jbtvt

'90 4Runner that is. Reverse has been grinding for months and getting worse, unless I shift from 4th into reverse really quickly. Then all the gears began taking a little more force to shift into. Pulling out of my driveway yesterday I pushed in the clutch, heard a "ping" and it wouldn't shift into gear. Turned it off, and would shift, but wouldn't start unless I pushed the clutch cancel switch. Clutch feels light also.

I was thinking that it was something easy up front, else why would the switch right under the pedal be affected, but on the linkage the rod is nearly fully extended already, and the when the clutch is depressed the slave pushes the fork. I was set to tear into the tranny, but seeing those bolts up top of the housing makes me really not want to struggle only to find that I'm overlooking something easy.

Anyone know of a reason why if my TO bearing, clutch plate, etc blew out, how that could possibly affect the clutch start switch? Should I just swap out the master for starters for the $25 it costs?

nmtoy

Check under the dash for a broken clutch pedal bracket. lots of threads on here about it.

Robb

jbtvt

Thank you SO much, you nailed it and saved me a ton of needless work. Easy to spot when you know what you're looking for.

nmtoy

I'm glad it turned out to be something fairly easy.

RobD

Yeah, that's what my first thought was, too. I pulled my clutch bracket out a couple years ago and attempted to weld the crack. Worked for a while, but went again last winter, so I pulled it all out, welded the crack back together, and then cut and shaped a reinforcing plate out of 16 gauge steel. Welded that onto it to strengthen it. So far, so good.

jbtvt

Thanks for the help! I pulled the base bracket out of an automatic parts rig (so no metal stress), it's the same base piece as the manual ones where the break always happens, but without the clutch bracket welded onto it.

Drilled out the 4 spot welds holding the clutch bracket onto the old base piece and rewelded to my new one, ground out the four spot welds holding each MC stud to it and tacked them into the new piece. I also welded a strip of metal at the top to span the gap between the two brackets so they would flex as one, not just flex in the corner where the break happens. Only minor issue on reinstall was the bolt hole at the top didn't quite line up, but a little prying fixed that. So far so good, and cheap as free!