In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
Good call. I felt weird e-mailing a business that I've never done business with, so I started a thread on their forum.
https://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=105184.0
Unfortunately, their system didnt like my answers to their security questions...
Fun stuff 
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:Ah... brings back memories.
I sometimes miss the '86 4x4 pick-up I had from 1990-1999.
One thing - my truck went through clutch master cylinders. I think I replaced it three times. I ended up selling the truck before I really dug into the cause, but my hunch was the bushings in the pedal linkage were worn and causing side-loads onto the MC seals. Might be something to look into.
I can't believe how rust free that truck looks. As mentioned, those are unicorns here in the US rust belt. I see one maybe once a year. Maybe.
ooh, good call. and no better time like the present. I'll stick my nose under the dash tomorrow, and see what things look like.
So I've stopped by the shop that has my transmission three times now, and all three times they were locked up tight. The first two were during my lunch break, and maybe they cut out early when I tried to visit on Friday but by their opening hours they should have been there. My messages to them through messenger (our preferred means of conversation) are going unanswered now as well. I'm going to swing by today for a last ditch effort, but after that I'm afraid things might have to get escalated to law enforcement levels...
Boo.
Fun story, though.
While stateside, I did attempt to source a transmission and even had GRM member "Mezzanine" on standby for a mad thrash. Our idea was to exploit Delta airline's "excess baggage" policy (which limits a bag to 100lbs or something like that) by splitting a used (but good) transmission into pieces and stuffing it into sea-bags to keep the weight under their limits. The bell housing could be tossed... etc. Our goal was to save the cost and hassle of LTL shipping this beast all the way to central Europe.
I was visiting family a few hours north of Mezzanine but would be headed his way to visit the second half of my family before departing near their neck of the woods. For bonus points, I located a transmission that was decently priced and RIGHT on our route to the area. Messages were sent and all was good.
Except the guy never told me I was going to be visiting a road construction site, and my Hungarian phone doesn't work in the US unless connected to wifi. So we drive to the address he gave, we drive all around the area, we drive all through the construction site, we ask the people working at the site "where the heck is this house with this address??? it should be right where we're standing!"
Construction guy #1 "um, it might have been. We just knocked down a house here yesterday..."
Bollocks. Thinking it was a bad joke we left and headed south empty handed. Later I message him: "oh, sorry. Yeah. I forgot to tell you it was a construction site. I was the guy sitting by the road in a white Chevy".
ah well. Maybe next visit there will be some GRM shenanigans to be had.
Enough resting. Sunday I was up and back at it, bright and early. I figured I could get a few hours in before the kids woke up, so out I went.
First things first, I pulled the spare tire hoist out of its electrolysis bath.
I thought it looked pretty good, but still could use some work.
Check out the sacrificial steel though, woof!
D-licious.
I put it back in, with the jumpers connected to the other side of the hoist, but of course I was careless and hooked things up backwards, so nothing happened...
The negative goes to the part you want the rust OFF of.
Here's how it looked when I pulled it out today:
bleh. I'll wire whip it from there.
Going back a bit: Having the hoist soaking, i again decided to go full "Captain Distract-o" and go after the ignition system. I have an MSD Blaster coil and some wires that I purchased a few years ago (while troubleshooting ignition issues) and figured now was as good of a time as any to install them!
I went in and got everything taken apart, only to find
(dun dun dun!)
I need a ballast resisitor!
What? This was completely new to me!!! Not the "needing parts I didnt have" part, that's pretty normal. The part where I bothered to read the instructions! What the heck am I doing, and why? This thing gets a positive wire, a negative wire, and a distributor wire. Why did I even bother unfolding the paper???
Well, I figured if I was bothering to read the instructions then I might as well follow them. I put everything back together, and only ended up changing the distributor cap and rotor. Boo... (resistor on order, eta is late july)
Needing a win, a decided I'd go after that pilot bearing and then I'd install the clutch and that freshly re-surfaced flywheel. I remembered a trick I once saw where someone used a grease gun to pack in a bunch of grease behind the pilot bearing and then would whack in a socket extension through the center to pop the bearing out.
