Talking about dumb questions...

[TOYOTATONY]

All that chit chat with Goodcat about "locking" & "unlocking hubs" to get 4 wheel drive or not, has me confused. Not a difficult thing to do anyway but, just for the sake of arguement, can someone explain exactly what the correct procedure is to engage & dis-engage 4 wheel drive please?
Never used it before but, I would like to learn as much as I can about my surf. BTW: It's a 2nd Gen 3.0lt auto.
Thanks in advance guys.
Tony

[POPEYE]

Right! useing the truck on the road, keep the hubs in 4X2 position, this means the wheels can rotate without turning the shafts/front diff, less wear on the parts and more ususlly the rubber gaiters,
going "off road" turn the hubs to 4X4 and then select 4x4 on the lever button or hi-lo shift,
if the weathers bad, ice/snow turn the hubs to 4X4 and their ready should you need four wheel drive for short periods, you can engage/disengage 4x4 without keep getting out of the truck,

[MudSurfer]

Tony - all this assumes you have manual hubs on your truck, and the chances are you won't unless you or the previous owner fitted them.

As yours is a 2nd gen, then you should NEVER drive it in 4WD on tarmac, this will do some serious damage to the 4WD system (I'm not going into detail, as it's quite technical) but don't do it!

To engage 4WD, once offroad, on snow, areas with poor traction, press the 4WD button on the transfer lever (the little stubby one) and that's it!

If you do have manual hubs, there are two positions on them, twist to move to 4x4, or to disengage them, twist the opposite direction to 2x4.

If you don't have manual hubs, then ignore the last bit....

[Chipper]

Very new to Surf ownership, having just got a pretty minty just-imported gen 2. No FWHs fitted. Can I ask - I'd err on the side of caution anyways as regards 4wd on road, but the driver's handbook says 'wet roads' or something similar for 4wd - is it a no-no on wet tarmac as well, for a gen 2?

I've got FWHs on my Landy, they need engaging every now and then to splash oil around - I guess ones for the Surf would be the same?

The other half's already managed to wind up the trans slightly, she reversed round a corner having accidentally pressed the 4wd button... She says sheepishly 'I think I've broken it, the 4wd light's on and won't go out'... "Fixed" by driving out round the same corner...

[stormforce]

wet roads aren't really slippery enough for the 4wd system on the 2nd gen.
All i do with my fwh's is once or twice a year just take them off and make sure there's enought grease/lubricant in them

[Chipper]

Cheers, we'll stay off the button (well one of us anyway)....

[POPEYE]

Aye! assumed he was talking about FWH's as he said locking and unlocking, but yes, free wheeling hubs aint standard, so if ya dont have em it's wot mudsurfer said,
these hubs (i believe) are mainly fitted to lifted trucks to avoid unnessierry wear to the boots,

[goodcat]

Cheers, we'll stay off the button (well one of us anyway)....

is the misses pressing the wrong buttons ay?

hey Ian. thats what i thought and as far as im aware my road surf hasnt been lifted..... but it has manual hubs and red torsion bars??

[Apache]

Doesn't look like its been lifted if thats your truck in the avatar. The hubs are nice to have though. Saves spinning the front shafts all the time anyway.

[goodcat]

Doesn't look like its been lifted if thats your truck in the avatar. The hubs are nice to have though. Saves spinning the front shafts all the time anyway.

no i dont think it has been lifted either. it always seems lower than other standard surfs even with my 31" tyres on!
it was just the red torsion bars and FWH's that made me think twice.
somebody said that the red torsion bars were aftermarket bars. who buys aftermarket torsion bars if they're not going to raise them?
so it seems i have FWH with uprated TB's and NO lift!? lol wtf i dont see the point for the previous owner to do this?

[POPEYE]

It may have been lifted in the past and lowered again, not everyone like em jacked, cant understand it myself