I just swapped out the torsion spring with a tension spring from a 94 4runner. The part number is found earlier in this artical. Much love even after all these years.

It was a bitch to get the old spring out but it still took me about 5 minutes.

 

Okay guys, just to give myself better odds of not completely screwing this up... How should I pry out this spring? Specifically after wrapping this bad boy in a towel where should I place the lever to pry it out? In the spring itself? What direction should I pull it? What position should the pedal be in... depressed or untouched? I take it you pry off on the close end then screw it out of that middle piece?

I bought the clutch pedal return spring already listed here its a small black spring but it doesn't have any plastic on the ends to prevent squeaking. The parts that look to be failling on my assembly are those thin tiny white bushings that hold on that big coiled spring.


At long last had a neighbor with a pry bar help me. Popped out the old spring and put in clutch pedal return spring and it works great. I actually much prefer it to the original even before it was making that heinous noise.

 

My newly aquired 97 runner has this same freaking squeak along with the stiff clutch described above. I decided to do some web research to augment info from this thread.

In case your still curious,

I found something pretty interesting. I think its Toyotas patent for the helical spring design at the center of this discussion. Of course I may be wrong. The patent clearly shows how this design both retracts and assists the clutch pedal depending on its position just as several members stated. I spent like 4 hours going through that site searching for better designs I may be able to use. Talk about smoke coming out of my ears HOLY Batman


http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4907468.pdf

 

I have an 01 tacoma with a squeaky clutch. I read about this on a different forum where they used this thread as their referance. I was worried about trying this because I'm not a mechanic at all, have never removed a clutch spring before, and I didn't know if i could return it if the new spring didn't work. But this fix is a breeze. Follow directions and its easy and works like a charm.
I've been listening to that damn squeak for a full year now. I had taken it to two different mechanics who couldn't fix it and I had given up. As if the squeak wasn't bad enough, the clutch pedal wouldn't return to its normal position so every time i changed gears, i would have to lift the pedal back up an extra inch to its normal position. Pain in the ass. This fixed both those problems. I can enjoy driving again.
Also, there is no true value here in timbuktoo, ky only Ace Hardware. I bet you could find these same springs at any hardware store. At Ace I purchased three springs to be safe. #58U, #56U, and #66U. The #66U was the thinnest and looked the most like true value#70, so I tried it first. It was 6" long, .047 gauge wire, and outside diameter was 1/2". I didnt think it would work I thought it would be too weak, but it did work. It was about 20 minuites worth of work. The clutch has no squeek, and feels factory. It also returns all the way to its resting position. Thanks

 

After reading the repair for a squeaky clutch return spring on this site, I tried it on my 2000 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 The whole job took about an hour. I had the truck in @ Toyota 4 times and twice they charged me $ 125.00 & twice free. Thank you to whoever posted this. John

 

I sorta just browsed through all the comments, so if this is at all redundant I apologize ahead of time. I just did this spring mod tonight.... I lined up the screw driver (after taking off the panel below the steering wheel) right where the spring connects into the tang and under the bulk of the spring, then I jammed the towel right in front of the whole mass and pryed till it popped out. Then I took a pair of huge channel locks and bent the tang out of the way so it wasn't rubbing against the new spring... perhaps when I have more time and it isn't dark I will grind the tang out all together. I like the feel better now then the wonky engagement of the old spring. I also realized that none of my bushings were actually shot and my noise was coming from the bar going into the clutch master cylinder (shot a little lithium grease in there and its all good now). Lastly I used the #70 spring (Sebo's had one) I put it on the brake and used the brake spring on the clutch. Awesome fix all in all. I think even though I didn't need it, I'm definately keeping it.

 

Would depressing the clutch midway aid in prying out the torsional spring?

