dlbrunner

So I pulled the biggest Dumba$$ trick this weekend.

I am in the middle of a major teardown, resurfaced flywheel, new clutch, put in a replacement 5 speed with my old t-case. I got everything back in this weekend, but when I was putting the slave back onto the bellhousing, I stripped one of the bolts.

I really don't want to pull the whole thing back out and use my old bellhousing. So I am looking for alternatives. I figure I will have to drill out and retap one of the holes so I can mount the slave.

What I am looking for is what size tap should I use, what size drill bit. Also any hints on not screwing this up any more?

Yesterday sucked, I discovered a coolant leak from the thermostat/water pump. (due for timing belt anyway) The radiator I put in a year and a half ago has some corrosion appearing also.

Then to top it all off, as I was cleaning up yesterday, I dropped a small floor jack straight on my big toe. I have a sweet black toenail now. The funny thing about the toe, as I was putting my sandals on, before going to work on the truck, I was thinking "I really should put some shoes on".

thanks in advance.

Elvota

Sorry to hear about your woes.

I stripped a bolt for my slave cylinder over a year ago... and have been running with just one ever since. My plan is to repair the threads with a Heli-coil kit when I drop the tranny for my upcoming 3.4 swap. Just letting you know the slave can be run successfully with one bolt... if that is all you have.

For me, I could see no way to access the hole without dropping the tranny first. Maybe an angle drill and very short bit. I have a frame rail clearance issue that stops me from the fix. My guess is it's a 10mm or 8mm bolt... not that you couldn't have guessed that already. Heli-Coil removes all the remaining thread anyway and starts over... so you could go with what ever thread pitch you wished.

As for radiator, I got mine local at "Performance Radiator". Works very well and appears to be of good quality.

As for your toe... that happened a week to late. You could have added some orange and been very festive for Halloween.

dlbrunner

Thanks!, I forgot about the helicoil. Where would one source that?

The bolt took a 12mm socket, so I'm not sure what the thread size is?

I was able to get a long extension (12") to the slave bolts with a universal on the end through the wheel well (wheels removed). I found it easier to get to the two top bellhousing bolts through the wheel well also.

as for 1 bolt. The one that stripped was the one near the rear of the car, when my buddy pushed the clutch in, the slave moved, rather than the lever being pushed in. I can't remember is the one bolt was all that tight, I decided to call it a day after that stripping fiasco, 10 hours in the carport was getting old.

My toe was like a cartoon last night, swollen, red and throbbing.

Elvota

Heli-Coil can be found at most auto stores... NAPA is probably the best. They are kinda spendy, but maybe we can go halves or something, since I need that same size as well. I actually have one or two sizes in my toolbox. I'll try and remember to look tonight and see what sizes I have.

In regards to figuring out the thread size, I always go down to the local ACE hardware. They have a vast selection of bolts, but do on occasion have limited stock on fine pitch/ large diameter metric bolts. You can at least get the diameter and probably just disregard the thread pitch if you are going to Heli-Coil. Of course, you would need to get a bolt that matches the new Heli-Coil pitch.

I think the bolt closer to the bumper failed on mine... so the leverage would be different. Seems to me if you could some how put the bolt in the stripped hole to act like a pin you'd be all right. The one good bolt holds the slave to the tranny, and the second stripped bolt would act more like a placeholder. My stripped bolt is still in there, just not very tight.

Good idea with access through the wheel well. The problem I have with an in vehicle repair of the bolt is you have to drill perfectly straight to keep from messing things up and getting the Heli-Coil to work properly. If you have a good line of site to the problem thread... you might be able to pull it off.

dlbrunner

Elvota

I'll pick up the helicoil thingy. If I can get it to work, the other one is yours. I would like to use the stock size bolt and I have a bucket of metric hardware from tearing down that P/U I have.

I thought about the pin idea, but there is not enough threads to even bite.

At this point to try and save heartache, I will attempt the in vehicle repair. If that fails, I still have my old bellhousing, I really don't want to pull everything back out again.

The tranny i put in is of unknown condition, so I may be up the creek anyway. My plan is to ship my old 5spd off to marlin for a rebuild when the tax return comes (maybe a dual case too ).

dlbrunner

yota4runna:

Thanks! That was the spec I was looking for.

dlbrunner

FYI- A heli coil kit is 37 bucks from napa, it comes with a tap, a insert tool and 10 inserts.

I did not get one yet, I might have a hookup at NAPA with a buddy for a discount.

If anyone in AZ needs to borrow this puppy, I will be more than happy yo loan it out

RobD

I stripped my bolts off doing my 3.4 swap. Heli-Coiled it with no problems. Just for good measure, I threw on some thread locker, too, but I'm not sure you'd really need it. Just be careful you don't over-tighten your bolts and ruin your Heli-Coil.

dlbrunner

I bought the helicoil kit, and promtly returned it.

My cousin is staying with me, so I put him to work yesterday helping me. He suggested I buy the proper size tap and try and clean the threads a little, and try to get the bolt to "bite a little bit. IT WORKED!!

Huston, we have liftoff! I finished up the yesterday, so far this is the list of work done:

Resurfaced flywheel
Installed clutch
New throw out bearing
Installed used tranny
Replaced rear oil seal on trans
Replaced oil seal and gasket on transfer nosecone
mated up the old t-case to the "new" tranny.
oil and filter change
replaced lower radiator hose
replaced thermostat
Flushed cooland system and refilled with 50/50 toyota red and distilled water
replaced both shifter seats (this is a pain)
buttoned her all up.

Impressions: The old clutch must have been destroyed, I used a stock clutch to replace, and the pedal pressure is a lot harder than before. I attribute this to worn diaphragm springs. The new tranny is ok, not great. It does not make any noise, but it wants to grind when I downshift to second. I really don't care though, it is a temporary fix till I can send my original tranny to marlin for a rebuild. I have 1st gear now for the first time in 6 months, so I am all good.

