-temp since we've been running without a thermostat is telling it to run a higher idle. so here's to hoping that disappears.

i felt OK leaving the water in the system this long, was able to flush without really any residue. but the freezing temps are in the near future. was in the 40's to 50's in the garage overnight, so i was not nervous. just don't want to be puking out any freeze plugs. so proper coolant will be going in later.

next up on the short list is to replace a deformed exhaust clamp and see if i can take care of the terrible design issue with the down pipe from the passenger's side header never getting completely snug despite tightening the clamp so much, i've deformed it.

92 TOY

coollant in..air purged....runs fine....have some heat.....temperature gauge works....it's snowing.......boo for snow.

idles correctly now.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

"The long-awaited installation of the thermostat is complete"

"Loud cheering, Toyota Jump Commercial Mimicking, Thumbs up".... Or, .... how bout "COOL, NICE WORK!" lol.

But seriously; This thing is yet another example of your perseverance, commitment to 'figure it out, hell or high water', etc. NO, not the thermostat.. just the truck in general! lol. And, on top of that........ this one has JOE! lol. (Oh yeah,... and it has Brandon, too, lol.... WELL, he IS over here and helping the most, right? lol... That's another guy who's threads I love! lol)

Seriously, Jerry.... Met up with JasonTN yesterday up the street from me.... one of the many Yotatech things that came up was, "Hey, Jason, you know Jerry?".... Lil pause, then I added, "You know, 92Toy",... instantly>>> "YEAHHHHHH", hahahaha...... We were just speaking of how your Build thread is one of the quintessential pillars for what Yotatech is all about! lol. Heck ,.... I must have referred 20 people to your build thread of the 92 over the couple years I've been here, hahaha.(sorry bout that, hehe).

Anyway, .... NOT trying to patronize you... HONEST! .... I love both yours and your sons threads! Can't wait till he's like 20 and in college, 4th year, working on his second project on his own or something! lol. Ok, I'm ahead of myself.... He may be into "evo"s by then! lol.

COOL THREAD, JOE! Keep it up!

92 TOY

wow. that was a cool one mark , thanks. i fully accept all kind words. sometimes the bad stuff gets front and center in life and it's comments like your's that evens things out.

made it easy on ourselves and took out the radiator and fan to get them out of the way to install the thermostat. from 1st bolt out to last bolt in , took maybe 45 minutes....joe said, ''dad, if we didn't know what we were doing, this would take forever"....honestly , it's motors like this that people take it to the garage to get this work done....because it's so entrapped.

92 TOY

PS...joe did ALL the wrenching.

92 TOY

OK.....have about 6 or so inches of snow here. yay ....anyway....lockked the hubs in for the 1st time since he got this and took it for a ride.

4wd engages without issue.....truly engages, good control on snowy roads stomping on the gas to be sure it was really in play.

noticing a rumble / vibration at about 25mph to 30mph (did not do any higher than this because of the vibration).

vibration goes away when put back in 2wd.

vibration also goes away when clutch is depressed.

possible suspects??? front u-joint?, CV's?? transfer case???

just got back in the house.....not really bent out of shape on this one, just don't want to make matters worse by using the 4wd.

xxxtreme22r

My guess is either u-joint or a pinion flange is "loose" on either the diff or the t-case.

Make sure you got fluid in that front diff too.

92 TOY

good point.

engages without any noise. when my u-joint was going on my truck, it would "clank" into gear. thinking it could still be u-joint because of the centrifugal force becoming excessive at and above 25mph.

CV's were always dry and boots intact.

no leaks on the front diff, but I never checked the fluid....so I can't swear to anything.

jason in tn

I would say ujoints first, they are the easiest to check and you could eye ball the flanges, cv's would be next on my list. I wouldn't think the tcase would give a vibration, of course this is just my opinion.

92 TOY

yes. u-joint will be the 1st culprit to be ruled-in or ruled-out. current problem is that we had this STUPID SNOW the garage floor is all wet. our piece of cardboard is soaked from yesterday's episode with flushing the cooling system.

top priority is the exhaust......here's a picture to put in you heads.....picture an "L"-shaped pipe, with one end to the bottom of the passenger's side header, the other end to a short pipe that comes off the "Y"-pipe that is sandwiched just inside the crossmember of the transmission / transfer case. when the pipe won't hold strong to the header it slides down at least 3/4'' and not only causes a leak and ticking sound, but also changes the geometry of everything else, causing a vibration on the crossmember. so not only does it sound like hell with the "tick" of the leak, but it sounds and feels like hell with the vibration on the crossmember which occurs at idle and in between gears.

have church this morning and some grocery shopping, then will mess with all this. wifeypoo is working

ToyoTech559

my runner also vibrates at higher speeds in 4wd but since i never need it at high speeds i never looked into it. let us know when you figure it out

92 TOY

thanks....yeh...that's something I said to Joe this morning.....you shouldn't be in 4wd and doing 45mph anyway.

to sum this all up...new set of symptoms, since the hubs were still locked this morning after church driving to the grocery store.

(NEW) vibration with hubs locked and 4wd NOT ENGAGED at about 35 to 45mph......disappears when we pulled over and unlocked the hubs.

(YESTERDAY) vibration from about 20 to 30mph (did not really push it any higher because I knew it was not normal) with the hubs locked and 4wd engaged....at that speed the vibration seemingly disappeared when clutch depressed or taken out of 4wd.

FRONT DIFF??...have to check the fluid
FRONT U-JOINT???....feel like that's doubtful now after today's findings.
HUBS?? or CV's???....someone better than me has to chime in on that.

anyone got any suggestions where to trouble-shoot. I love a challenge, but I'd rather not be chasing my tail here.

xxxtreme22r

Pinion Flange and/or bearings in front diff or the t-case front output flange. CV's I don't think would cause a vibration. I have one as well in 2wd without hubs locked if I give it just the right amount of throttle under load. More or less throttle will make it go away, on mine it's the t-case output output flange and/or bearing. I tightened mine up back to spec but it's still got some play in it, not too worried about mine till it starts spewing fluid past the seals.

92 TOY

OK....have the FSM and owner's manual and Hayne's right here.