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Hi folks, hope everyone who owns a toyota motorhome here was able to get some use out of theirs this Summer. We put a few thousand miles on ours mostly in Wisconsin. Was happy with the performance generally; ran cool, all systems worked, and no mechanical problems. A personal triumph as it was riddled with mechanical problems (I know many here can relate) and I ironed them out over the course of years.  We live in the driftless area of WI and it is very hilly. We took a 300+ mile day trip to Iowa through the driftless area the whole day and I felt the work the 22re was putting in. Been reading here for years about changing the differential gear ratio and decided to go for it DIY in driveway.  I'm hoping the change will give the 4cyl a little ease when climbing. 

 

Got most of the work done including pulling the 3rd member, swapping the ring, setting pinion depth, bearing preload, and back lash. Ordered new axle seals as both sides were leaking. The kit I purchased included gasket maker instead of a paper gasketIMG_20220912_173559461_HDR.jpg.c2733e0e98c9a26cba595868992728e1.jpg as was pictured which is a let down. Will reassemble and offer opinion on whether it was worth it by this weekend. 

 

Anyone with questions about doing this work at your home feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. 

 

IMG_20220912_173438810.jpg.ef92f104faeff331e9a95060efc6dec0.jpg

 

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Hi Scott,

A good season it was and we got out as well, though I do camp during the off season when I can. Good luck with the axle seals, I have to replace mine at some point. I always think that it's good those seals leak to let you know oil is getting that far to the bearings. How do you have your rig supported underneath to do that work?

 

Good luck!

Gary   

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Hi Gary, yea, I have the camper up on jack stands in the rear. Have 3 hydraulic jacks in different spots as well for added security. The jack stands are positioned under the rear axle. 

 

The diff fluid hasn't saturated my brake shoes. It leaked out when I removed the axle. Perhaps that is normal. The axle seal on the drum brake covers looks worn and nasty so I am replacing them. The drums looked reasonable for their age, and the shoes are still good. 

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Some considerations if you're thinking of doing this in your driveway as I did (non mechanic with years of mechanical related experience). Some technical points so don't bother if you're not ever going to try this:

-The 3rd member is heavy; not just bowling ball heavy, like 3-4 bowling balls heavy.  Crawling under your camper that is on jacks and getting it out and then back up and in is interesting. 

-removing the bearings from the carrier and pinion requires a lot of force as does putting them back on. $25 bearing separator, persistence and patience got me there but was work. 

-my kit came with replacement bearings and races for the whole job, and crush sleeve. My first attempt involved using just the ring and pinion and reusing the prior bearings. Could not get it set despite a number of shim replacements on the pinion. I then replaced just the carrier bearings and could not get it set up perfectly. Was able to get a close pattern and thought I had it and returned it to the vehicle. Nope. Too much noise. Took it all back apart. Replaced all races and bearings with new kit and used the 1 shim from the original set up and I was so close. Was tempted to say GE (good enough) but remembered the pain of already having the one do over. Added a 2nd shim and boom, dead nuts (spot on, perfect). 

-Tapping out the races in the 3rd member is not difficult in our Toyota 8" diffs. Get a kit that includes bearings and races and just do it all. 

-Study the ring and pinion gear patterns online and thoroughly understand what they mean. Takes a little bit as a novice to understand but crucial. 

-you can only evaluate the pattern of your gears after you tighten down the carrier adjustment nuts; you'll understand this point better when you have the 3rd member out and are adjusting. Each time you make an adjustment change you have to loosen the 4 nuts holding the adjustment dials, use your spanner to make the adjustment, tighten the nuts, repaint your 2-3 ring gear teeth and make a pattern. Not tightening the nuts results in an inaccurate pattern which you will then be fighting to correct (guess who was fighting). I was not lucky and had to assemble and disassemble the diff a number of times. Short cuts call out to you because all aspects of the job require work. Plan on it taking time. You will be punished by shortcut temptations as I was. Getting the bearing on and off the pinion is work if you don't have a hydraulic press. Yet, you may have to take it on and off numerous times to get it right. 

-A spanner wrench of some type is a must to get those adjuster's tight. I made one using 1/2" angle iron and two screws. 

-The crush sleeve! Again tempted to buy a 600ft lb air impact ($50 clearance at Walmart) but controlled the temptation. My cheap breaker bar wouldn't do it. Purchased a 36" breaker, and used a pipe to make it longer. Used my 1/2" angle iron connected to the diff with drive shaft bolts as leverage and bent the angle iron. Used a piece of 1" angle as leverage and was able to get the sleeve to start crushing. Pinion nut threads gave out. I purchased 2 additional pinion nuts. 

-Don't lose those cone washers! Leave the nuts on the screw threads when wacking out those cone washers and they won't go flying. 

-Its all back together and past the break in pattern. So far I am happy with the change. 

 PXL_20220921_015314589.jpg.69723e494d76b4eb4e9dcd1f53fc9456.jpg

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Never use force, just get a bigger hammer.

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