As seen in Toyota Trails!
Various articles written here have been published in TLCA's Toyota Trails magazine and on their website. After roaming around our site, click on the magazines to visit TLCA.
Transmission
Frames and Crossmembers
By Tony K
Essentially there were two frames used under our wagons, early (up to 84) and late (85 on). They were pretty much identical with the exception of how engines, trannies and other components were mounted. But late (88-90) model frames did get an additional crossmember layer at the rear which adds some strength. But do remember that no matter what engine and tranny combo was installed, any year body of the 60 Series will bolt to any year frame, all the body mounts are in the same location. My 82 BJ actually sits on an 89 FJ62 frame.
Saving a Clutch Fork
By Tony K
Sad to say the clutch fork design on a BJ 60 is not the best. Not only is the fork prone to some very specific wear, short of pulling the tranny there is no easy way to remove the fork to fix it. But don’t despair as there is an easy way to work around this and it doesn’t require any sort of major tear down. At worst all you will have to do is remove the slave cylinder. And you only have to remove the bolts that hold it on, you can leave the lines attached so you don’t have to bleed it when you reinstall it.
Tranny Bypass Hose
By Tony K
As many people have found out, once the seal between the transmission and transfer case fails all the oil eventually pushes it’s way into the tranny, starving the t-case of oil. And this leads to excessive wear at the minimum and catastrophic failure at the worst. Fortunately there is an easy fix if you are not in a position to replace the main seal.
Synthetic Gear Oil
By Tony K
Sorry this is not an endorsement for synthetic as I didn’t have any luck when I put it in my gearbox. And by no means do I blame the particular brand of oil I used. All the fault lies with the worn out parts inside my gearbox.
Pulling a Tranny
By Tony and Eric
Pulling a tranny in the woods? Just how to make this happen started out as a conversation where we went back and forth for about an hour trying to find an easy way to do this with only the gear in the rig should you ever have to do this.