I have a 99 2.7L 4x4 5sp Tacoma.

Something in my clutch system has started acting up, and I'm having trouble tracking down exactly what the problem is.

Here are the symptoms:

The clutch will often not engage or disengage, especially in first gear. So, it will stall with the clutch fully depressed at a stop. Other times, I have to push the clutch multiple times before it will go in gear.

The clutch pedal feel is also soft.

When the truck is off, I have no trouble shifting between gears. The reservoir isn't low at all. The clutch isn't slipping either as far as I can tell. Any thoughts?

 

One possibility is a cracked/broken pedal bracket. Check the pedal mechanism carefully for 'unnatural' movement.

 

Check the pedal bracket, though I have never seen a problem with one of those.

Most likely you have a failing master or a failing slave cylinder. If you have to pump it multiple times, this tells me its the clutch master cylinder. New Clutch master cylinders are fairly cheap, and most stores carry them.

Make sure you bench bleed the clutch master (if you don't know how, Youttube it) and then bleed the clutch system out good once installed. Replaced all the fluid with NEW brake (aka clutch) fluid.

 

I bled the system, and saw no improvement. The reservoir was full before I started, so I don't think it's leaking. I'll swap out the master and slave cylinder, and see if that helps.

 

Bleeding a closed hydraulic system doesn't do anything other than cycle fluid through (cleaning the system). If air is somehow in the system, there is a problem. A closed hydraulic system should, in theory, last forever without needing to be bled. However, components fail requiring the system to be opened thus necessitating the bleed.

 

If you aren't leaking fluid, then it could be your slave cylinder. I've had slave cylinders go out on two different vehicles without them leaking. Both instances, I wasn't losing fluid, the components just went bad.

The symptoms that you are describing are tell-tale signs that your hydraulics are faulty. When you stall out at a stop, it's because your slave cylinder isn't doing it's job of pushing the fork, which pushes on the throw-out bearing, which releases pressure off of the pressure plate that is holding your clutch pad against the flywheel. In other words, your clutch is still engaged, and your drive-train stalls out the engine.

One way you can be sure that your hydraulic components arent doing their jobs, is locate your slave cylinder (it is located externally on the side of your tranny) and have a friend pump the clutch. As your friend pumps, you should see the rod of the slave cylinder push on the clutch fork. (it won't look like a fork to you, all you should see is the end of it with a divet that the slave cylinder rod fits into. the "forked" portion of it is internal to the bell housing)

It might be overkill, but I typically replace both the MC and the SC when either one of them go out. It's really frustrating to do all the work to replace one, get it bled, and a few days later, the other one goes out.

Good luck!

 

I'm definitely going to swap out the master and the slave cylinder.

 

I swapped out the parts, and everything seems to be working ok. Except, now my cruise control doesn't work. I'll have to track that down.

 

The cruise problem is most likely your pedal is not returning all the way and not contacting the cruise cancel switch.