I sourced an extension that looked like it would work:
But could not find my grease gun ANYWHERE!
I know I've just seen this darn thing. I have it wrapped in a white plastic bag because it drips everywhere when I leave it out. I dug in, through, and under everything! The darn thing must have grown legs and walked away, because it's NOWHERE to be found. That really bothered me more than it should have...
But no biggie, I've got a tube of crappy grease so I figured I'd just try to feed it in by hand.
Except that didn't work. I got grease around the bearing, I got grease under the bearing, I got grease all over me, but I didn't get grease anywhere near where I wanted it
Strike two...
STILL not wanting to quit on a loss, I decided now would be a good time to remove the bake master cylinder (even though I cant install a new one because the front calipers are still removed) because :
and Ta-da!
After that, there was nothing left for me to do except things I was actually supposed to be doing so I had no choice but to go after those "practice bolts" in the passenger hub assembly.
I thought I had my drill sizes figured out, but I ended up drilling the first hole way too big for my small "easy outs"
(yeah, whoever named those "easy outs"never had to use them...)
I ended up getting both bolts out, though, so I was pretty happy about that.
Good times.
(end, day 4)
Day 5 and it's pouring down rain when I wake up...
so I resign myself to doing "inside" tasks (that I really dont like doing). First up, I spent some time wire whipping the passenger brake dust shield
It takes a long time and I really dont have any good wire whips for my drill, but things are at least improving:
Those'll get some paint before they go back on.
Still set up from my practice bolts, I make an effort during a pause in the precipitation to go after the swaybar bolts:
After that was set up and attempted, I felt like I was REALLY beginning to test its tinsile strength (and the bolt wasn't budging) so I backed off. I've got an easy-out that's one size larger than the one you see there, so I'll give that a try tomorrow (weather permitting). For today I just brushed on another layer of brake fluid and was set to call it a day.
Before I quit, though, I tested my spare tire hoist:
IT TURNS! (yay)
Awesome, now I just gotta get the old one out. Had I been thinking clearly (it's monday) I would have dabbed a bit more brake fluid on the installed tire hoist bolts, but who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky when I go back at those.
Good times
(end, day5)
OOH! Boxes are arriving!!!!
But man... Can we not put "Race Parts" all over the darn box??? It gets REALLY hard to explain to Mrs. Hungary that the stuff I'm buying really is just to get this thing back on the road when they say stuff like that
whelp, still no transmission yet (surprise, I know...) but between fruitless trips to the garage to get the thing back, I did make a trip to the hardware store to pick up some new wire wheels. My old one was getting a bit.... old?
While I was there I also found a torch!
I'm used to seeing those nozzles that just screw in to the tops of the cans of propane or MAP gas, apparently those don't exist here. Instead they have these bad boys, and it looked so cool I had to buy it
(They even did a little in-store demonstration for me, it was great). Those snapped and stuck bolts wont know what hit 'em!
But enough goofing around, back at those dust shields:
That's the drivers side in the vice, and the passenger side with the paint. Or the drivers side with the paint and the passenger side in the vice... I can never remember. All I know is that one day I'll be in the North Sahara or somewhere east of the Baltics... Knee deep in horse poo... truck stuck in the mud... I'll be working vigorously on the front suspension and brakes of this thing in an attempt to bodge together a fix that's half from the parts I've brought with us, and half of what we were able to scrounge together from what was laying on the ground. When successful I'll succeed in not only making myself a hero to all who are onboard the vehicle, but it'll also get us out of this potentially life threatening situation... And while I'm in there, knuckles bleedin and tools a flyin, I'll pause for a second... and I'll take a good look at those dust shields.... and I'll think to myself: "Man. I know that no one can see these things and that the job added days, possibly WEEKS, to what should have been a transmission rebuild. But boy am I glad I painted those dust shields..."
Good times.
While I was in there doing wire wheel stuff, I did have a bit of an "oops".
I was attempting to scrub the rust off this bad boy (it's installed with the dust shield) and the brush grabbed the seal. Broke it right off.
Unfortunately I couldn't find the part in the FSM (and I have no idea what the real name of it might be) but I'm guessing it's probably not an item of critical importance since even the Toyota parts breakdowns I can find don't have a part number call-out for it.
