blown tranny 86 4wd

splick · Post by **splick** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 9:33 am

Blew the tranny on the way back to Calgary on a 1986 tercel 4wd
6 speed. Went to the local pick a part in town and pulled the tranny from what i believe was a 85 or earlier 4wd. Removed my trans to discover that the items were not the same. Seems the pick a part trans has no extra low gear indicator switch or housing to fit it. # 3 shift fork and release heads are a different style and my tranny has several more shift fork shafts by the #3 shift fork.Input and output shafts are the same. Did the tercel 4wd come in a 5 speed or did some one modified this tranny from a 2wd ,if even possible.
had no time so i installed the pick a part trans. works fine but no extra low gear. this car pulled a 18 foot tuffy fibreglass fishing boat out of every boat ramp encountered. without the extra low is is now a common toy.
i suspect that the previous owner replaced the tranny from a fwd tercel.
i didn't take apart the used transmission apart to see if the parts were interchangable with the 6 speed. does anyone know if the gear ratios are the same,etc,etc.

Thereminator · Post by **Thereminator** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 1:21 pm

Man...whats with all the late~model blown trannys :blink: ? Im start'in to apreciate my "84" a little~bit more now!

arbskynxnex · Post by **arbskynxnex** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 1:54 pm

I liked my old '85, we had 300k miles on it with the original clutch and it still shifted smooth as new, then I wrecked it.

What was nerfed out on your trans? My '87 just blew up, and I lost the input shaft, idler gear, 4th(?) gear, the ring and pinion, and maybe the whole counter gear shaft. All the parts with handwriting next to them in the diagram were damaged. I think it is possible (practicle, maybe not) to convert a 2wd to 4wd, most of the parts are similar, though I'm not sure on teeth count. If you have a 4wd setup on this trans, there should be a EL gear indicator, or at least a hole for it. (unless maybe the trans was originally an automatic? But that doesn't seem feasible.) The 4wd trans (Z54F) has a transfer case, then and extension housing, which are unique to the 4wd. The 2wd has an extension housing, that is a different design, (2wd only).

*edit* This diagram is from the '85 factory manual, my car is an '87 and all the parts seem to be the same.*edit*

3A-C Power · Post by **3A-C Power** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 5:50 pm

My 84 transmission also has no extra low indicator switch. It is a new transmission bought at the Toyota dealer for the 84. I don't believe the 4WD ever came without an extra low, and all of my brochures and articles mention it, and most of them are for the 83 model. The 83-84 trannies are actually Z52F rather than Z54F. I thought it was only the gear ratios that were different but now it looks like I'm wrong. When I put the 84 transmission in (my 86 one is gone to crap, as is discussed in another thread) I will see if I can change the extension housing while leaving the gears alone. I don't want to lose the EL indicator.

splick · Post by **splick** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 5:59 pm

waxed the input shaft gear and the idler gear. everthing else looks good. clean up a few teeth on the mating gears all would be fine. didn't take the other tranny apart, and there is no housing for the the extra low switch. maybe the first 4wds were 5 speeds. i do remember that the wagon had almost 500,000 k on it and everything came apart fairly easy.
as it happens i used to check the picapart in calgary on a regular basis. there were always at least 3 4wds. blow the tranny and no 4wds on the lot. finally this one shows up.rip it apart ,take the trans to wpg. were my car was and then noticed the difference. but it works. thanks for the info.

Thereminator · Post by **Thereminator** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 1:27 am

Why is the EL indicator so important? You suposed to only use EL in 4wd and it seems to me you would know what gear you where in,right? Is is cosmedic or am I missing something? :unsure:

sacwac · Post by **sacwac** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:06 am

It's for ONE EXTRA blinky light!! That's Important!!!

arbskynxnex · Post by **arbskynxnex** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:21 am

Flashy Lights = more resale value :rolleyes:

Its just nice to have, since if you're really jammin down the dirt roads, it can be easy to mix the two up.

Juando · Post by **Juando** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 10:42 am

Don't deel too safe with an earlier model..heh. My tercel is an 84 sr5x, and my 5th gear shattered into a million chunks. granted, water had gotten in from real offroading (catching air and then slamming the underside flat on the ground) I guess the top of the tranny cracked and then water got in probly the couple times I drove through water that was above the bottom of my doors (btw, when the tercel muffler goes under water, it totally makes a "glub glub" sound like a boat) anywho, when I went to a junkyard to get a used tranny, they gave me what they said was a 6 speed 4wd tercel transmission off another 84. I didn't know as much about the inner workings of my car back then, so I couldn't say if he was being honest or not. took it to the mechanic where I had my car and he installed it...but never told me "this is a different transmission than what you had" (he is not my mechanic any more for other reasons as well..1 week to replace a master cylinder?) and I never used extra low unless I really needed it. so I didn't need e.l. for a few months after that was installed..and I was trying to pull a heavy load up a steep driveway, couldn't...very confusing. Someday...I will find me another 6 speed...and I will be happy.

3A-C Power · Post by **3A-C Power** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 4:57 pm

The extra low must be disappearing or breaking because the 4WD always had it, from every record I've seen. As for the indicator, I just like it. When you're in extra low, you're not likely to forget what gear you're in.

splick · Post by **splick** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:02 pm

what i have to find out is what type of tercel the tranny came from.see if the ratios are compatable.locate the same type of tranny,because it will be easier to find than a 6 speed. take the input and idler gear out of the trans i find,install them into my 6 speed. and life will be good. as for the tranny in there now it is running fine. i'll live with the 5 gears for a while.

3A-C Power · Post by **3A-C Power** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 7:44 pm

I just checked my 84 trans - there is extra low and there may be hope yet for those of you who don't think you have one. Try reefing on the shifter towards the left a bunch of times and wiggling it. I had to do that before I could get mine into extra low. Something must have been stuck, something to do with the shift heads. When I first tried it felt like the shifter just wouldn't move sideways any further than the first and second position, just like a 5 speed. They probably stick alot because extra low is so rarely used in regular driving. I'm sure you guys have it.

There is no chance you could have a front wheel drive transmission with transfer adapter added on. The main transmission case is the same but the output shaft and counter shaft are completely different.

The input shaft is the same for all years, all manual transmissions but to add to the confusion, there are two different idler gears (the big gear) - one for all 83-84's, and one for the 85-88 4WD, according to the parts catalog. There must be something wrong with that information - it leaves out the 85-88 FWD completely, so likely there are different gears and the difference is either between years or between FWD and 4WD models, not both. The countershaft is different between early and late models because of the different gear ratios.

splick · Post by **splick** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 10:01 am

lordy lordy,i don't believe it but this sucker has a extra low. tried what you said and the dammed thing works. quite the radical difference between trannys. toyota must of put the extra low on a separate shaft in the later years. i wonder what the reason for that was. definitely more parts in my orginal trans. life is good now and now i can pull the boat out of the lake before it freezes over. thanks for all the info. would of driven the sucker with 5 gears till i dropped. thanks again.

3A-C Power · Post by **3A-C Power** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 3:06 pm

Excessive force should be the first thing you try, not the last resort.