Should the carrier bearing on the passenger side axle slide in and out of the bearing mount fairly easily? Or will it take some force to put it in? I wire brushed both the bearing and the inside of the mount but they don't mesh with ease. i put a little motor oil on both to see if that helped but it is going to take more than just sliding the carrier bearing into the mount to get them together. I guess I am worried about having to pound on the bearing to work it into the mount and what is going to happen to the transmission seal and how the inboard end will mesh with the transmission while I do that.

 

Subframe is in. Just a note in the event anyone looks at this for reference in the future. The manual says to reverse the order of removing the tranny when reinstalling. One step that is done a few steps before the subframe is removed that I found should be done before torquing down the subframe. The bolt that positions the front middle motor mount from underneath (Step #25 in the manual) needs to be installed prior to tightening down the subframe. The bracket that forms the bottom of the mount was out of position when i first started to tighten the subframe and I had to loosen up the front of the subframe in order to position the front mount with that bolt.

 

I was curious if sway bar links can be installed incorrectly. When I disconnected them from the sway bar, the link on the driver's side had the threads on the upper ball joint facing outward and the threads on the lower ball joint facing inward. The passenger side link was exactly the opposite, the threads of the upper were facing inward and the threads of the lower were facing outward. The picture in the manual shows both uppers with threads facing outward and the threads of the lower ball joints facing inward. Does it matter?

 

I ended up turning the driver's side sway bar link around.

Adventures with the broken bolt continued in another thread:

https://www.camryforums.com/forum/di...terface-53519/

 

Just have the muffler gaskets, tightening the wheel nuts and hooking the electronics back up left.

Is it possible to hook the transmission up in the wrong position if I haven't changed anything with the link? (Park, drive, etc.) I know I have bumped and moved the lever that goes into the transmission to change "gears" a few times.

 

Not unless something has radically changed.

Move both the gearshift **** in the car and trans shift lever on the trans to the Park position. The trans shift lever should line up with shift cable attach fitting to allow it to be bolted to the lever.

Once connected have someone move the in car gear selector through all gears as you watch the trans shift lever move. Both gear selector and lever should be able to move through all the gears.

 

Thanks toyomoho. Right now I am reinstalling the exhaust pipe. I picked up new gaskets at OReilly's. The gaskets were what OReilly's said fit my car. I took the old gaskets in and they looked like they matched up with the ones I ordered. However when I went to install them, the bigger donut gasket that fits the end of the catalytic converter doesn't just slide over the pipe. It might fit if I force it a little. Should it slide easily over the pipe? The ones I got for the other "y" end are a bit too big and are not snug with the pipe. There is a little play between the inside diameter of the gasket and the outside of the pipe. I was expecting the gaskets to fit snuggly but install easily with their respective pipes. Not be overly tight or loose. I was hoping to finish up today but I don't want to install these gaskets if they are going to leak or break while trying to install them.

Follow up: Using calipers - the pipe OD for the "y" end is 1 117/128" and the ID of the gasket is 1 31/32". Difference of almost 1/16" too big (1.75/32" too big)
the pipe OD on the catalytic converter end is 2 9/64" while the gasket is 2 13/128". Difference of a little more than a 1/32" too small (1.25/32"). OReillys docs say the ID of the gasket is supposed to be 2 5/32" so it should be 1/64" bigger than the pipe but it isn't

 

Everything is together. Because I drained out about a gallon total from the initial transmission drain and the two additional quarts that drained after I put the transmission back in, I put in a gallon. The capacity is supposed to be 8.5 quarts dry. After putting in the gallon, I let it drain but the dipstick showed way over the hot level. I am hoping that the dipstick is still getting fluid from the side of the tube. I don't know how it can be that full unless it takes awhile for the differential to fill. I tried to start it to see if that would help the ATF move around but the battery was down. At least I assume that was why, nothing happened when I tried to start it. Buzzers and horns and everything else seemed to work but the clock went dim when I tried to turn the car over. Battery was pretty low when I put it on the charger.

 

Are you sure about the total capacity of the trans/diff?

Would assume the diff section fills from the trans section pretty quick.

A higher/lower fluid level difference as shown on the dipstick can be a matter of ounces not quarts.

 

Owner's manual says 5 qts for drain & refill for the V6 transmission.
The Preparation section of the service manual (PP-78 Lubricant for the A541E transaxle) says the ATF (w/o differential oil) capacity is 8.5 qts for dry fill and 4.1 qts for drain and refill.
Not sure what the "(w/o differential oil)" means unless it indicates the differential isn't separate.

The level went down pretty fast after I got the car started.

I got the car started after I figured out the car wasn't in Park when the shifter said it was. Readout on Instrument panel said I was in R. (Credit that trick from watching an online video of Toyota Camry shift cable replacement.) Disconnected the shift cable and pressed down on the lever and it move down another notch. I thought I had pressed it all the way down.

(I actually woke up in the middle of the night wondering if maybe the car didn't start because it wasn't actually in Park. I remembered feeling odd when the car rolled backward when I released the emergency brake and it was supposed to be in Park. Unfortunately, nothing registered upstairs at that moment. I can be slow... and I have only ever owned one AT car and that was just for a few months; driven many but only owned one....an excuse anyway...)