Topic: 1996 T100 Shifting Problems

[ohiofarmer]

Hey Guys, Hope you can give me some direction. I absolutely love my T100 5spd. I bought it exactly 1 year ago and it has 132,000 miles on it now. When I bought it it had 35" tires and a 3" body lift. Whoever had installed the lift had not trimmed the shifter tunnel so it was hard to get it into 3rd and 5th and it would pop out of gear occassionally. I removed the 35's and installed 31's and removed the body lift. I replaced the clutch and throw out bearing also. The truck never has shifted nice, but now it's starting to get much worse. It doesn't want to go into 1st while sitting still with the engine running. If you force it you get a quick grinding noise right before it unwillingly clunks into 1st. I've found that if I put it into 2nd gear then shift to first it works just fine While down shifting it doesn't like the 5th to 4th downshift or the 4th to 3rd, but 3rd to 2nd is ok. I don't have any play in my shifter like I have seen some complain about. Any ideas on what's going on?

Also, because my truck had 35" tires the previous owner had swaped the stock 4.10 gears for 5.88's. When I went back to the 31" tires I swapped the 4.10's back in. This is my first T100, so I don't know what to expect, but should I be turning 2500+ RPM @ 60 mph? The best mileage I have ever got is 14.5mpg and I was expecting much better than that. The truck almost sounds like it needs another gear or two. Is this a common complaint amoung T100 owners? Thank you for any help.   Ben     

[toyreb]

any chance you're selling the gears you took out?

[SCT100]

Hey Guys, Hope you can give me some direction. I absolutely love my T100 5spd. I bought it exactly 1 year ago and it has 132,000 miles on it now. When I bought it it had 35" tires and a 3" body lift. Whoever had installed the lift had not trimmed the shifter tunnel so it was hard to get it into 3rd and 5th and it would pop out of gear occassionally. I removed the 35's and installed 31's and removed the body lift. I replaced the clutch and throw out bearing also. The truck never has shifted nice, but now it's starting to get much worse. It doesn't want to go into 1st while sitting still with the engine running. If you force it you get a quick grinding noise right before it unwillingly clunks into 1st. I've found that if I put it into 2nd gear then shift to first it works just fine While down shifting it doesn't like the 5th to 4th downshift or the 4th to 3rd, but 3rd to 2nd is ok. I don't have any play in my shifter like I have seen some complain about. Any ideas on what's going on?

Also, because my truck had 35" tires the previous owner had swaped the stock 4.10 gears for 5.88's. When I went back to the 31" tires I swapped the 4.10's back in. This is my first T100, so I don't know what to expect, but should I be turning 2500+ RPM @ 60 mph? The best mileage I have ever got is 14.5mpg and I was expecting much better than that. The truck almost sounds like it needs another gear or two. Is this a common complaint amoung T100 owners? Thank you for any help.   Ben     

My trans is the same way with first gear...I now, out of habit, throw it into second and then first if I am sitting still. It goes into first easily if i am rolling slowly. I had a Toyota master tech tell me that's just the way they are (they are truck trannys after all and built for strength and not necessarily smoothness), and the 2 to 1 "pre-shift" helps align and loosen the synchros. If you haven't already, get the Marlin shifter seat and end cap upgrade. It will help immensely, and will pobably cure most, if not all of your symptoms (it did for mine). 

As for the RPM @ 60...you are right on. I have 3.90s, with oversize (from stock) 31x10.5x15s (so i rev just a bit lower at 60 than stock) and I turn about 2300 at 60. However, 14.5 mpg sounds low...I get about 16.5 mixed, and up to 18/19 crusing for the whole tank at 55 or so. You may want to check a few other things, but the RPMs are about right.

[BIG-T]

Ok this is what you guys need to check ....First bleed the clutch. If that is ok the you need to check the pivot point bracket of the clutch pedal. A lot, if not most T100's, get cracks at the firewall clutch bracket. Its hard to find find and diagnose. You almost need two people to do this. Have one person lay on the floor board and look at the clutch pedal bracket (with a flashlight) and the other person press the clutch in and out....You can buy a new bracket from Toyota and wait for it to break again or if you have access to a welder just fix it for good.

Hope that helps