Offroad-Express

What involved replacing the front diff. I have a 91 V6 5speed.

Advice on how to do would be great.

Ok I'll play the game , let me see now, 91 V6 --- could be a Toyota ? or a Mitsi, or a Isusu all came out as V6's in91 ---- hang on ---
JohnySWB let's get rid of the Toyota --- no Johny may have changed Vehicles since the SWB --- OK I give in,

WHATS THE VEHICLE, ,

FITZY.

Hang on I want to play again,------ It's posted under MITZI,
Let me guess ----- ,

91 V6 MITSI,

FITZY. .

Hi Fitzy, Wipe that sleep from your eye's

Hi, 1st question is why...?

Take both front wheels off, break upper and lower ball joints on both sides, take steering arm off. Take the driveshaft off.

Pull Left hand CV out from diff. Right hand one takes more work, there is 4 bolts to undo where it connects to the long side of the diff housing. Crawl under, it is easy to see, but harder to undo.

Undo the bolts holding the cross member the diff is attached to, and let it hang, It can only hang so far. Undo 3 long bolts which hold the diff assembly in. Take off the vacuum lines that control the 4WD disconnect making sure you know which ones are which. The get a mate or use a jack to take the weight (its bloody heavy) while you take the 3 bolts out. Its fiddly but straight forward, took me and my brother about 3 hours. Worst this is the ball joints. Its a brilliant opportunity to replace them if they have play in them. This is what you'll end up with.



You may be able to do it without removing the cv's and just pulling them out as far as you can. Hope this helps and Allow a day to do it

NJ

The answer to the question is that I have found me a rear diff lock (out of a softtop diesel) and there need to match the front diff to the rear.

I have not played to fair in this case, as I have already taken out the front diff out of the wreck .
The method of removal was as to your description just about perfectly.
The big help to remove from the wreck was that the engine was already gone.
I quess my real question is can the diff be removed with engine still in situ.
It looked to me like a whole new ball game with the V6 lump still sitting there.

And just to be sure on this yes it is a Mitsi. Sorry no desire to confuse our Toyota , Nissan brothers.

Cheers John.

ive done exactly what you are planing. i put 5.29s (locker rear) from a soft top diesel in my soft top v6. yes it can be done with the engine in. i did it on my own, just the way nj said. i love my locker...

Thanks for help gents.

Hey Wacko did you find the lower gearing of the diffs helpful?

I'm running 32 inch tyres and when I fitted them I noticed the slow first and second gear crawling work was knocked about a bit.

I was hoping the lower diffs would help in this area.

Did you link up the mitsi compressor to the diff without all the safety controllers etc. If so how did you get it going. Advice on this would be greatly appreciated

Cheers John.

HI Jonny,

I have doen this swap as well so can help here. I went from 4.6 to 4.9 ratio however.

The compressor that comes with it needs to be used as the air locker only uses 5 - 7 psi to work. Any other compressor would need a safely thingie put on it so it wasn't pumping 100psi into it.

I did use all the factory switch and everything but you don't need to, I just did because I wanted it all to be factory! Are you swapping the entire rear end - disc to disc? If so that is the easiest. I used the factory diff lock ECU which you need if you are going to use the factory switch. If you use a regular switch just hook it to the compressor.

The factory ECU & switch also mean the light on your dash will work, ie flash until it is locked and go solid when locked such as the centre diff light.

You can still use this light without the factory ECU but requires some fidd;ling about.

If you don't hook up the light make sure you give it a few moments before being hard on it, as they don't go directly in like a ARB one. I learnt the hard way.

There is a bit of a write up a bit down this page.
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/modules ... pic&t=2159

Good luck, NJ

O and by the way I went from 31's to 33's and noticed the gearing better, it is still not as good as it was standard but it goes some way to correct it. Noticed it most on the road, It wasn't so dead in 5th.

NJV6 wrote:HI Jonny,

I have doen this swap as well so can help here. I went from 4.6 to 4.9 ratio however.

