Prerunner to 4 wheel drive conversion

From Faq

Converting your 2wd prerunner to a 4wd is one of the best mods you can do as far as advancing your off road capability. Be forewarned, this mod is not for the faint of heart, it is fairly mechanicly difficult as you need a wide variety of tools/know how.

This writeup assumes that you will be swaping your automatic for another automatic, i have no knowledge of doing an auto to 5 spd swap.

Here is a basic rundown of what you will be doing:

1. swap you prerunner transmission for a 4x4 one w/t-case
2. put in new, shorter rear d-shaft
3. bolt up front diff
4. swap spindles
5. put in cvs
6. put in front d-shaft
7. wire up the add(or if you have man hubs you are done)

Here is a list of parts that you will need:

1. 4x4 tranny w/t-case and shifter
2. front diff w/ front mount & mounting brackets
3. spindles/hubs
4. cv axles
5. front d-shaft
6. 4X4 Rear D-shaft (it's about 11 inches shorter than the 2WD)
7. Transmission Mount on crossmember (2WD is different)
8. Floor shifter plate (you can try to cut yours but I found it easier to just get a 4WD one)
9. 4WD shifter boots (one is rubber that goes under the truck and the other is fabric for the interior)
10. Interior plastics
11. Speed sensor (some 4WD trannys dont come with one)

You DO NOT need a 4wd ECU

Now for the nitty gritty:

The hardest part is swapping the transmissions. I don't have a body lift so its a pain in the ass to get to the bolts on top. Have some swivels and at least a 3' extension and have a buddy put the socket on each bolt while you pull them out.

Here are some additional instructions on how the swap is done.

1. Put the truck up on jack stands and remove the front wheels:

2. With the wheels removed begin with removing the spindles:

2a. Start by removing the brake caliper from the spindle:

2c. Then remove 4 bolts holding the splindle to the lower ball joint:

2d. Remove the rotor:

2e. Remove the nut holding the uper ball joint on to the upper controller arm and remove the splindle. (Note: I got new UCAs so I removed my existing UCAs when this photo was taken):

2f. Install the 4x4 spindles in the reverse order.

3. Next, drain the transmission fluid:

4. Disconnect the rear driveshaft (Note: be sure that your rear wheels are chucked for safety):

5. Disconnect the shifter and all other sensors on the transmission (Note: the kick down cable can be disconnected from the throttle body):

6. Disconnect the ATF lines from the transmission using a flare wrench:

7. Remove the inspection plate from the front of the tansmission:

8. With a ratchet on the main pulley of the motor, turn the motor until you are able to access the first flex plate bolt:

9. With someone holding the ratched on the main pulley, remove the flex plate bolts one at a time:

10. Next remove the main transmission bolts. There are a total of 6 main bolts (17mm) and 2 bolts for the starter (14mm). The easiest way to access these bolts was with a universal joint (aka swivel joint) and about 24-30 inches of extensions. Removing middle bolt:

Removing upper bolt:

A shot of the clearance from the top removing one of the upper bolts (NOTE: if you are having problems with getting the upper bolts out, you can remove the shifter from the interior and use the ratchet from the top):

11. Using a block of wood and a jack, support the transmission from the oil pan:

12. Once the weight of the transmission is supported by the jack, remove the bolts holding the rear mount to the transmission:

13. Remove the rear crossmember:

14. Before removing the transmission, doublecheck to inusre that you've disconnected everything from the transmission.

15. With another set of hands, slide the transmission back to pull it off the motor. Lower the transmission down and set it on a board to make it easier to slide out from under the truck:

Other than that its prety straight forward but if you arent comfortable swapping the trans out then do not attempt it. Make sure you use flare wrenches on those atf lines(we had to cut mine off, they are expensive!)

total cost for me was around $13-1400 $400 for frontend $600 for trans $100 for front d-shaft free rear d-shaft $90 for 4wd solenoids $75 for new 4wd transmission mount $100 for misc stuff, atf, wires, switches etc...

i swaped the trans first, started on friday night, got the trans out around 11:30pm lol. then saturday we spent most of the morning getting the new trans and t-case in along with the rear d-shaft so the truck was driveable

then i finished it all up like 3 weeks later. put the front diff in, swapped spindles and put the cvs in and front d-shaft and wired up the solenoids

heres how i wired up my vacume style solenoids: ill explain the older, vacume style add system. i dont have any experience with the newer, electric version. basically there are 2 solenoids that are connected to a vacume canister, you give power to one when you shift into 4wd, power the other to shift out. when you give power to a soleoid it gives vacume to the diff. one side engages one side disengages. all you have to do is ground 1 wire on each solenoid, then run the other wire to a switch that just gives it 12v +. flip the switch when you engage the t-case into 4x4 and your 4wd. flip the switch the other way when you shift out and you are back to 2wd. this also gives you the ability to go into 2 lo, just shift the t-case to low but dont hit the switch.

one of these days im going to try and see if there is a way to have the t-case do the engaging of the add solenoids. i will still try to keep my switch though.

good luck