Slartibartfast

I would be surprised if there are a whole lot of options there. Rockauto lists Zumbrota RTC59276 (reman), but naturally it's out of stock. The part number might turn one up elsewhere, though.

fear factor

It's not just semis! I haven't had enough rear axles apart to say for sure, but I suspect our greased bearings are more the exception than the rule, at least on older stuff. That Park greaser looks like a great way to go. Much easier to maneuver.

Some axles don't have greased bearings--the bearings are lubed by gear oil by design. I'd be surprised if the rubber in a grease/oil seal could handle one but not the other. I bought a press when I did my rear bearings, and ended up having to make a spline nut wrench and some press tooling from scratch. There's usually a workaround, but I don't blame you for not wanting to break it down more than you have to. Hopefully the grease isn't too washed out and you can just shoot some in. I think I've seen a grease gun adapter that's basically just a zerk and a needle--one of those might let you get into the bearing better. And yeah, no sense dropping the diff if you can avoid it! It's a big awkward chungus of a thing. A friend of mine did the seals on the front diff in his S10 with the diff in place, though those were not nearly as complicated.

Weird. Hopefully it stays fixed!

If gear oil is leaking from between the extension tube retainer and the tube, then yeah, sounds like it's just the inner seal that's gone, and the bearing might still have grease in it. If gear oil is coming out of the grease seal, that suggests the grease seal is bad too--and the oil had to go through the bearing to get there, so the grease is contaminated/washed out. If the grease is gone, then the only thing keeping the bearing alive is the oil leaking into it, which new inner seals will cut off. Unless you can clean and regrease the bearing in place, and you trust the outer seal to hold that grease, I'd say go for the whole meal deal here so you only have to drop the diff once. A cold chisel is just a stout blunt chisel, as opposed to the sharp chisels used in woodworking. A screwdriver would probably work, depending on what the collar is made from. You're not beating on a bearing or sealing surface, so I wouldn't worry if you scuff it. So long as the shaft is well supported below where you're hammering so you're not trying to bend it, and you don't go after it with a grinder or an air chisel or something, I think you would struggle to hurt it.

Unplug the blower motor and see if you have 12v at the connector when the fan is supposed to be on. If the blower motor has power, but doesn't go, it's probably dead. If not, then start digging around in the service manual (free download here) to find which fuses/relays/etc you're after. You want the HA section. Hopefully it's something simple and not an issue with the HVAC head.

Usual disclaimer, I haven't had an R200A apart. But I had a look at the manual, and here's how I think it goes. The first time, you're removing the long-side axle shaft, the bearing, and the flange that holds the bearing (labelled "extension tube retainer" on PD-18) all together. While it's out, you cut the collar which (I'm guessing) holds the bearing in place on the axle shaft. Then you bolt the extension tube retainer back to the axle tube to hold it (and the bearing) while you draw the axle out of the bearing with the slide hammer. I don't know why they have you bolt it back up rather than using a bearing splitter and a press. It could be that it comes out easily enough with the slide hammer that setting up the press would be an unnecessary hassle, or maybe they thought the extension tube retainer might break if it wasn't bolted down in four places while it got yanked on.

It's clean, and people on BaT pay silly money for clean. This one made it past 20k. I imagine the seller will do well on it.

That is weird. If messing with the cluster brings it back for a while, I would dig into the cluster again, maybe check/reflow a few solder joints. I wouldn't expect a damaged gear to falter and drop back out like that. I would say low signal strength on the sensor, except that messing with the cluster wouldn't have brought that back.

I don't know crap about the R52, and I'm not entirely sure what a faint turning sound is. If it seems to be coming from one corner of the car, I would check the wheel bearings. If it's eaten one diff already, might be good to check the level and condition of the fluid while you're at it, make sure it hasn't done it again.

You misunderstand me. Even if I had the money, I could not bring myself to spend that much of it for something that I could make in a weekend, for a fraction of the cost, in a way that would suit my needs better. If you're happy with your purchase, good for you.

From what I've read, the rear of the Patrol is 33-spline, and the front is 31-spline. The 33-spline H233B is also used in the R50, but AFAIK the only ratchet locker for the 33-spline was made in Russia, so you may have a hard time tracking one down. As for the H233 guts fitting the R230, I have no idea. If anyone knows, it's @hawairish.

