Transmission/Clutch making metallic sound

For the last maybe two - three weeks my truck has been acting strange. At idle the truck would make a pinging sound, however if i put it in gear and just pressed the clutch down, you wouldnt hear it.
Then several days ago, when I would start driving, it started making more noise as I was releasing the clutch into first gear. And just recently it would make a very distinct metal on metal sound as the clutch was releasing. It also would hesitate to get going, like the brakes were stuck or something.
I was hoping it was just something with the clutch/bearings. However just recently Ive had difficulty putting it into 5th gear. Today it also started making the same metal on metal sound when it was driving in 5th gear, and i could also be faintly heard in 3rd/2nd gear.
I also noticed that my truck is significantly quiter in 4th gear compared to the others. When im driving my truck you hear quite a bit of rattling, which I expect from a 22 year old truck with a rusted out exhaust. However I thought it was strange that in 4th gear you dont hear nearly as much rattling as the others, even at the same RPMs.

Its a 95.5 3.4l tacoma with 240k miles on the stock transmission. The clutch was done about 100k ago, however I dont know exactly what was done.

I figure at this rate its hard to tell exactly whats wrong, so im planning on dropping the transmisson tonight to get a look inside. Any suggestions on what to look for? I dont know much when it comes to diagnosing problems.

 

If you have a manual as it sounds, could be the pilot bearing or throwout bearing. But I assume it is around there. What did dropping the trans uncover?

 

Might be the countershaft bearings in the trans itself. Shifting into 4th gear locks the input shaft and output shaft together into the trans. Therefore the countershaft spins but without load. Thats why it would sound quieter in 4th. I would rebuild the trans before it seizes.

Try draining the trans fluid, get it analyzed or see if there are alot of silver/black shavings in there. Gold colored material is syncros (non magnetic) silver/black would be metal (gears and bearing materials magnetic)

 

So I drained the transmission oil and there were some metal shavings in the oil. Not sure how much is too much though.
But when I went to start dropping the trans, I noticed I only had 1 bolt on the cross member for the trans...

At this point is it possible all my problems were from missing 3 of those bolts. And is just replacing the missing bolts and refilling the trans to see if it just might have done the trick an absolute waste of money.

 

we are past that point now. replacing those bolts will not put the metal shavings back on the gears.

Im still hoping clutch related, not internal to the trans.

 

Yea but nothing's gonna put those metal shavings back on the gears

So I replaced the bolts and took it up and down the block. As far as the pinging sounds and sounds at idle, she's perfect. However I still got the grinding sound and hesitation. i took a video and you can hear it loud as hell with the boot removed. At this point I'm thinking it's internal.

 

If its your primary vehicle id drive it reallly easy. If you have another vehicle id suggest using that until you find another transmission or getting that one rebuilt. If im not mistaken i think toyota calls for GL4-GL5 gear oil 75-90.