Slo_crx1

So one of my friend's is giving me his old toyota ct-26 turbo, but it needs some work. It has absolutely no in and and play (which is good), but the bad part is it has massive amounts of side to side movement. The only thing looser than this turbo is Hotrex's *** :P What would typically cause this problem and would it even be worth me wasting my time trying to rebuild it?

StanB

Excessive side to side play would be worn bearings. The fact you are getting it free could make the rebuilt worthwhile if you can get a cheap rebuilt kit.

xternal

Rebuild it with T04e internals , its what I'm running atm never had any problems.
Definately a cheap way to get a feisty turbo.
Another way is to bore the exhuast housing out , cut back plate of turbine wheel and replace bearings with roller/ wet floating bearings

Slo_crx1

Do you have any links to this to4e internal mod? This def. sounds like an interesting combo

BLAAST

For sure, NOTHING inside a CT26 is compatible with Garrett T04. Toyota shafts and bearings are of odd diameters and internals Differ a lot in shapes and design. THe lack of a bolted down/360° thrust plate as well as that stupid sleeve sandwiched between the bearings to avoid the use of c-clips makes this turbo weaker and weaker as the boost increases and as people are mislead by the impressive size of this outdated hitachi turbo, they always end up maxing it out beyond reliability limits so it's an endless source of problems that you are stuck with thanks to it's odd, non standard flanges.

ebay Rebuild "kits" are, as always, a scam, inviting people to believe they can rebuild a turbo themelves with just a hammer, a screw driver an no balancing!! Since they do not even include the proper sized bearings that are always needed to cure shaft play, you wake up short of a hundred bucks and with a bunch of extra parts that generally don't even need to be replaced, the wrong bearings and an no warranty but the one that this turbo will fail again in minutes.