1st Breakdown... Time to pull the transmission

[marcus clarkus]

I'm sad to say my 4Runner left me stranded for the first time. A week prior I had just finished up a 3500 mile road trip out to the PNW towing a pop-camper and had zero issues the entire trip. But this past weekend, I took a short trip out to the mountains and while driving into town I heard a noise as I pressed the clutch pedal and the pedal dropped to the floor. I coasted as much as I could in neutral, then jammed it into 1st to get into a parking spot.

My first thought was the Clutch Master Cylinder. But the fluid level was good, there were no leaks, and the Slave Cylinder still moved when my girlfriend pumped the pedal.

Next thought was the Clutch Release Fork had broken since it was able to wiggle around a lot. I had my insurance tow the vehicle home and tonight took a better look with a flashlight.

The Clutch Release Fork looks fine. The fork pivot bolt also looks fine. But where the fork pivot bolt screws into the bellhousing... that's what I heard break.

I haven't pulled the whole transmission yet but I'm pretty sure the bellhousing (not the main Transmission Case) has the threads for the fork pivot bolt. So it looks like I'll need to track down a R150F transmission that I can take bellhousing off of. I guess the good news is that I don't need a whole new transmission. Anyone in the Front Range area of Colorado know of any leads?

Reference images for those interested (click to enlarge):

 

[Devbot]

Always glad to see someone attempting to fix it instead of going "welp tranny is smoked better crush the car." Especially a manual 3rd gen, they seem to be increasingly rare these days.

 

[HiLife]

What are the chances of that happening? Damn.
I hope leads pop up for you so you can get your rig back on the road.
The blessings part is, luckily the break didn't happen when you were wheeling it deep in the mountains.

 

[marcus clarkus]

What are the chances of that happening? Damn.
I hope leads pop up for you so you can get your rig back on the road.
The blessings part is, luckily the break didn't happen when you were wheeling it deep in the mountains.

Yep for sure. I was lucky I was in a safe spot to break down and easily get a tow.

I'm not sure what the chances of this happening are, but from my research I'm not the first. I think what contributed to it failing was:

1. High mileage (270k miles)

2. Lots of mountain highway driving which leads to hard/fast shifts. When I need to downshift from 4th to 3rd on a steep mountain highway, I do it somewhat aggressively so the shift happens fast and I don't slow down too much when I'm between gears.

3. Not enough lubrication (maybe). I replaced my clutch at 210k miles and my friend assembled the clutch fork while I was doing something else. I remember asking "did you put grease in the areas where I showed you earlier on that factory service manual page?" and he said "uh yeah I think"
I was rushing and should have checked his work but didn't. There was only a smudge of mushy/dirty grease at the ball-fork interface. If the friction here is too high, I could see it sticking and putting more stress on the bellhousing. I'll definitely use good high-temp grease on it and maybe reapply a little dab halfway through the clutch life. This is just my theory though.

 

[makeitso2008]

damn i thought my issues was my transfer case but i maybe in the same boat. I have a 4th gen though

 

[mtbtim]

I see you found our 2 part video for a Clutch Replacement. Hope it helps you out with the job. If you watched the whole video, you know we had major issues removing the bell housing bolts. Our reason for pulling the bell housing was to replace the input shaft seal as part of the clutch job, but after breaking off 3 bolts and having to drill them out and retap them, we decided to screw replacing the seal. If I were you, I'd approach the removal of those bell housing bolts very carefully. There is something about steel bolts into aluminum housings where corrosion basically welds the two together. We used an impact gun at first and I think that was a big mistake. Try removing them with a conventional ratchet and socket. Most will most likely come out without a fight. Those that fight you I would try the heat and penetrating oil over and over again to try to get them out cleanly and not breaking them off. Hope the job goes smooth for you.

Timmy the Toolman

 

[marcus clarkus]

damn i thought my issues was my transfer case but i maybe in the same boat. I have a 4th gen though

Nope, this is a manual transmission. You must have an auto if you have a 4th gen.

I see you found our 2 part video for a Clutch Replacement. Hope it helps you out with the job. If you watched the whole video, you know we had major issues removing the bell housing bolts. Our reason for pulling the bell housing was to replace the input shaft seal as part of the clutch job, but after breaking off 3 bolts and having to drill them out and retap them, we decided to screw replacing the seal. If I were you, I'd approach the removal of those bell housing bolts very carefully. There is something about steel bolts into aluminum housings where corrosion basically welds the two together. We used an impact gun at first and I think that was a big mistake. Try removing them with a conventional ratchet and socket. Most will most likely come out without a fight. Those that fight you I would try the heat and penetrating oil over and over again to try to get them out cleanly and not breaking them off. Hope the job goes smooth for you.

Timmy the Toolman

Yes I did see your video and the struggles you hard with bolts breaking. I replaced my clutch about two years ago (before the video was made) but I will definitely use your video to jog my memory in some areas. Thank you as always!
I bought a bell housing today for $100 from a scrapyard and I’m going to be extremely cautious when removing the bolts to my broken bell housing. Fingers crossed...