Fun stuff (and also the end of day 6)
Update on the release bearing!
So the one reply I got back from the Marlin Crawler boards was that the release bearing for my 4-Runner should have slid right off of the hub assembly. No pressing required for disassembly.
Sleuthing around the internet today and I stumble across a listing for a new release bearing hub on "22rperformance.com" that says the release bearing was updated in 1989 to a one piece unit.
Parts.toyota.com has slightly different info, they say this unit was in place from 11/1987 to 03/1989, and the part number is 3123035070.
Ebay.co.uk has one from blueprint for about 100gbp. ouch!
RockAuto, it seems, ships internationally (who knew?). They can get me a Timken unit before the end of the month for $68 (incl customs and shipping!). How long has this been an option??? I love it (plus I get the cool magnet that comes with)
Good times.
See that brake caliper in the vice there?
You know what that means.... Still no transmission.
I eventually was able to get the shop's new location (they moved, and didn't think to mention it to me) but if you've ever been gaslit in a bad relationship, that's what dealing with this place is like right about now. Law enforcement is involved as of yesterday (the value of the missing transmission has been set at $2000). We're hoping for a resolution soon. If not resolved by 01-August, we'll need to look into shipping a new transmission over here (the lead time at MarlinCrawler is 14 weeks!). I'd like this thing running before September, and NEED it running before October.
To keep busy, I'm painting the last brake dust cover and I have those little center pieces with the rubber seals sitting in an electrolysis bath (so I don't damage them further with a brush)
But I really wanted a win today, so I went back at those swaybar bolts:
I started with the rear driver's side bolt first. I drilled it to fit my next size up easy out, put a lot of heat on it, aaaaaaaaaaaand...... nothin.
I got the easy out in, and was cranking down on it with a bit of torque, but eventually it spun itself free and the bolt didnt move at all. This happened about three times with no better luck and no ammount of whacking with the ball-peen was helping.
I really wanted to end this day with something I could call progress, and I hate quitting on a loss, so I decided to try my luck on the forward driver's side bolt.
BOOM Shakalaka!!!!!
Look at the SIZE of that thing! No wonder it didnt want to come out, but I'm glad it finally did.
Unfortunately that was the end of the morning. Wire whipping things like brake calipers always takes so much longer than I expect, but hopefully it's worth it to have the shiny brakes.
Good times (and end of day 7)
I was a bit nervous I'd get a call last Friday from the police saying "dude, come to the garage and pick this thing up. They said your transmission was here the whole time..."
Since that didn't happen, I've got the feeling that the police are now getting the same delays and excuses I've been getting this past month. Hopefully something will get resolved from all this.
In the "good news" department, I decided to expand my transmission searching beyond the scope of just Hungary and the US and started googling in German. I figured SOMEONE else out here had to be crazy enough to purchase one of these things when they were new, so there must be some spares SOMEWHERE, and Germany/Austria could have some potential. I didn't find any transmissions, but I DID find this offroad forum: https://www.offroad-forum.de/
The darn place even had an English section!!!
I made an introductory post that mentioned my missing transmission and much to my surprise, I met someone on there that has been in the Overlanding/Vehicle prep business since the 80's. He's calling his 'Yota fanatic of a friend today (who's been in the 'Yota business longer than he has). Between the two of them, a replacement transmission should be made available. I told Mrs. Hungary and now we're planning a road trip out to Brackenheim to visit their store "Allrad-Keba" in early August. Fingers are still crossed, but I'm calling that a win (for now).
In wrenching news, it's been more of the usual "soak, scrub, paint, repeat":
I never found my grease gun, so I went out and bought a cheap-o and grabbed some "Lucas Red & Tacky" and went to town on every zirc fitting I could lay my hands on.
Slip joints... U-joints...
Ball joints... Tie rods...
Greasing, I figured, was so simple I couldn't possibly screw it up. Pump it till you get squeeze-out, wipe and move on to the next fitting.
Except, you know that would make things entirely too easy: The driver's side upper ball-joint went well enough. Pump it a few times and eventually it squished out between the gun and the zirc fitting. On to the passengers side, same way. But boy is this thing thirsty...
pump, pump, pump...
