I am the 3rd owner of a '90, V6, 5spd, 4runner w/ 211,000 miles. The clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, pilot bearing was replaced by a dealership at 103,500. The flywheel was also resurfaced at that time.

The clutch does not slip -- at all -- ever. It does not chatter or grab. It engages normally, except that the pedal is all the way to the floor; I have about 8-10 of slack in the pedal, 90% of the stroke is slack. The pedal returns just fine too.

The current symptom is: clutch begins to disengage about 2 inches from the floor. When the pedal is buried in the carpet I can shift into any gear. I have adjusted the linkage on the pedal where it actuates the master cylinder and have bled the system at the slave. Some air did come out of the line, and it may have helped a little. We did not bleed it to the point that we're pushing clean fluid out the slave petcock, but about 8-10 full cycles of the slave cylinder. Can we logically say which component(s) are the problem? Should I replace the parts in ascending order according to cost...slave,...master,...clutch???

 

Hmmm... well if they're not leaking they should be working. I would bleed it more until you have clear fluid. Are you sure you're not letting air back in when you bleed? Also, have you adjusted the linkage in the cab as much as you can for higher engagement?

No use in swapping parts if you don't know which one's broken... although we've all done it out of desparation.

 

It sounds like mine on occasion when the fluid level gets low. I have a leak though in the slave so I expect it to do this every 2 weeks or so and keep adding the fluid to keep it topped off.

It has to be in the line IMO. Try bleeding it as many times as it takes, another trick I learned was let it sit overnight with the cap of the resevoir off and see if gravity takes care of it

HTH

 

I had a slave cylinder go out 3 hours from home once. It didnt leak at all. wound up driving it without the clutch all the way home. replaced it and havent had a problem since. I would try bleeding the lines again and check for full motion from the slave cylinder when the clutch pedal is pushed in.

 

not sure about the 2nd gen runners but but my 84 and 88 there is an adjustment under the dash

 

Sounds to me like there still may be air in the slave cylinder. Bleeding clutches has always been a pain for me. This guy's method - although sounding crackpot - does seem to work.

http://www.v8archie.com/arch4.htm

 

I would check the slave cylinder if you even suspect it you can usually buy a rebuild kit for under $10. I had a similar situation on my 1990 ex cab but it turned out to be the clutch/brake pedal bracketry. It was just like yours but I kept running mine until eventually I had to shut the motor off to get it into gear. Mine was cracked in many places allowing all my pedal travel to be absorbed into bending the crap out of the bracket. You may want to stick your head under the dash and have a look. Mine was broken so badly that it was starting to push out through the firewall but my brake pedal worked fine still. I had to pull the the dash apart to remove it. Once removed I bent it back into shape and welded the crap out of it with the wire feed. When I got to looking I could tell it had been broken for a long time since the mechanic for the PO tried to weld it up with a stick welder!

 

I appreciate the input. I will check the clutch pedal mounting hardware and try bleeding the system again. I have already adjusted it to the max at the master cylinder. Then if that doesn't fix it, I will put a slave kit in and go from there.