I have noticed a lot of clutch problem threads lately. Word to the wise: This is the fourth time over the years I have pulled a manual trans from a vehicle and replaced clutch etc... It is not an easy job for one person to do. You have to be organized, have all your stuff ready to go when you start so you don't have to make 9000 trips to the dealer/parts store. Have a flat, level, SMOOTH surface to put the tranny jack on. Sweep the shop before you pull the truck in. Have an assistant available. If using an air ratchet, start the threads by hand first. I could have done the job in two full days if I would have been better prepared, instead the truck sat for about two weeks. Don't wait till Sunday morning to start.

Elvota

Glad you got it all back together. That's a long list.

Nice save with the tap as well. I'll have to give that a shot myself when the time comes.

dlbrunner

I threw caution to the wind and embarked on a 800 mile (or so) road trip to Baja to watch the 40th running of the baja 1000, with the unproven transmission. Not incredibly bright, but it all panned out ok.

The new to me trans is having a few issues. it seems to grind a little bit when downshifting from 4th to 3rd and from 3rd to 2nd .

At this point I think I have another slave cylinder issue. I drove from phoenix to San Felipe without a hitch. No obscene noise from the trans, no excessive heat on the stick or through the floorboards. From San Felipe we drove over the hills towards Mikes Sky ranch where we were about 120 miles in the race. From there we drove to Ensenada (at night, muy scary) and up to Tecate the next day. I was feeling pretty confident up until I was 50 miles from Tecate, and without warning I could not get the trans out of gear, and the clutch pedal went to the floor. No cell phone signal. I started to get a little nervous. I pumped the pedal a few more times and I got back into gear and made a mad dash for the border.

Long story short, The problem seemed to fix itself, but it has been intermittant. I believe there is either air in the slave line or I could have kinked the line when I had the slave moved out of the way. I did not bleed the system either when I did the service. I am hoping that there is a little air in the line, and once bled, I will get a longer "throw" on the slave, which will stop the grind I am getting while downshifting. If the grind is still there, I can live with it for a few months till my original tranny gets a rebuild.

The other weird thing I noticed, was the RPMs on the freeway were a little higher at given speeds than I recall. Does anyone know if the 5-1-5 gearset or the turbo r150 has a lower 5th gear? I highly doubt this tranny is any different than my stock one, because it has the chain drive t-case, but I don't know.

Now the engine needs attention, it has a pretty good hesitation upon starting out in gear, so I need to definitely do the plugs and wires, and get a tune. Then will come the timing belt. I have a long winter ahead getting this service stuff done, but you gotta do it!

dlbrunner

So my intermittant problem has gone bad.

Friday after work I was on my way home from work and the clutch started behaving very badly....again... There was a wierd thud noise when I pushed the clutch pedal down and the truck would not come out of gear very easily.

I limped her home and pouted for a while. On Saturday I got my dad to come down and help me bleed the slave cylinder, I was thinking it may have air or grit or something in there. Well the cylinder would not bleed properly, so I bought a new clutch master cylinder and installed. The new one bled just fine, so I ran a fair bit of fluid through the new unit and line to clean out any old gunk in there. I thought GREAT! problem solved... Wrong.

I adjusted the pedal and fired up the truck. for the first few shifts it seemed ok, but the problem kept coming back, pedal to the floor, funny noises coming from the trans, not wanting to come out of gear.

I am at a loss. I strongly suspect it could be a clutch issue. The clutch I installed was used, but it had almost 0 wear on it, and the pressure plate still had machine grooves on it.

I was positive I put lock tite and tourqued down the pressure plate bolts. I installed the clutch disk the right way round. I put in a new throw out bearing.

When the truck is at idle and in neutral there is no noise. it appears to be fine. When I push the clutch in funky noises occur and it won't go into gear at all. My diagnosis is a bad clutch, but am I missing anything here? The other possibility, is the trans is bad. But with that, I would assume horrible noises would happen even when the truck is in neutal and the truck is at idle. Unless the input shaft is ok but the counter or main shaft is bad.

Help!

dlbrunner

Oh yeah. I drained the tranmission oil and it was a little cloudy, not too bad. I thought maybe the seal I replaced may not have worked and the fluid maybe went into the void between tranny and transfer. Not the case, all the fluid I put in came back out.

surf4runner

possibly a bad slave cylinder this whole time???

readjust and see how that does...

dlbrunner

Not sure. The slave is getting plenty of throw, I think.

I'll try to readjust, but the truck makes bad noises when the clutch is pushed in.

Elvota

You mention the clutch was used... what condition are the bearings?

Do you know why the clutch was sold? Maybe the previous owner had an issue they couldn't figure out as well.

dlbrunner

I am thinking the same thing. The throwout is new, I bought it. The clutch disk did look different than my original, but it ran fine for 1000 miles.

When I end up doing a tranny rebuild, I was going to get a new clutch then.
I'll just get a new one now and see if that works. At least the new clutch will be there ready to go after the tranny rebuild next year.

The guy was selling an entire drivetrain he bought for a project from what I understand. he had a 3.slo, r150 etc

dlbrunner

I think luck is on my side. MArlin has the heavy duty clutch kit on sale!

They have three choices, the heavy duty, super heavy duty and ceramic.

I will go with the standard heavy duty. Why? It is a little stouter than stock and should do fine on the trails I like to run. my truck sees a lot more driving in town and I have chicken legs.


If anyone needs a new clutch, now is the time to get it from Marlin.
http://www.marlincrawler.com/htm/tra...ion/clutch.htm

135 bucks ain't bad. Napa wants $189

Actually on the trail, I would rather have an auto now, but I don't