Greetings
My 97 4runner has a shifting issue. Tranny sticks in low gear, won’t upshift with any kind of gas pedal applied. (Such as going up any hill or grade).
If I’m on level ground, floor it and suddenly release gas pedal pressure it will shift (sometimes) and it seems like a very hard shift. It’s fairly low mileage, less than 100k, and I recently had a transmission fluid change along with my reg oil change on the advice of my independent mechanic. (4k miles ago). I’m down in the Islands, and I know if I go to the Toyota dealership their gonna tell me I need a new transmission. Any ideas, like maybe dropping the pan/filter change first? All Ideas or suggestions welcomed. The CEK light just came on as well, I’m sure it’s related and I’m gonna get it read today.

 

Shift Lever Bushing? https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...+bushing,11077

Genuine stuff here: https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/...tra2=&filter=()

The design on these parts hasn't changed in forever. These look just like what I have on my '78 longbed with a W56 5 speed manual. Replacing these bushing isn't hard and usually make a big difference in shift quality.

 

I believe freightdogfreddy has an automatic.

I don't know anything about the '97 (this is the 86-95 forum). But on a '94 (A340H transmission), shifting into overdrive is limited by the ECT - it won't shift until warmed up. So if the ECT is bad, it won't shift.

The transmission "Throttle cable" (sometimes erroneously called a kick-down cable) doesn't control when the transmission shifts (you have a computer for that), but it controls how hard it shifts. This page http://web.archive.org/web/201408160...32prelimin.pdf has the adjustment procedure for an A340H. I have no idea what transmission you have.

 

Thanks! Hoping it’s just a solenoid—appreciate the advice.

 

I’ve worked a lot on my a340h transmission by now if that is what you have.

First check kickdown cable at your throttle. If there’s only one cable then Toyota switched to a pressure line by this point. I know they did some time for this trans I just don’t know when that was. Basically a non adjustable hydraulic pressure reading for the trans to figure things out. It should be about 1mm visible after the rubber boot on its cable.

Next I would say you can imply your transmission control computers and shift manually. It gives you only 3 low gears, but would definitely tell you if internal things on the trans are busted between 1,2, and 3. I could look up the shift pattern unless you get to that first. If I remember correctly park is still park, same on neutral, then 1,2,3? Don’t take my word as law though.

if it has problems with those shifts you can start thinking about actually fixing stuff.