The wheel bearings will work without the axles, but the axles seal the back side of the wheel bearing to hold the grease in, so I wouldn't leave it like that for long. Probably fine for a test drive, though. The VDC/traction control system was the difference between the two systems I mentioned earlier. I do not remember which was which, just that it was backwards of how I expected it to be.

order form

There's nothing wrong with paying big money for pre-built stuff, if you can afford it. Some of us can't.

TrakMotive sounds familiar, might've been that one. Didn't know they were $350 each! I haven't heard of CVs vibrating, but if it's not the driveshaft or the tires, I don't know what else it would be. How high is your lift? I've heard of R50s lifted too far without a subframe drop having CV issues.

Pretty sure it's the fronts you're after, though I've read about using them on the WD21, not the R50. But don't take my word for it, I'm still at stock height.

EL-91 of the '97 manual has troubleshooting info for the speed sensor and its wiring. The speed-related intermittent thing is weird. Sounds mechanical, like maybe the gear on the sensor is missing a couple of teeth and if it stops in the wrong spot, it takes some time/vibration to catch and turn again? If all of that checks out, I'd be tempted to loosen and retighten the screws on the back of the cluster, on the off chance (assuming the R50 cluster is built like the WD21 cluster), though this doesn't sound like the usual loose connection. Looks like the speed sensor is wired to the cluster, which then passes info along to the computer, for whatever that's worth. Interesting that the speedo's in and out, but the computer hasn't decided it cares enough to code yet. I guess it doesn't need that info for much (yours is manual, right?), so it may not be looking for that info often enough to notice when it's not there.

For anyone wondering what it takes to LED-swap the rocker switches, here ya go. I haven't had a round-dash push-switch apart in a while, but I would expect a similar approach to work there too.

Oh, nice! Good to know that's what goes wrong with these. If the reflow keeps working, keep that one on the shelf as a spare. And yeah, get that Claymore outta there.

No personal experience. I think I saw someone complain about them being reboxed aftermarket crap on r/justrolledintotheshop, but can't find the post now, and the name is generic enough that I could be confusing it with something else. There was some chatter on the Farcebook group a while ago about aftermarket CVs with a better range of motion than stock, not sure if those are still available. Rebooting is also an option--though the last time I did that, I swore I'd just buy new ones the next time. Good lord those things put up a fight. The vibration getting worse with the lift and tires is interesting. If the vibration's still there with the driveshaft out, and you haven't tried rotating the tires yet, give that a go.

Looks like fun! Nice bumpers, too.

I doubt the wrong MAF only started being a problem recently, after running normally for however long it's been in there, but your symptoms are pretty close to how my WD21 behaved when the electrical connector for the MAF was acting up. Check the tube from the MAF to the throttle body while you're in there, make sure it's not torn. I would also check the filaments on the old MAF for any obvious contamination. The fuel filter's not a bad idea for preventative maintenance, but, yeah, I doubt it's related. Normally I would suggest cleaning the throttle body, but I've read horror stories of the drive-by-wire computer noticing the difference, deciding the throttle body is broken, and needing a trip to the dealer to convince it otherwise, so maybe leave that one well enough alone--or at least do your homework first. Hopefully the first shot from the parts cannon gets the job done!

TF-160 of the '03 manual shows the oil pump on the back of the transfer, accessible by removing the tailshaft housing, geared off the rear output shaft (actually looks like it's running off the speedometer drive gear). Based on that, looks like it should pump regardless of what the front end is doing. And yeah, I'd expect it to behave about the same as unlocked hubs. You might get a light on the dash if the control unit for the transfer gets confused--IIRC some of them determine front wheel speed from the ABS sensors, and some watch a sensor on the front output of the transfer, and the latter system gets understandably confused when it sees what looks like a rolling burnout at highway speed for hours. AFAIK the transfer itself doesn't notice or care. TL;DR, yeah, should be fine. If it doesn't vibrate with the driveshaft out, that points to the driveshaft. I haven't messed with the U joints on mine, but I've heard they can be a PITA to get balanced again afterwards. The PD section of the manual shows a bunch of different thicknesses of snap rings that I assume are used to get the end-play correct. Worth a look if you haven't yet. I remember one case where a guy had a vibration only in 4x which IIRC came down to his front diff bushings being so trashed that the diff was moving and screwing up the U-joint angle when the front end was loaded. Doesn't really match your symptoms, but it's the only other thing I can think of that would cause a front-end vibration that isn't tire wear or bearings or something along those lines. My money's still on the driveshaft.