Manual transmission Fan Club and BS thread (All Generations Welcome)

Yeah change the fluids.

I get a weird almost squeak/groan when I take off in first. But only when it's cold out

 

There are no changeable bushings in a stock Toyota transmission mount. It is 8 bolts and swap it out. 2 on each side of the transmission and 4 through the cross member.

You can buy a heavy duty mount from some where like 4xinovatiovs with Poly bushings if you want to have a mount with changeable bushings. Living with one of these in a daily driver is abysmal at best. They are great in a dedicated off road truck or a race truck but that is not under discussion here. The heavy duty mounts with poly bushings are going translate more vibrations to the chassis than a stock mount that is poured full of shore hardness 50-60 polyurethane.

I have mentioned this before in this thread and have been filling stock Toyota mounts with urethane for a decade or better. Doing this works well for shoring up a mount and keeps the vibrations down.

 

Forgot to put manual 6sp

 

I'm 100% aware of what constitutes solid mounting the trans. And most people that do that say they only detect more vibes when stopped at a light, but quickly get used to it. They're also usually paired with solid mounted engine mounts, so the vibrations are even more. What I'm saying to you is, telling people a quick fix is to inject polyurethane onto/into their existing trans mounts isn't the best idea because that will break down eventually and now you get to deal with cleaning that out. The existing rubber mounts are not an issue, I don't know how you went from a clutch squeak to injecting polyurethane. But the average driver isn't gonna be swapping those out easily every time that poly breaks down. AND if it is someone that off-roads often, poly or rubber are going to wear out even faster from the added stress of offroading and if that's the case they should think about a beefier mount.

And lastly, just because you've been doing something for a long time, doesn't mean you've been doing it right. I just had to pay an additional $2k for a new rear diff because the local guy recommended by a co-worker that's "been building diffs for 40+ years" fucked mine up and it grenaded after about 2k miles and one off-road trip. His answer? "No warranty, you take it offroad". While ECGS told me, "5 year warranty, we don't care if you take it to the moon"

 

This is how I got to poly filling the trans mount. I guess I should have clarified the part of the post I was referring to.

I had the clunky 1-2, 3-2 shifts. Did this to mine and no longer have the issue.

The poly in my experience out last the rubber in the stock mounts.

To the best of my knowledge there is not an aftermarket trans mount currently available for a third gen so this is a viable solution to the issue.

Didn't mean to get your feathers ruffled there Jeff.

 

No ruffled feathers here, brother. Just correcting a couple blanket statements you made lol. Heavy vibrations to you might not be the same to others, you know? Just curious how clunky shifts are caused by trans mounts. Mounts may need to be tightened? To much clearance from the rubber. Mine wasn't clunky per se, but MT-90 made shifting pretty smooth after the first change.

 

I find along with MT-90, the TRD short shifter helps.

 

I haven't acutely tested the shore hardness of the stock trans mount rubber but from my experience I'd say that they are in the 40-45 range. There is also a very large void in the mount for movement. The combo of those two things lets the torque load up pretty good in the third gen trucks. When you lift, clutch and shift you get a noticeable clunk from the torque unloading and the mount rebounding against it. Filling in that large void in the mount with poly remedied the issue that I had with mine.

 

Hmm interesting. Learn something new every day. I'm sitting on some solid motor mounts and have been meaning to order an additional set of trans mounts to R&D a set to make them solid mounted with Poly bushings. Not super high on my list, but it's there . Not really even for strengthening entirely, moreso to get as much power to the wheels as possible

 

This is how I did my trans mount. I used ES radiator core support bushings sandwiched in the void of the mount, then cranked down the bolt. It pairs well with the solid motor mounts. Trans doesn't move around nearly as much now.

 

anyone have issues getting into gear after a cold start? It's been happening quite often when I go to work and after my 8 hour shift. And yes before you ask if my clutch was engaged fully it was every time, I would just re press the clutch and then it engages fine.

 

That's actually what I just switched mine out a couple of weeks ago with. Drained the gearbox with about 13k miles on it, filled back up with MT-90. It may have made the shifting somewhat smoother, but that clunk is still in there. I haven't had a chance to check out the mount yet. I may get to that this weekend and look for any extra room and play in it. I'm not sure what causes it. I can just about get around it if I shift a certain way, with my head tilted just right, with my tongue sticking out sideways. This is my 4th manual and never experienced it before, but this is my first manual truck so I just assumed it was pretty normal for trucks to be clunky until I started reading some way yes I have it, some say no I don't have it.

 

Would you happen to have any pictures of the process? I haven't found an aftermarket mount yet either for the 3rd gen so I guess it would be a dealer trip to get a spare one to try out.

 

We had a big cool down last night. The clutch is as quite as ever this morning

 

I have a feeling that pretty much all the trucks have the same clunk(some might be worse than others though), I think it's more depends how much people actually notice it. If all someone has ever driven are cars then that clunk will be much more noticeable compared to someone who's driven a truck most of their life.

 

I mean, these truck transmissions are just plain clunky. You'll never get a sports car smoothness out of them. I've driven sports cars and they are soooo much smoother than this truck, it's not even funny. These trucks are not meant to shift quickly, the Toyota engineers probably figured like 3-4 seconds between shifts lol, taking your sweet time, and planting the shifter perfectly into gear. A speed shifter and MT-90 can help a bit, although I would argue that a speed shifter amplifies the clunkiness due to the design. Having both I can say it feels alot better than when I first got the truck, and trust me when I say mine is definitely broken in. But it's still a bit clunky at times unless I'm perfectly on my game and in the zone (usually owning up on a third gen I kid I kid).
So those of you looking for that perfect shift like your favorite Porsche, you picked the wrooooooong vehicle for that lol

 

I hope people aren't buying a truck manual and expecting it to shift like a sports car.

 

The difference between the 2nd Gen and 3rd gen 6 speed is dramatic, it falls into gear almost with no effort. The only issue I have on mine is getting into Reverse, it usually takes several tries of putting the clutch in and out or having to move forward a couple times.

 

Huh? Then why are there like 100 third gen guys in here complaining about the manual lol and how clunky it is.

 

I drove a 2nd Gen for 9 straight years and then straight into my 17, difference is night and day between them. Maybe those guys did not drive any previous versions of the Tacoma and are not able to compare the difference.