Did I damage my axle gear while lifting rear?

I decided to lift the rear. So I placed my 4runner in 4hi, engage foot brake, chocked up the front tires, then lifted the rear axle from the diff housing. (My reason for doing it this way is because i know the foot brake only engages the rear and i didnt want the vehicle to roll forward when jacking up the rear.) I then used another jack to tilt the axle. My concern is if I’ve possibly caused my gears to bind since the front tires were fixed to the ground, transfer case engaged, rear locked by the brakes and park gear, while i was tilting the rear axle?? The vehicle is working just fine, but im sure some of you would understand the concern

 

You didn’t do any damage. No need to worry.

Cheers,
Bob

 

welcome, should be fine

 

nope all good

 

As you know the parking brake in 4th and 5th gens is shitty and shouldn't be relied upon to prevent the vehicle from rolling away when jacked up. Get a set of rubber wheel chocks and chock the ground wheels next time.

 

It’s good to have those front wheels mechanically locked in addition to using the chocks. I view it as another safety layer, and lift the rear the same way as you. I doubt that leads to any real binding or windup, and if it does it would be as much as it would see going up a hill in drive.

But I don’t understand why you were tilting the axle with another jack. Are you saying you were installing a lift, and had a jack on the pumkin, and also on the axle tube to flex it up? That seems a bit sketch because the pumpkin is holding up the car and also acting as a pivot point. Seems very unstable, if that’s what you are describing.

When I installed my lift, I jacked the rear at the pumpkin, then put stands under the frame, then lowered the rear axle to let it droop to full extension. Only the stands were holding up the rear. I might have used some boards to get the necessary height to make sure the rear tires would be off the ground when I removed the jack at the pumpkin. However, the height required to let the rear fully droop is a bit uncomfortable, and I recall having to experiment a bit to reduce the nose down angle, before feeling comfortable enough start taking the coils and shocks off.

 

What?

But you are fine.

I put mine in 4HI and chock the wheel still.

 

The engine will put a lot more torque into that rear end than you think. It's fine.