cursedtalon

I am going to be changing my clutch tomorrow (In preperation for my towing expedition late next week) and have some questions before I begin. First, I have a 99' 3.4 4wd with 117,000 miles. The clutch is not slipping yet but there is a slight squeal that goes away when the clutch is disengaged (pedal pushed in) that I am assuming is either the pilot bearing or the release bearing. As a side note I taught 3 people how to drive standard :pat: in the course of those 117,000 miles (two of which did not go so well, visible smoke from under the truck on one occasion ) so I figured I would change the clutch disc, pressure plate, pilot bearing, and release bearing. All the parts are Toyota (thanks Conicelli ) with the disc and pressure plate being remanufactured Toyota.
This is the first time I have ever done this so I have some questions. I have a haynes manual that I will be following.

1. I am under the assumption that the pilot bearing and release bering are sealed units and do not need to be lubed correct?

2. The clutch disc part # is 31250-35352-84 . I want to make sure this is the correct part before I begin. My manual says to install the clutch disc with the damper springs towards the transmission but both sides have damper springs but one side where the damper springs are sticks out about 1 inch from the disc surface. I'm sure I ordered the right one but I am just being paranoid and would like to double check.

3. I need to clean the flywheel and pressure plate with brake cleaner. Do I need to clean the clutch disc surface as well?

4. Torque specs in the Haynes manual are
pressure plate to flywheel bolts 14 ft-lbs
transmission to engine bolts 53 ft-lbs
transmission mount bolts 13 ft-lbs
transmission crossmember bolts 43 ft-lbs
Flywheel/driveplate bolts 61 ft-lbs plus loc-tite
Are these correct and should loc-tite only be used on the flywheel bolts?

5. What is the reccomended break-in period/procedure?

Sorry for the long post but I just don't want to miss anything. thanks,

Mike

toy283

1. This is correct. No maintenance required for either bearing, just replace them when they go bad or when you replace the clutch.

2. You will find it impossible to fit the disk the other way. The higher raised side has to go toward the transmission, it will interfere with the flywheel if installed backwards.

3. At the very least, thoroughly clean the flywheel with brake cleaner. If there is any scoring or burning, take the flywheel to a machine shop and have it ground. I'd also hose off (and let dry) the disc and pressure plate with the brake cleaner immediately before assembly to make sure there is no grease on the surfaces. This is especially important as some pressure plates come coated with a protective layer of grease or something similar to prevent corrosion while in storage.

4. Those sound about right from all the clutches I've ever done. Don't have a torque spec for your year though. The only ones you need to seriously worry about proper torque are flywheel-crankshaft and pressure plate-flywheel. The rest, I would torque if it's convenient, otherwise just get them good and tight. Accurately torquing bellhousing bolts is downright impossible unless the whole thing is sitting on a workbench. You can use locktight on any of those, but I would only go blue. Give it a few hours to set up before spinning the engine. You can use this wait time to reinstall the transmission, etc.

5. There really isn't a "break-in" period for a clutch. Just don't ride it, but you don't do that anyway, do you?

FWIW, if you get it done in less than 3:14, let me know. That's my current record for swapping out a Toyota 4wd clutch, start to finish, solo. Also, if you have about 3-4' worth of socket extensions and tip the whole engine & transmission downward, those top bellhousing bolts come out much easier.

MTL_4runner

1) I am not sure and would need to see a pic to verify that. You should definately replace those bearings while you are in there (it can save you a ton of headache later!!!)

2) I am pretty sure you have the right part....you can verify with another dealer. It will be impossible to install it incorrectly so don't worry about that. Make sure to get a clutch alighment tool so it is held in place properly while you torque the pressure plate bolts.

3) As it is the same with doing brake rotors, you really should take the flywheel off and bring it to a machine shop to be resurfaced. Failure to do so can cause problems but I have seen it done before successfully as well. Really a crapshoot on your part if you decide not to. At the very least, you should clean it with brake cleaner and give it a good sanding with some 320 grit sandpaper to break any glaze that might have built up. If you see any blueing or dark areas after cleaning it should be machined.

4) Your torque specs look good and I would use the blue loctite on everything just to be sure it stays there. Make sure to wait the correct amount of time before test driving the car to make sure it has time to set.

5) Justr drive it normally and skip the Mario Andretti stuff.

Albuquerque Jim

This is a great write up on a 3rd gen

Clutch Replacement .

The only other comment I have is that you do need to grease the throw out bearing inside where it rides on the input shaft. Use some high temp disk brake grease. If you have any other questions call and talk to Marlin @ Marlin Crawler . He knows everything thwere is to know about these trannys, but prepare for a long call.

