A friend left his 94 Camry in my driveway after grenading the differential(A140E)... lack of luid I woud guess. Failed at 150-175k range just like evey other Toyota in the salvage yards with an auto.

1: I've almost come up with my method of supporting engine so the car will be movable with transmission removed and can pull out and back into garage once transmission is either repaired or replacement is found.

2: Are the front wheel hubs the same as other vehicles requiring the shafts to be through them in order to hold the hubs together?

3: Can the tranmission be dropped out the bottom without removing the cradle? I'd really hate to do lots more work than is required because I'm essentially going to have to do all this work for free. Either that or roll it in the street and let the city deal with it.

I've never worked on a Toyota before, but I've had an early 90's Honda Civic in the past and beat that thing but still came back for more. If a Toyota is anything like that I might have to pick one up in the future now that I know their weak point... some idiot decided to put transmissions in them with a secret compartment that is setup for failure unless you research it.

Thank you for any help you can give me. Hopefully I wont be here to long and if I am it's for good reasons.

 

The front hub setup is like a Honda. A bearing is pressed into the knuckle then the axle hub pressed into the bearing. The bearing is double ball bearing type with a single dual race. The axle nut would keep the bearing under load. The axle pulls out of the hub like a Honda.

Have used a large bolt with the right size washers to substitute for the axle if needing to move the car.

You can either pull the engine or drop the subframe. If the subframe bolts are not frozen this might be the fastest route if you can jack the car up high enough and hold the engine in place.

Might review post at Toyotanation where Camry trans replacement is common.

 

I tried joining there but they never sent me a confirmation email and it's been about 2 weeks and a few attempts to contact them about it... anyway.

So the hubs are just like any other hub then. I can do the bolt thing.
I don't have a cherry-picker, so I suppose I'll be devising something that bridges the engine bay to hold up the engine with the cradle and transmission out. You wouldn't know the approximate weight of one of these transmissions by any change would you?

Thank you

 

The bridge method should work. Might try a low cost strap type winch to attach and hold the engine to the bridge. The engine is cast iron unlike some Honda thus weighs a little more. If you need more lift use a jack under the engine.

A single person has managed to remove and replace the trans but suggest 2 people.

On other cars have used removable stacked blocks (cut 2x4's etc) placed under the trans. This takes the load after the trans is pulled off, these are removed in layers to lower the trans to the ground.

The opposite is done to raise the trans close to the engine.

One other issue is make sure the torque converter is fully installed onto the trans input shaft and engages the trans oil pump. The converter has a tang drive system for the oil pump. The tang and slot need to be engaged or the converter will extend just far enough out of the bell housing to damage the trans oil pump when the housing is bolted to the engine. The converter being pulling into the pump housing damaging it.

Make sure the converter has oil in (don't drain it out) as it will not self prime.

 

Guess I'll bridge it and get some spare hands to help with the pull. I've done RWD transmissions myself, but those have a lot more room to get them out.


I am wondering since the A131L and the A140E seem to be very similar except for the fact that a 4th gear and electronic shifting are different. I'm wondering if the differentials are interchangeable between the two. The only reason I think this is because at first I thought it was a Corrola so I know there are lots of these transmissions at a salvage yard except finding a good one could be the reason they are all there with roughly the same milage.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I get an answer about it today and can either plan on getting it out of here or get to work on it.

 

The diff housing is part of the trans housing. If attempting this route make sure the housing was not damaged.

Check the link below to determine what cars had what model trans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_A_transmission

 

I also came across this the other day which really bummed me out a bit.
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/sh...t=differential
Looks like my friend is broke as a joke. So if I want it out of here it looks like I'm working on it or making it disappear. Thanks for the help. I'm going to try and get started on it today or tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.
Depending on how it goes, maybe I'll make a write-up about the diff-swap in case anyone else wants to go that route( I havn't really seen much about it yet). I've rebuilt a couple transmissions before and they've worked wel so far. It just sucks when you have parts broken that arn't readily availible.

 

Is this the same guy in Toyotanation?

The A140E trans has been around a long time. Often the trans goes bad and owners swap them for a good used one, the diff though is still OK. Might try finding a bad trans with a good diff then swap diff parts.

 

GRaaHH!! 4 hours and I'm down to the CV shafts(need 30mm socket)
I still need to figure out how to unbolt the torque converter from the flex plate. I also have the oil lines from the trans to the radiator but those are pretty self-explanatory. Aside from those 4 points I'm ready to drop it. Not bad for having never looked under the hood and I don't have a book I suppose. I've been looking and it looks like the thing will just about fall out the bottom on it's own so I'm pretty excited about that when the time comes.

 

Remove the half-moon sheet metal cover at the bottom of the bell housing. Then unbolt the flex plate with the trans still bolted to the engine(you can though remove the top 3 bolts before doing this).

Hold the crank pulley bolt with a wrench to unbolt the converter bolts.

If the trans has one, remove the green colored torque converter bolt first, then the rest of the bolts. Mark the location of the converter relative to the flex plate to be able to reinstall it in the same orientation.

When installing the engine use the same method to connect the torque converter to the engine.

Toyota states to use bolt thread locking liquid on these bolts.