The compressor that comes with it needs to be used as the air locker only uses 5 - 7 psi to work. Any other compressor would need a safely thingie put on it so it wasn't pumping 100psi into it.

I did use all the factory switch and everything but you don't need to, I just did because I wanted it all to be factory! Are you swapping the entire rear end - disc to disc? If so that is the easiest. I used the factory diff lock ECU which you need if you are going to use the factory switch. If you use a regular switch just hook it to the compressor.

The factory ECU & switch also mean the light on your dash will work, ie flash until it is locked and go solid when locked such as the centre diff light.

You can still use this light without the factory ECU but requires some fidd;ling about.

If you don't hook up the light make sure you give it a few moments before being hard on it, as they don't go directly in like a ARB one. I learnt the hard way.

There is a bit of a write up a bit down this page.
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/modules ... pic&t=2159

Good luck, NJ

Yes I have got the ecu that controls the diff engagement. But all the wiring that goes to the dash board just blew me away. I couldn't see my self trying to fiqure where it was to go in my vehicle.

And yes I have the whole diff, brake disc to brake disc.

John.

It is really simple. The wiring loom is all there, all you do is plug it in! Plug the switch in, plug the compressor in, plug the ECU in, (I can tell yuo where they all go) and then plug the wire in that is currently attached to the diff for the dash light. PLug them in, press the switch and hey presto it all works.
The entire loom is in all the models.

Easy- just do it and get your locker

NJV6 wrote:It is really simple. The wiring loom is all there, all you do is plug it in! Plug the switch in, plug the compressor in, plug the ECU in, (I can tell yuo where they all go) and then plug the wire in that is currently attached to the diff for the dash light. PLug them in, press the switch and hey presto it all works.
The entire loom is in all the models.

Easy- just do it and get your locker

That's great news I had no idea that the wiring loom is in place.
I also have already have taken the ecu and compressor brackets off the wreck so no problems there then.
Actually when I took the panel off the wreck I discovered two black boxes in there with the compressor.Not to sure whether there is a need for the two of them.
I know from my own mitsi that there is an ecu in there that controls hydraulic height control. Perhaps the same ecu manages the shock absorbers soft, med ,hard settings. The wreck had this feature in it.

Just for interest there is a way for having the diff lock in two wheel drive,(found the way doing it on the net). But I'm not keen on the idea for on road safety reasons.

Thanks for help.
Cheers John.

Yes there is 2 ecu's there that go where the pump goes behind the side panel by the back left speaker.

You onlu need one for the locker, but I can't remember which one - in mine one of them was there as well. You can see them in one of the photo's on that other thread.

Yes to get 2WD diff lock I think you put a switch in one of the wires going to the pump or something.... Or just leave ya hubs out...

i only drive mine on the road to and from 4wding, noticed the gearing was better after i installed the diffs, but mainly offroad. it just idles around now where i had to use a lil bit of gas previuosly. definatly recomend the swap tho. as for the locker, i just pluged it into the existing loom as nj says. for simplicitys sake.

Thanks heaps guys , you've have been a great help for this little project.

In NJV6 posting in Australian forum quote:If you do go for the 4.9's you can use the Left hand side cv from the 4.6 put you must use the 4.9 cv for the RHS as the bolts don't line up otherwise.

Bugger it's the only bit I haven't got,THE RHS CV. Another trip down to the wrecker.

I have been told the rear drive shaft is a different length in the diesel to the V6 also.

Any comments.

Cheers John

Befor you do John, you may not need to with your one, If you are going to soft top diesel, it will have 5.29 ratio.

For my model only 4.636 & 4.9 are available as they ahve a bigger rear diff. I think you should be fine with your current cv's. Wacko should be able to confirm this...

My mitsi is a hard top V6 3.0 manual.

Donor car (wreck) is a soft top 2.5 Diesel manual.

cheers John.

yes you do need the the front driveshaft. i forgot about that. cvs should be fine tho. i cant remember for sure about the cv tho sorry...