You know the camber's been way off on this side, I wonder if this is why...
Pump, pump, pump...
Man, the driver's side didn't take half this much. Is it leaking out somewhere?
Whoops-a-doodle! 
Boy, did that thing balloon up or what!
I decide that the best course of action at this point is to remove the zirc fitting, and let the pressure inside the rubber joint push the grease back out of the hole...
The question is now: Do I need to replace that balljoint? Have I overstressed it, or do idiots like me do this all the time and it's fine as long as it's not cracked and leaking...
Good times (and end of day 8)
The boss had some choice words about my wrenching abilities after my ball-joint shenanigans:
But then again, she's always barking at me about somethin' or 'nother...
New day, and now we have half of a brake caliper in the vice!
whip, whip whip. Spray. Rinse. Repeat.
Going back, I thought I'd see how the grease was doing in that overstuffed balljoint:
I decide to give that one more day to do whatever it's going to do, and figure now that I have this new trusty grease gun and this tube of Lucas Red & Tacky that I'd go shoot grease at that pilot bearing!
Again, the idea is that I'll pack the area behind the bearing with grease and hammer a friction fit socket extension through the center to force the bearing out. I saw it on youtube, so you know it's going to work.
Except it doesn't...
You see that black ring there between the races? Yeah, that popped out after about the third whack and now all I succeed in doing is packing the heck out of that pilot bearing with Lucas Red N Tacky.
I whack, and it just squirts right back out at me...
Nothing else for it. I'm going to have to buy a bearing puller (boo).
With lots of things on hold for their various stages of completion, I decided to go back at that spare tire hoist.
When we left off, I had just gotten the one I purchased to free up and was hoping I could spin off the chain and just spin that onto the unit installed in the truck. Except the one in the truck wasnt spinning, so I put it on hold because I didnt feel like fighting with the bolts holding it on...
Well, today I got out my trusty 12mm wrench aaaaaaaaaand!
Nothin'.
That space is so tight, I couldn't even get enough grunt on there (or a tool with enough grunt on it) to break the darn bolts on purpose! Those things must have been installed with the body removed because I don't see how I can really get at them now...
With removal and replacement no longer an option, I decided to try freeing this thing up so it'd spin again. I went in with a can of WD-40 and a soft(ish) hammer and thought a little liquid persuasion followed by some precision whacking would work the crud out.
It was fun, but I could tell by the shower of mud and rust I was receiving that this was going to be an uphill battle at best. Things were removed, some things were broken and ripped out, things were cranked on, and things were sprayed with lubricant, but no things ever moved...
Well, at this point I cant break the bolts off the top. I can't free up the unit as it's installed. So I fiugre the only course of action left to take is to drill out the bolts from underneath!
I got the first hole drilled (a little off center), and the kids woke up. Time to wrap it up and end day 9.
Good times.
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Hi Bill, you just made me register to post a link of a 4runner Gearbox that is close-ish to you. I just don't know if it fits (and works).
https://mobile.willhaben.at/kaufen-und-verkaufen/d/toyota-4runner-getriebe-480627831/?sid=1626155296273
Gzwg said:In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Hi Bill, you just made me register to post a link of a 4runner Gearbox that is close-ish to you. I just don't know if it fits (and works).
https://mobile.willhaben.at/kaufen-und-verkaufen/d/toyota-4runner-getriebe-480627831/?sid=1626155296273
Oh man, that is close! Graz is only 2.5 hours from me, thank you so much!
Ok, looking at the picture it looks like a G58. The clutch fork looks to be on the opposite side, but from what googling I can do since it has the transfer case with it (and if it's the same length as my W56), it might just work. I'm going to write my new German friend to see if this is something we can make happen.
Thanks again!
-Bill
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Glad that it might work. If you need a local translator, let me know.
Another day, and other dollar.
First things first, we finished up that half a brake calliper and got the second half painted as well (yay!).
