My first time TB change experience

[mail2_jb]

First off all, a very BIG THANK YOU to TB change DIY posters, Fenixus, Ken, JohnGD and many others to help me do this job.
I followed the 2 DIY here and they are right on the money. Removing the Crank pulley took just 3 sec using the starter blip method.
Removing cam oil seal took less than 2 min. I used a screw driver to pry it off.
Water pump, tensioner and idler all replaced without a hitch.

I couldn't remove the crank gear, so I skipped the crank seal step.
Had to run to home depot twice to get M6X100X5 screws. Apparently you need to get the Automotive M6 screws. I picked up a set of M6 and it didn't go in. Went to home depot and bought M5,M6,M7 sizes (all Automotive category) and M6 worked fine.

Aligning the crank mark was pain (just time consuming, nothing difficult). When you tension the tensioner, if you have not much slack on the firewall side, crank will rotate. To make it easy, before taking out the lower tb cover, mark the crank and the engine block with white marker. This way you can remove the tb cover and align the marks until you get it right.

Another pain point was putting the cam seal back in. It wouldn't go in with my hands, so I couldn't do the reverse old seal and cam tighten method. Finally used a pry bar to push it in enough and then used the old seal and cam tighten to put the seal in.

To tighten the crank, I used the harmonic balancer puller to hold the crank pulley with a pry bar and then tighten it. This is one step I didn't see in the DIY here. The crank rotates very easily, so either you need to fab a new tool, buy a tool or open starter and jam it.

Other than this, the job went very well. I never thought I will be able to do all these steps alone. With helps from many fine folks here, it was very easy and rewarding and saved $989 (local toyota dealer quoted this much for all these steps). $189 for ebay kit + $2 for MX screws and almost 10 hours all it took to complete the job (harmonic puller rented from autozone)

This is my first time taking off alternator, waterpump, tensioner, idler, tb ,tb covers. So you can imagine the anxiety level when doing this job.

Once again thank you TN.

John

[JohnGD]

Well done! It's a great feeling when you're able to complete these jobs right.

Some crank sprocket have 2 holes for I believe M6x1.0 bolts of the proper length depending on the puller tool thickness. But the same "harmonic balancer puller" free loaner from Autozone or the following should work. For example, this from a Gen 3:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...leyremoved.jpg

From this thread:
DIY: GEN3 Timing Belt + Waterpump + Oil Seal Change - Part 1

http://www.harborfreight.com/46-piec...set-37824.html

[fenixus]

great news, well done

yeah, the first time I was doing it I was nervous very much too was afraid to screw something up hehe. it's not hard after all, just time consuming

[ajkalian]

[QUOTE=JohnGD;3578033]
Some crank sprocket have 2 holes for I believe M6x1.0 bolts of the proper length depending on the puller tool thickness. /QUOTE]

John:
I think I know why he gave up with the crank gear. Mine didn't look anything like the pic you posted. Rather, it had holes drilled around the entire circumfrence of the gear. I'd say maybe 16 holes, maybe 20. And if you looked real hard you could see that only two of them were threaded, none of the others were. So it would be easy to see how a puller couldn't be used to remove the gear. Ask me how I know that.

Fortunately, I saw the threads, at 3:00 and 9:00 positions, and installed the puller and off the gear came, no problem. I really didn't want to have to stick a pry bar behind the gear, and pry against the aluminum housing. I could just hear the dreaded "scrunch" as the pry bar cracks the aluminum housing. and then you got big troubles.

But since he is an expert now, doing it again will be a walk in the park, and armed with this new knowledge, he will be able to pull off the gear, change the crank seal, and pick up a few bragging points.

on getting it done mail2_jb.

.

[JohnGD]

Yeah, Toyota has different crank sprockets over the years. The SOL ones are those without bolt holes! I read some had to drill and tap their own! Ideally these come off by hand. But in many regions even a light coat of rust would rule that out.

And yes definitely no prying - there are too many sprockets missing crank signals (metal tabs missing).

Again, good work to Mail2_JB

Originally Posted by ajkalian

John:
I think I know why he gave up with the crank gear. Mine didn't look anything like the pic you posted. Rather, it had holes drilled around the entire circumfrence of the gear. I'd say maybe 16 holes, maybe 20. And if you looked real hard you could see that only two of them were threaded, none of the others were. So it would be easy to see how a puller couldn't be used to remove the gear. Ask me how I know that.

Fortunately, I saw the threads, at 3:00 and 9:00 positions, and installed the puller and off the gear came, no problem. I really didn't want to have to stick a pry bar behind the gear, and pry against the aluminum housing. I could just hear the dreaded "scrunch" as the pry bar cracks the aluminum housing. and then you got big troubles.

But since he is an expert now, doing it again will be a walk in the park, and armed with this new knowledge, he will be able to pull off the gear, change the crank seal, and pick up a few bragging points.

on getting it done mail2_jb.

.

[ajkalian]

Originally Posted by JohnGD

Yeah, Toyota has different crank sprockets over the years. The SOL ones are those without bolt holes! I read some had to drill and tap their own! Ideally these come off by hand. But in many regions even a light coat of rust would rule that out.

And yes definitely no prying - there are too many sprockets missing crank signals (metal tabs missing).

Again, good work to Mail2_JB

Well, I finally found a picture of what I was talking about. Here's what mine looked like, and I bet this is what his looked like too. It's real easy to miss the threaded holes. See if you can spot them in this pic.

[mail2_jb]

Mine looks different. Two holes with threads in it. I was in a hurry to finish the job, didn't want to risk damaging the sprocket by prying or using the harmonic puller. I saw the replies to "kind of stuck" thread later that it is ok to use the harmonic puller. Since it was not leaking and having difficulty getting the cam seal in place, i decided to skip that part.

All your guidance and tips are invaluable in finishing the job.

John

Originally Posted by ajkalian

Well, I finally found a picture of what I was talking about. Here's what mine looked like, and I bet this is what his looked like too.