Based on the comments in this thread, I'm assuming the torsional spring acts only in the beginning and end of the clutch pedal's travel. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyone had any issues running no spring at all? My pedal already has some difficulty actuating the cruise control button

 

Removed the torsion spring last night, was fairly easy with a big flathead. Didn't remove any covers, just layed on my back with safety glasses on, and pryed it off. I went at from one the end of the spring where the it goes into a white plastic bushing (vs the middle where it fits in the tang). Then I did the other side and it came out quite easily.

No Ace hardware here, so I tried a linear spring taken from an old desk lamp. It was under 5 inches but it stretched quite easily, and wasn't difficult to mount.

Pedal feel is good, not much different from before, and it seems like it returns to the top more solidly then stock, we'll see if I still have to occasionally pop it up to get the cruise working as before..hopefullly not.

Squeak remained after the mod, but only on really quick downstrokes of the pedal... so much better. I think the remaining squeak is coming from the interface between the pedal and the bolt with the cotter pin (where I attached the spring). Will try properly greasing it. Seems to be some play there so I thought about pulling the bolt and putting it back on with some plastic washers at either end.

Thanks to everyone for this thread!

 

Dissassembled the master cylinder from the pedal (one little clip to remove plus unhooking the new spring) then reassembled with a washer on the side that was rubbing. No more squeaks. So for me there were two squeaks, one from the torsion spring plastic bushing (or lack of) and the other from the pin/pedal/cylinder rod interface.

Cruise now works beautifully as well.

 

This thread has been around forever, wow! This mod just made my day - my clutch feels awesome now!

One question - if the spring is too taught will it cause any issues? The only spring I could find was a 5" one that was designed for garage door openers and is quite taught.

And one addition to the installation that I thought I'd share. Instead of wrapping rags around the torsion spring, I put a couple zap-straps (zip-ties others call them) through the spring and around the bracket it is in. Then when I lodged the spring out of its sockets the zap straps kept it right in place. Made it safe and easy. Just my 2 cents.

Cheers.

 

Thanks for this!

I did a 5 speed swap on my 4Runner. Unfortunately, the donor truck the clutch pedal came from had 170k miles, the bushing was long gone and the metal was chewed.

Just grabbed the spring from the old automatic brake pedal, gonna swap them ASAP.

 

Greetings from 2013.

Just registered to say this mod is great and stopped the pedal squeak on my 2004 Tacoma. Awesome!! Thanks OP!!

Problem is, now I can hear the squeak coming from the actual clutch under the car where the shifting arm enters through the dust shield. Oh well.

Thanks again!! Works great!!

 

Squeak is likely from the contact of the slave cylinder piston on the clutch fork. Dab some grease in the recess around the slave piston

 

This is the spring im looking for but cant find a part for it. ideas?

 

I used a spring from a standard desk lamp. Put it in about a year ago, still going strong. I've been carrying a spare just in case, but haven't needed to use it.

 

I just did this mod and it's fantastic! Definitely easier to remove the panel, but mainly because I have an annoying remote starter module there. Since I'm in Canada I went to Napa and they had a universal carburetor spring (675-5177). 9" long and straight on both ends, so I could bend it to whatever length I wanted.
The spring did snag on the metal "U" section where the old spring swiveled causing some minor noise. I'm fortunate to own a dremel with a flex shaft attachment so I cut off half the "U" piece and the spring no longer touches it. There was a small amount of noise from the piston, so I hit that with some silicone spray. As quiet as can be now.
Thanks Unhappy, you rock!

 

Spring works great! Thanks

 

This is something I have put off doing for a long time.

2000 Tacoma 3.4

The spring was no big deal to pop off or at least I did not think so.

Now I just didn`t have a spring to replace it with I figure with all these Yota vehicles being parted out some thing would work.

I had a 6/86 4x4 pick up 5 speed the Brake return spring worked perfect Better then the Brake return spring from the Tacoma I tried

While I was there I removed the switch on the clutch linkage.

Put it all back together

 

now why would you removed the switch on the clutch linkage?

 

Because it has not been hooked up since I bought the truck it was just another piece that did nothing.

Since I was up in there and had easy access it came out.