On one hand I'm happy to be getting closer to being done on that part of the project, on the other hand I'm getting kind of worried about what I'm going to do to continue to stall until our next trans option gets here (It'll be a purchase, like the one GZWG posted above. I've given up all hope that I'll get my old one back before October).
moving on, I went back at those tire hoist bolts and promptly broke my bit (like it was instantaneous, barely got any pressure on it)
I drilled around the broken bit until I could get it out with needle nose pliers, then worked up a couple sizes at a time, going wider and wider, until I finally got to making progress
Glad to have that out finally. At lunch today, I'll hit up the hardware store and see if we cant source some replacement screws, using the scraps that came out for measurements.
Good times (and end day 10)
Gzwg said:In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Glad that it might work. If you need a local translator, let me know.
The members of this board never cease to surprise/amaze me (and you, sir, are no exception) we will definitely let you know if we could use your help 
. We're only an hour and a half's drive from Vienna so if there's a chance to meet up for an event/GRM related Shenanigans/beers, we're always up to make the drive.
Cheers!
-Bill
Oh man, I forgot.
Laying on my back and drilling upwards gave me the most awesome shower of hot metal bits...
(see all that shiney stuff on the ground?)
No matter how I positioned myself, I was treated to hot metal bits down my sleeves, on my cheeks, and down the neck of my shirt. In a fit of sanity I thought if I sprayed wd40 at the tip of the bit while drilling then the chunks would clog and cool before falling, but it was mildly beneficial at best.
I didnt realize how bad it was until Mrs. Hungary saw me take off my shirt (there's a mental image for ya!) and she immediatly asked "what the hell happened to your chest???"
Fun stuff 
PS
WD40, even though it evaporates pretty quick, actually made a pretty good cutting lubricant. I was surprised
So what do the cops say about getting your transmission back from that shop? Or monetary reimbursement?
How did I miss this!? Cant wait to see you out adventuring in another first gen!
Bill, we use hydraulic jacks a bunch at work to break stuff free. Put the wrench on and jack that crap until something gives. Beats the crap out of drilling.
I would have put that little wrench on the fastener and put the portapower to it until the fastener snapped. Sometimes it takes some creative blocking to get there though. Remember to duck and please use safety glasses.
We use hydraulics to torque stuff too, up to like 40k ft/lbs on some stuff. There is fear involved, fml.
docwyte said:So what do the cops say about getting your transmission back from that shop? Or monetary reimbursement?
Right now a detective has been assigned to the case and is comparing our string of messages to what he sees at the garage and what he gets from them as statements. From there he will decide as to how this is to proceede.
I've made a couple attempts when I was being interviewed to tell him that I dont want the money, I really just want my stuff back in whatever condition it is in and I will take it from there. But he always says the same thing. "I'll decide what the best course of action is based on what I see when I get there. Because you never know..."
So far, no conclusion to that saga yet. I did order a transmission from Midwest Transmission Center.** for a cool $1780, I'm shipping a remanufactured unit from the good 'ol US of A to my doorstep (I cry everytime I think of what the VAT is going to be on that one). In the end, it's worth it to me to have the peace of mind than it is to keep worrying as to whether or not I'll get my old stuff back (and what condition I'll receive it in).
Fun stuff.
** I linked the trans shop again as I really couldnt thank these guys enough. They shipped me the 5th gear synchro key when the shop was calling it bad for $2 a key (plus shipping). When the shop claimed the key I sent them was too small, the guys took time out of their day to explain to me what was going on with the person rebuilding it (hey, the reason that key is too small is because your mechanic cant tell the 1-2 synchro and 3-4 synchro from the 5th. PHere's the keys you need, proceede accordingly.). And now they're shipping me a trans (sans bellhousing and shift fork) for less than MarlinCrawler's listed price and with about 11 weeks less lead time. As of this writing, they carry my highest reccomendations.
java230 said:How did I miss this!? Cant wait to see you out adventuring in another first gen!
You can take the boy out of the PNW, but you'll never take the PNW out of the boy
Man, I'm hoping for some good adventures in this beast. We were just getting up on our plane with the old one when we were pulled back overseas. I'm hoping for a longer tenure with this beast (and hopefully the ability to take it with me should we ever move again).
Good times
You'll need to log in to post.
