Weak transmission on a 2000 Tundra

So i’ve ready MANY reports that the 2000-2003 Tundra transmissions had a weak overdrive planetary. Toyota fixed the issue in 2004 by using a stronger planetary.

I currently have a 2000 4wd transmission and a 2004 2wd transmission.

Can i simply remove the stronger 2004 planetary that’s currently inside of the 2wd transmission and swap it directly into the 4wd transmission?

Are there other internal differences between the two different years?

Are the 2wd and 4wd planetaries swappable between each other?

Currently both transmissions are sitting on the floor in my shop, so it’s not like i have to remove it from the truck.

 

Don’t fix if it ain’t broke. My 2000 has 250K miles and shifts just fine. I tow small boat trailers a lot.

 

I’ve thought about that as well, but i kinda figure that our automatic transmissions would last around 250k-ish until it’s getting about time for a rebuild. The only reason i’m contemplating it is that if it’s possible to swap planetaries, now would be the easiest time. It’s quite a bit of a process to remove the transmission out of the 4wd trucks...2wd it’s easy to remove. And if my 2000 planetary decides to take a dump on me, i can only assume that it won’t happen when i’m only a few miles away from my home. My thought is to perform a preemptive strike so that doesn’t happen.

 

Cant you just swap the output shaft & tailhousing to fit the tcase to the '04 trans?

no problems with my weak planetary & i've towed 5k lbs of tractor & trailer. But i dont tow with OD.

 

Great question. I’m hesitant to trust the 2wd transmission since i’ve never drove the truck over 1mph. When i drained the 2wd transmission the fluid was much darker than what i drained out of my 2000 transmission. I don’t know too much of history on the 2wd truck. What little i do know is that the owner at the time drove the truck until there was only a few quarts of oil left in the engine. And that’s what damaged the engine. The truck was then towed to a storage lot, then that owner of the lot sold it “as is” to another guy...which i bought the truck from.

And i THINK that in order to swap the output shaft, it has to be removed from the front of the transmission? If that’s the case, then the planetary would have to be removed anyhow.

 

Heck yea, when you do the swap compare the 2 planetaries. I'm curious, too. All the electric plugs and connectors match?

 

My 2000 4x4 has over 286k miles on the original trans with no issues and some heavy towing. Keep it out of OD when towing and it should be fine. Also it would be strange to take the output shaft out through the front of the trans, wouldn't that be the input shaft? Thought the tailpiece was different between the 4wd and 2wd versions. Think they just bolt on. Here’s a TS thread describing some swaps as simple.

 

I just wasn’t sure if there was some sort of internal circlip (that holds the tailshaft in place) that was only accessible from the front of the transmission. But from reading in the link, it looks like that’s not the case.

And after reading posting #7, it looks like there’s more updated (stronger) parts in the 2004 transmission than just a planetary. If that’s the case, i probably won’t have any desire to go parts swappin between both transmissions. I’m thinking that ya’ll here have got me convinced to just use my 2000 4wd tranny as is.

 

Don’t take everything you get back here as Gold. Some dude on TS saying it don’t make it true. I like to hear from a more official source or some first hand accounts that get corroborated.

 

Mine is coming up on 100k PAST that....and shifts fine...and I'm not at all the highest milage tundra on here.

 

Yup. 330k on mine and it towed a trailer for about 270k of that with my dad.

We hear about the weak planetary gear on 00-mid 03 all the time, but we've rarely seen one go bad, if ever. I can't remember seeing anyone post one.

 

The deal with the planetary gear is that I believe they went out early. One member said his went out around 52k miles. Toyota replaced the transmission and he then drove the truck another 380k miles. He's the ONLY member I can recall having that issue.

Mine has 190k and shifts fine. I know the previous owner towed because he had a trailer brake controller. I'd be more worried about the LBJ's than the transmission.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/transmission-problem-01-tundra-4-7.50732/#post-1330609

 

Mine went out at 337k, I used the overdrive override alot going up/down hills, not sure if that affected things but in the end I found more than normal amounts of debris/shavings in pan, lasted another 2 years after the last fluid change, then started to sound like marbles (chunks of the overdrive planetary) for moments until it parked it, converter wouldn't even come off when attempting to remove it. Ordered a new rebuilt from Yota1, excellent so far.

 

Thank you everyone for all your reassuring replies. I'm now convinced to just leave my transmission alone and just use it as it. I did remove the pan a few days ago. There wasn't very much in the way of furries on the magnets and the cherry juice still looked pretty darn clean. It must have been replaced at some point, but the factory red colored form a gasket pan sealant was still there.