Goofy RWD Q

[danzo]

Allright, I am going abso-friggin-lutely bananas (yes, vine-ripened Chicitas) without a damn first gear at my disposal. I do have one of two first gears available but only in 4wd mode which does me zero good on the ultra-dry tarmac streets where I live.

So I want to remove the fwd shafts and run it in 4wd (thus driving only the rear skins) all the time. My question is what do I have to do to accomplish this? Can I just leave the cv cups in the hubs/gearbox? Will they stay put? Must I do anything special to keep them in place? I must admit this would be only a temporary fix until I fix my gearbox properly.

Thanks for responding, any help is a positive move in retaining my sanity. BTW, last night's "Lost" premiere sucked, but perhaps that the Bud Light talking, which it does from from time to time.

[Petros]

If you have some junk half shafts you can pull both the inner and outer cv joints to get the axle end stubs. Put the inner splines into each side of the trans (they should just pop in-held in place with a spring clip) to plug the holes in the side of the trans. and put the outer stubs in the hubs and bolt them together. If you drive without the outer hubs in place I do not think there is anything holding the wheel hub on the carrier except the press fit bearing, the outer axle stubs bolted to the hub should hold it all together.

I do not think I would tear apart good axles, they are too costly to replace and too much work to rebuild. Get some junk ones from a Pull -a-part type wrecking yard.

I had the same problem when my trans was wearing out. From a stop I would shift it into 4wd to get moving in EL, and then on first shift slam it into FWD and jam the lever into 2nd fast enough to keep my speed up and keep moving a strait line until I got it into 2nd. a real PIA.

Good luck

[danzo]

Thanks for the reply, Petros, good to know it will work. My problem now is getting some junk half shafts, the ones on my car now are in good shape. I haven't seen a T4wd in a j-yard locally. Right now the car is immobile as I rebuild the carb.

I thought about driving without first fwd gear the way you described, but decided just to start out in second. It will take a long time to burn up my new clutch, I'm sure I will have the trans out before it happens.

[Petros]

check with a parts supplier, but I think the FWD tercel uses the same half shafts. If not, something else Toyota makes probably uses them. Find out and it will be easier to find wrecking yard parts since you will have more options.