4-speed manual transmission?

[Shaferry]

I have been driving my 1983 SR5 4WD for more than 20 years now, and came to a terrible place when approaching 299,000 miles. I decided to replace the clutch again (first time was back around 140,000 mi), and when removing the transmission the mechanic found that the input bearing had fallen to pieces. I tried and tried and tried to find the correct bearing to replace it, with no success.

I located a used transmission (only 100,000 miles and driven only to church), and since it had a good input bearing this seemed like the only way to get my beloved Tercel back on the road. Now that I have it back, and I am thankful for having it back, I cannot seem to locate either the EL gear in 4WD or 5th gear at all. I can't get the shift lever to the EL position, and when I shift further up from 4th, the spot for 5th just spins - nothing there.

What is going on here? I know I need to get better at wrenching this car myself, but thought a Toyota mechanic would be able to do this work so much better than I could. Did I get a non-4WD 4-speed transmission or something? How come the gears aren't there?

Or, even better, where can I get the correct input bearing/seal for my old transmission?

[Petros]

welcome to the list!

Sorry to hear about your problems. The input shaft bearing is available, somewhere on this forum is a thread with links to a trans parts supplier that stocks Tercel 4wd trans parts. IT is here: http://www.importdrivetrain.com/manualt ... OTA%20CARS

Most transmission shops should know how to order these parts. If your original trans is otherwise good that is an easy replacement. You should have joined the forum sooner!

As for your current problem, unless they removed the 4wd feature all together, I do not see how you could get a 4 speed trans to work in a 4wd Tercel. The 4 speeds are different transmissions that came in the 2wd Tercels, and some parts are interchangeable, but the case, housing, rear outputs shaft, etc are not interchangeable. Unless some how that trans was some spherical variant from Japan, I do not see how it could still be 4wd and be a 4 speed. Either the linkage is messed up, or those parts of the trans are damaged to the point of not working, but that would seem very unlikely. You do realize the EL only works when in 4wd, and the 2wd trans do not have this feature.

Did a shop to the trans swap for you? I would go question them, if they put the wrong transmission in it they would know, and I should think they would be obligated to let you know before you were committed to pay for it. I would say the shop messed up rather badly, have you taken it back to them? BTW, this might be beyond the skill of a typical repair shop unless they are very familiar with the Tercel4wd. Even one year to the next TErcel4wd trans assembly are not fully interchangeable, they have different gear ratios and different electrical connectors for reverse, the 4wd indicator and the EL indicator. Taking it to an otherwise competent repair shop that is not familiar with the Tercel4wd is very risky, they could make a mess of an easily solved situation. Many mechanics just do not have the time to investigate the special problems they might encounter on such an old car, especially one with unique features like the Tercel4wd. Not that there is a problem fixing it, you have to know what will work and what will create big problems. Swapping in the wrong year transmission (with the wrong gear ratios) can cause either the rear differencial or the replament trans to fail rather quickly. I have seen it.

BTW, I have not tried it, but the input shaft and bearing from the 2wd trans appears to be the same as the 4wd trans. If indeed you have the wrong trans it might be possible to install the input shaft from the replacement trans back into your old trans. I understand the reasoning you would want to use the whole trans, if the used trans has one third the amount of miles on it, to put it in your car would make it last a lot longer. Unfortunately if the trans was abused, run low on lube or just defective, it might be in worse shape than your old trans. I have driven trans with well over 300k miles on them that were perfect, and seen ones that were trashed at half that amount of miles.

Where are you located? Replacement 4wd trans are available but getting hard to find, all of them in the wrecking yards have high miles on them. That does not mean they are not good, just more risky to buy. You do not know for sure what kind of internal problems they have until you actually drive it.

I hope this does not sound too depressing, it can be fixed but it will not be inexpensive. I would say the repair shop owes you big time, and are obligated to correct the problem they created. They will likely deny they created it (tell you the used trans must be junk), but it is very likely their ignorance caused the problem. If you have a good relationship with the shop I would go back and ask them why you do not have all six gears available.

Good luck, let us know what happens.

[tercel4wdrules]

Welcome to the forums! Perhaps they did put a 4WD transmission in it, but unfortunately, it sounds like 5th gear is gone. There have been reports here of these transmissions sometimes losing 5th gear. I don't think they put a 4 speed transmission in, it would be more work to get it to work as the trans seems to be shorter and the shift linkage is different, plus the rear driveshaft would have to be omitted. My logical guess is that perhaps the one you had put in has some damage. It's sometimes hard to find these cars with a good transmission, I have several lined up to swap transmissions on. Usually the ones I find have bad syncros or they pop out of gear, and others have a lot of bearing whine. Did they offer a warranty for this used transmission? Maybe you might want to locate the input shaft bearing and fix your old trans.

[xirdneh]

i wonder which input shaft bearing they are refering to?
the one attached to the input shaft
or the one in the tranny

[Shaferry]

I had a Toyota dealership in Seattle do the work, and it was performed by a veteran Toyota tech. I am the second owner of this car, and recognize that the EL gear is only available when in 4WD. The new transmission does whine more than my original one, but I really like having all six gears when driving in the mountains or to them.

Other than the input bearing in the transmission needing replacement, there is another problem with the transmission. Where the linkage connects into the box at the rear of the transmission, the box was rusty on the inside and the bushings had disintegrated. The tech was unsure that he would be able to remove the worn parts from the linkage rod and replace them. Do you have any suggestions of how to free up this fitting on the shifting rod?

I will try to source the needed parts through the site link above and see if I can't get my old transmission to work.

[ARCHINSTL]

As far as the shifter-into-box fix goes - there are a number of how-to threads on this. I also posted a thread with the OE numbers for the needed items and sourcing in the Part Numbers - OE and Aftermarket Forum. https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=6437
The bits are quite easily removed from the shifter itself.

Welcome to the Club!
Tom M.

[Shaferry]

Okay, I have been looking all over creation for the needed parts, and cannot find them. The part numbers required are INPUT BEARING 90365-34003 GASKET KIT 04331-16020. I have found reference to part number 33311A also, but I find that multiple Toyota part numbers are listed for this 33311A part, so I don't know if that is correct.

What I do know is that I have bought three different (two Timken) parts numbered 101SS which have all been different and wrong.

I need a little help here. They don't have the parts at Toyota Overstock or the shop in Vegas.

[ARCHINSTL]

OK - presuming your numbers are correct, I went to Butler's site and punched in the first number.
This is what popped up:
Part Number 9036534003
Part Name BEARING,RCY,34,58,K
MSRP $64.15
Core $0.00
Online Price $48.11 ADD TO CART
The second number gave:
Part Number 0433116020
Part Name GASKET KIT
MSRP $37.46
Core $0.00
Online Price $28.10 ADD TO CART

Butler's site is http://www.toyotaoemparts.com
Tom M.