Shift knob

When I brought my 2021 4Runner it came with the 4 wheel shift knob and I was disappointed. I’m a shift into low with a little grind guy. But I grown to love the knob. You have to finesse it sometimes to get it into gear but it works great, and no grind, just saying.

 

Are you in neutral when shifting into 4L? Always have to ask. Mine has no friending on my manual knob. One time it did was when I thought I was in neutral, but wasn’t.

 

Yes always in neutral. I find it easier to put it into 4wheel high first then put it in neutral while stopped and it always goes in smoothly.

 

haven't used 4L yet but I have shifted on the fly while driving in 4H and it works well, sometimes grinding and I need to abort.

Not as smooth as they advertise here but maybe that's because I am not pulling it hard enough.

 

I wouldn't own a 4 runner (or any other rig for that matter) with a knob. Lever or nothing here.

 

I understand why you are saying that. In many vehicles with knobs, turning the knob switches between different modes (road, sand, ruts, rocks, snow, etc) which vary the shift points and throttle response and when and how much the viscous coupling or clutch pack sends power to the rear axle on an AWD car. But that’s not what the knob does on a Limited. The Limited is full-time 4WD. Not “all-wheel-drive” and is vastly superior to AWD vehicles like the Pilot and XC-90 that have mode-selection knobs. I would have bought the Limited myself if not for the lame bodywork and 20” wheels. Full-time 4WD is IMO superior to the part-time 4WD on my ORP.

 

Meh... and ill stick with part time. To each their own i suppose.

 

I’m a longtime fan of part time too. I just wish that the 5th gen. had a option for locking hub’s.
My TJ has locking hub’s and a twin stick T/C. I (front) dig it.

 

You mean like manual locking hubs that you need to walk outside for? I like old-school, but that’s pretty old-school. Now that I’ve seen how I use 4wd (in and out of 4wd constantly on national forest trails connected by blacktop, I like the auto-locking system on our part time 4wd runners.

However, I do wish the drivers side cv-axle wouldnt get spun in 2wd like it currently does. If it didn't we wouldn't have the common needle bearing issue.

 

I wish toyota’s 40th anniversary “gift” to customers was offering the Full Time 4wd system from the limiteds on all the trim packages.

For some reason I thought all 4th gen 4wd trims were full-time 4wd. The reason I thought that was because I remember seeing a center diff-lock button on everyone that I looked at when I was shopping 4th gens. Am I misremembering things?

 

Yes, manual locking hub’s, like my old FJ-40. The trails I run in the Jeep usually aren’t connected by pavement and the tire pressure is down to 6-8 psi. And the driveshaft’s are quality and balanced.

 

I thought the same thing but no more grind and that’s a good thing

 

There shouldnt be any grinding from 2wd to 4wd high. You shouldnt need to pull very hard either, it’s more about doing it firmly and in one whole motion. The only time it would grind, if maybe you were not traveling straight while shifting. The steering wheel should be straight ahead when shifting. Even the slightest turn is enough to mess with shifting on part-time 4wd systems with no center differential.

I like to pre-load the lever for a split second before pulling, but once I pull, I don’t dawdle around.

 

In the millions of times ive moved to 4h or 4l, in my pile, ... ive never once, not a single time, heard, or had any grinding what so ever ?!? Especially into 4h.

Hell even if it did, i wouldnt sweat it, and still prefer it over a knob of any kind. But again, to each their own.

 

Same here. Never heard anything remotely like a grind into 4H. Pretty sure synchros take care of matching up the gears from 2wheel drive to 4H, allowing the shift on the fly.

Grinding into 4L only happens if you are moving the lever super slow w the shift. My guess as to why any gears are spinning at all when in neutral is maybe the gears are being carried by the fluid spinning in the torque converter. If so, they aren't being turned fast or with much force, so a quick shift movement will guarantee a quiet 4L engagement.

 

The beauty of hubs is it gives you the 2wd low range option and negates wear on the front end.

 

My first 4WD vehicle had locking hubs. (A 1985 Toyota Extra-cab pickup) I was very enthusiastic about using the hubs, and felt it was part of the “genuine” 4WD experience. As a young man I wasn’t so fussy about rooting around in mud and slush. :-D

 

I never thought of that!

So a question (for anyone). Previously I said the CV axle on the drivers side spins in 2wd. But now that I think of it, without hub-disconnects, both CV axles should always turn, correct? I dont know why I thought it was just the drivers side (maybe misunderstood something I read). But the fact that the CV are spline connected to the wheels, means they should be both spun by the turning wheels whenever the differential is not being powered by the transfer case.

I guess the only positive to the axles always spinning is that the cv boots wont dry rot (since some people rarely engage 4wd. And even then, most dont use part time 4wd regularly, or for very long. I could imagine CV boots and hub locks becoming problems if not used regularly.

But I dont have any real prior experience that hubs or cv boots woukd be a problem. I only had hub locks on an Isuzu trooper I drove around for a couple of years. It was the definition of “never used 4wd”, as it spent it the previous 10 years driving a 0.5mile commute every day. The engine internals should have been nothing but rust lol. But the 4wd and the hub locks still worked haha. I liked that thing…

 

I had a 1986 XtraCab as well(blue).

 

I had a ‘93, IFS, AAD. I interrupted the connection for the axle sleeve with a toggle switch to get
two wheel low. Used it mostly for backing up trailers, some fun stuff too.

 

I would go camping/fishing/trail running with buddies back then up in the Sierras and they had V8s, I would keep the 22RE singing in low2, rowing gears like a rally racer and I could keep up.