My clutch is pretty stiff but otherwise working fine. I thought maybe doing unhappy's spring removal would help, but if anything it made it harder (I now have no return spring). The deal is I have knee injury and this is actually hurting it, moreso my wife has back issues and pretty much refuses to drive it (mostly that is fine with me but bad for long trips).

So what is making the clutch so hard to depress?
Faulty or worn slave or master cylinders?
Clutch worn and dirt accumulating?
Other aspects of a clutch workings that can affect this?

Or is this simply how the clutch is in the 4runners (recent drive in multiple manual trans car highlighted this)? I do have 110K it but no slipping yet.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

I have a 99 and just replaced the clutch....pedal effort before and after is not bad (high)....there are a number of things that could contribute...the throwout bearing could be hanging on the nose that it slides on, the clutch disc could be hanging on the splines, the pressure plate could be hanging up during depression. I doubt that it is your master or slave cylinder but I guess if the slave got rust in it movement would be restricted. My bet is the problem is inside of your bellhousing with one of the first three items above. Good luck - tell us what you find....

 

So your pedal feel is similar from old to new clutch? And is it also pretty heavy/stiff?

My guess it is probably is dust or wearing issues somewhere inside the bell housing. I have to lube the pivot arm to get rid of squeak and it actually sometimes help the clutch movement. I just hoped there was a simpler solution than replacing the clutch. First though I will have to reinstall the return spring as it actually helped (missing bushing or not).

 

update, according to a mechanic at Toyota it is due to a worn clutch. Pressure plate gets harder as it gets worn down. Anyone agree or disagree.

With $1800 pricetag for a new clutch I can live with stiffness for a while longer

 

i been driveing my moms truck and its got a new clutch its really easy to push in today i moved my 4runner wow can u say stiff it was weird

 

"So your pedal feel is similar from old to new clutch? And is it also pretty heavy/stiff?"

The pedal feel is similar but not stiff at all. I just installed a clutch from Marlin Crawler and while it is supposed to have 25% more force, the pedal effort is the same or less than the previous one - very smooth and low effort...


"update, according to a mechanic at Toyota it is due to a worn clutch. Pressure plate gets harder as it gets worn down. Anyone agree or disagree.

With $1800 pricetag for a new clutch I can live with stiffness for a while longer"

I don't know about what the mechanic says - all worn clutches I have replaced either chattered or slipped....I can't imagine that the extra .060 inch pressure plate travel would cause binding or high effort...

I do know that the $1,800 quote is a rip off. I just spent $430 to replace my clutch, rear main seal, shifter seat and synthetic lube for my tranny, t'case and frront diffy. (did the job myself...) I would get another quote. I do not feel that this is a job that has to be done by the stealership - just make sure whomever does it uses factory parts (or from Marlin Crawler). You should be able to get this done for $1200 or less....

Good luck - let us know how it goes...

 

Thanks for the advice guys

Elton was your mum truck stiff before the clutch job? Might be normal with an old clutch.


Finelygotone
The mechanic comment was that the more the clutch is worn the more pressure is needed as the pressure plate is worn down and simply has less to flex with (I have no idea if he is correct or full of it).

I put my return spring (at the pedal) back and that made it a bit easier (the spring actually helps pressing the pedal to the floor in a addition to holding it the very last bit when back up). Getting the spring back in was a b!tch.

I will wait to the clutch is slipping before I replace it and avoid the dealer for that service.

 

man $1800 sounds insane, i spent $675 for mine at a local shop. look up some shops around your city that are not Toyota stealerships. i wouldn't expect to pay any more than what i did or maybe alittle more.

 

not really was about the same

 

Is it stiff all of a sudden? Or has it been a gradual increase? If it is sudden, I would just check the linkage as said before. Maybe the cold weather has affected your knee.

 

Nah, it just seemed quite stiff when going from a few other manuals I drove over the holidays (cars not trucks though). My knee is problematic too, bad weather or not, I have tendonitis and trying to heal a meniscus problem.

I did a few things to help with shifting in general
1) adjusted the clutch a bit to disengage a bit higher point
2) greased the slave cylinder pushrod and pivot fork in the bellhousing as the squeaked
Both made shifting a bit easier.
I will look around for better prices on a clutch job when this gets old.
Cheers