Look here for help first!
i found a leak at the rear end of the tranny, appeared to be the seal there. replacing it didn't require draining the tranny fluid (i could just jack the back end up real high) but i don't know if the fluid had ever been changed so i put the two jobs together. to begin with, i opened the front fill plug on the tranny to make sure i wasn't going to screw myself. no problems with potentially stripping it, just used a 24 mm socket and kept pressure down on the plug while i ratcheted away. opened the 3 drain plugs and this ugly stuff came out. it was actually just about as brown as it looks and it stunk like death.
put the plugs back in, leaving the rearmost undone 8 turns. blocked the front wheels and jacked up the back end. this way i could rotate the driveline and get to all of the nuts and bolts easily.
petros and tom said to disconnect the driveline at the rear diff (the 'pumpkin'), undo the center carrier, and slide the whole thing out. that was a long piece of driveline to pass over the exhaust while lying cramped on my back under the car so instead, i put a jack under the front end of propeller shaft...
...and undid the nuts and bolts between the propeller shaft and the intermediate shaft. using this method i was not able to thoroughly check the rear u-joint on the propeller shaft but the other u-joints were still in good shape so i didn't worry about it any further. sloppy us-joints can cause the offending seal to fail which is why you would want to look for this while doing this job.
for those who don't know, the intermediate is the front shaft while the propeller is the rear shaft. the intermediate has a u-joint at the front end and the propeller has u-joints at both ends. i used a cold chisel and hammer to separate the two, didn't take much. once separated, i lowered the intermediate shaft and slid the front end out of the tranny.
this is what you're left looking at once you have the intermediate shaft removed:
next i tapped the dust cover off with a hammer. now i could access the seal.
and then i pried out the old seal with a few screwdrivers as per xirdneh's directions. here it is with the seal out.
everything up to this was easy. tapping the goddamned new seal in was a PITA like none other. tapping in oil seals is clearly a learned skill which i don't have yet, as i spent probably 40 minutes tap-tap-tapping away, getting NOWHERE. the damn thing kept going in cockeyed and then popping out. eventually i called my pops and got his ass under the car because i was getting a little frustrated. he had no problem, the SOB. he brought a smaller hammer than i had and explained his technique thus: when you place the seal just into the housing, there will be two high points on which it will pivot. tap one of them so it seats just inside the housing, and then give a slightly harder tap on the direct opposite side. this will make the seal sit square so you can begin tapping all around it until it is at the required depth. for this job, the seal is to be flush with the housing it sits in. thanks dad.
this is my cat, masuku. note his thumbs. he loves it when i work out in the tent and brings me birds, rabbits, snakes, rats, voles...all of which he eats entirely. what a good boy.
with the seal back in, i reversed my steps and reinstalled the dust shield, intermediate shaft, bolted up the carrier, and bolted the two shafts back together. i lowered the back end and jacked up the front to fill up the tranny fluid. the nozzle i had that attached to the tranny fluid bottle was not long enough and made some work for me. it was this kind:
so i pulled the battery, disconnected the alternator and spark plug leads, unplugged all the various plugs going from the fuse box to wherever they went, and removed the starter. then i had enough room to get the jug in and poke the end of the nozzle in the filler hole.
the end of the nozzle had a plug on it. now, i had a 4 liter jug of gear oil and the required amount is 3.9 liters. i had thought, 'how stupid. i'll just have to guess when the jug is almost empty.' i didn't give toyota enough credit though because they must have known that your average jerk wrenching at home is going to spill a bunch of oil when they actually start filling the tranny. i had warmed the oil by the fireplace in my house for maybe 20 minutes before doing this so it was nice and loose and gave a good initial gush when i opened the plug on the nozzle. i got the nozzle in the filler hole pretty quick but not before i spilled, oh, about .1 liter of gear oil on the hard plastic sheet i was laying on under the car. ever had gear oil in your hair? i have.
i call it brain (tumour) food. i wasn't psyched about this but had other stuff to attend to so as soon as i had the nozzle in filler hole i jumped up and used a sharp utility knife to cut an air hole in the uppermost part of the jug for air. this was to prevent the jug from doing that gulping thing and likely dislodging itself, causing further oil spill disaster. worked well and i don't know about you guys saying it took hours to fill your tranny, i had all 3.9 liters in within 5 minutes. mopped up my head, put the rearmost drain plug and fill plug back in, reinstalled the starter, battery, plugs, and alternator wires, and i was done. showered with dish soap and now smell lemon fresh.