I speak from experience of not doing it and I ended up with a squeal when it's in neutral and the clutch is out.

It took me a solid 8 hours in my driveway by myself to do the job.

cursedtalon

Thanks for the info. I am still concerned about having the wrong clutch disc or maybe pressure plate. Since the "raised" side of the clutch goes towards the transmission, I tried to set the disc on the pressure plate and it did not sit down all the way on there. The raised portion of the disc will not pass through the pressure plate center to allow the friction surface to come into contact with the machined portion of the pressure plate. Sorry for the bad explanation (I need a digital camera). I really don't want to take out the transmission only to find out I have the wrong parts because I don't have enough time to send these back and get the correct ones before I leave to go back to Wyoming. Thanks again for the replies.

Mike

Mystickal

The raised portion of the clutch disk goes towards the engine.

It nestles quite nicely inside the hollowed out center of the flywheel.

I replaced the pilot and release bearing, clutch disk, and pressure plate on my 96 V-6 5-speed about 3 weeks ago (also ordered from Conicelli!). We also had difficulty in deciding which way the disk should go, as the Haynes manual says that it should be marked "flywheel side" or something similar, and if it is not marked to put the springs toward the transmission.

Well, like you mentioned, the springs are on both sides of the disk, and there wasn't anything that mentioned "flywheel side." If you look closely, though, there should be an engraving that says C/C or C/C side - something like that (I forget exactly which). Well, at first we thought that C/C meant Crankcase, which really didn't make any sense, but since the crankcase is towards the engine, we tried that. It didn't work.

On page 8-2 of the Haynes manual, we found the solution in the exploded diagram. C/C is Clutch Cover - that side goes towards the clutch cover. You can also see that the side of the clutch disk that is facing the transmission is the smoother side, not the side with the raised portion. So, to answer your questions:

#1 - Yes, they are sealed. However, you should lubricate the input shaft, release lever, the portion of the release bearing that engages the release lever, and the bearing retainer around the inpt shaft. Before you take off the release bearing, make sure you know how the bearing is engaged by the lever. We didn't, and it took us a little figuring on how it was supposed to go.

#2 - See above. I don't have the part number handy, but it sounds right from how you describe the clutch.

#3 - You shouldn't use brake cleaner on the clutch surface. There also shouldn't be any grease on that surface. If you should get grease on it, I would wipe it carefully with a dry lint-free cloth. But we were just careful and didn't get anything on the clutch plate. We did use brake cleaner on the flywheel and pressure plate, however.

#4 - We used the torque specs in the Haynes manual. The only problem we had was tearing up a socket - we used a 12-pt socket when we were torqueing down the flywheel bolts. 12 pts couldn't take it, the socket gave. Moral: Use 6-pt tools!

#5 - With ANY clutch replacement, you should drive gently for the first 500 miles (that includes no towing!) If you don't do this, you do risk premature wearing of the clutch or the flywheel (chattering, etc). For this reason, it is also recommended that you remove the flywheel and have it resurfaced. This is also generally a requirement to ensure that any warranty on the clutch is valid (ie a lot of times they will not replace the clutch if the flywheel was not resurfaced and there is a problem later).

~Bill

cursedtalon

Thanks for the reply. I guess I am just overly paranoid because of the amount of work involved, my timeframe and this being the first time doing this. I will get >500 miles hopefully before towing my new (to me) car back to Wyoming. Gotta love this 70 degree weather here in Texas in January. I better get to working on this, because somehow I feel the weather in Wyoming will not be so favorable

Mike

MTL_4runner

Try Montreal in the middle of winter!

cursedtalon

Winter sucks
Temperature 14 °F / -10 °C
Windchill 0 °F / -18 °C
Humidity 79%
Dew Point 9 °F / -13 °C
Wind WNW at 12 mph / 19.3 km/h
Wind Gust -
Pressure 29.76 in / 1007 hPa (Steady)
Conditions Overcast
Visibility 10 miles / 16 kilometers
Clouds
(Above Ground Level) Mostly Cloudy (BKN) : 3000 ft / 916 m
Overcast (OVC) : 3700 ft / 1129 m


History & Almanac
Max Temperature Min Temperature
Normal 25 °F / -3 °C 8 °F / -13 °C
Record 48 °F / 8 °C (1981) -32 °F / -35 °C (1974)
Yesterday 30 °F / -1 °C 9 °F / -13 °C

Hey, but the wind was below 30 Mph