Alright folks, here's the story:
I own a 98SR5, 4x4, V6 with a manual transmission with 126k miles on it. for the past several months, shifting has been an utter nightmare---the clutch was rather stiff and i'd have to put a lot of force into the stick to put it into 1st gear. Sometimes it got so bad that i had to put it into 2nd and jam it into 1st. i know some of you know what i'm talking about, so i'll leave it at that. oh, ive been using Redline MT-90 as my t-fluid. great stuff.
So on Friday, i had my mechanic install the clutch kit. I decided to buy an Aisin clutch kit from a guy on ebay who i know other members have bought theirs from. Clutch kit was as advertised, so at this point, i'm ruling out the clutch kit as a culprit. i'm also ruling out the MC and SC, as these were replaced about 25k at the same time by my mechanic. no air in the lines, no cracked lines, no cracks in the clutch pedal, etc, etc. clutch and shifting is very fluid and smooth---its like driving it right off the lot, so im happy in this regard. According to him, everything went fine w/ the install. no hiccups. as i instructed, i had him resurface the flywheel. i picked up my 4runner a few hours later. and not even three blocks down the street, i noticed that there is this ... sound. its definitely coming from the transmission, but it is only noticeable in 3rd and 4th gears under moderate to heavy throttle. For example, i put it into first, no sound. in second gear, still no sound but a *teeny* bit of vibration in the stick. Now in third gear, that is when i hear this noise which can be best described as a harsh ch-ch-chatter that is proportionate to the rpm/speed. in fifth gear, there is no sound. now in 3rd and 4th, if you give it gas up to the high end of the rpm band, the sound disappears. weird.
while slightly relevant, the thing that bothered me about my mechanic (who has been very reliable for me) was that he did not tell me about this condition. his excuse was that he thought this condition always existed. i thought that was stupid and i think he knew that when he saw my reaction. anyways, i took it back to him today and he said he took it to his friend's tranny shop. they both agreed that it was in the tranny, but he said he couldn't tell what it was unless he took it apart ($$$$)
so i took it to my local toyota dealership to see if they could add some insight to the problem. they said "its in the transmission." they checked the MT fluid and it was full, so no problem there. they did say that there was some small metal shavings and they suggested that i replace the transmission at some point in the near future. they also checked to see if the rear driveshaft's match marks on the dshaft and the flange were properly matched and they were.
but yeah, bull###. i think this is all an installation error. i did not have this noise at all before the clutch replacement, so i really dont think i have a worn transmission. furthermore, good ol mike nevitt (azrain) posted this reply to me when i contacted him:
Was the pilot bushing replaced? Also, on the Toyota trans (IIRC) the alignment between the engine block and trans are critical. The bellhousing and trans are integral I believe and a misalignment can cause the input shaft to be tweaked causing excess whining and worst of all, excess wear. Also, if the stroke on the slave cylinder is not adjusted properly it could cause the clutch to never completely engage causing a noise and a vibration through all the gears, particularly at speed. If the trans was just slammed back into place, this could be a problem. I suggest contacting Marlin over at Marlin Crawler. He's gotten more than any of us could know about these issues. One last thought, is the trans full with gear oil?
all of these things, i dont know at this point. i would have to ask these questions to my mechanic, but i dont have the confidence in the answers he would provide me anyways. thus, i am hoping that you guys would have some insight on what might/should be done before dropping the big dollars and the making the trip to fresno.
by the way, and excuse me if this is written somewhere, but does marlin's shop install his rebuilt transmissions too? that is, if i drove up there on a weekend, could they install it that same day?
thanks for reading,
bob
