Clutch suggestions

I have a supercharged 2tr-fe that I tow a jon boat with. I have somehow managed to blow through 2 clutches in 10k miles. First one was a stage 3+ that was awful. Barely drivable so I took it out (and found out it was smoked as well) and replaced it with the LCE pro kit. After 4K miles the LCE is smoked. I'm at a loss. Can anyone suggest a daily driving clutch that will tow a boat and handle a stage 2 URD kit for the 2.7? Also, before anyone starts questioning my ability to drive a stick shift, I've been driving one for 25 years so it's not me. I just want suggestions, not criticism please.

 

What about the stock clutches from Asin (sp?). Is that not tough enough or are you creating to much torque at the fly wheel?

 

Man, I'm really not sure what's going on to be honest. It's frustrating. Stage 2 URD kit, header and exhaust is supposedly around 260hp on this motor. The LCE Pro kit is rated for 300hp/300tq so I suspect that anything less than that will be too little. I'm towing an 18ft aluminum boat that's probably 2k lbs total tops, maybe less. It easily tows it and also my dad's bass boat so I'm not sure why I'm having so many problems. Maybe it's a combination of the boat and the SC that's making it hard on the clutches.

 

I would try a factory style Asin clutch, at this point, what have you got to lose?

My stock clutch pulls well over 2k pounds with no issues.

 

Well, aside from the $2k I've spent on clutches and labor since the beginning of the year, I guess only about another grand. Haha! I'll check them out. Hopefully I can find one early next week. Gotta pull the boat to Bama to duck hunt next weekend. Thanks for the info. I need to learn how to put one in and save myself 500 bucks.

 

Have you ever noticed any slip in the clutch?
If so, when does it slip?
If not, does it pull any at all with the clutch pedal pressed in?
Do you ever smell any funny smells?
If so when?

That is really fast wear, surely there is some symptoms to help you identify the problem.

 

Really I had no issues with the LCE. I towed my boat to Alabama last weekend and two days later I left work for lunch and had to put it in first gear with both hands. I barely got it to my shop that day. They looked at it and said the clutch is toast. It's not the hydraulics, flywheel or the throwout bearing. The shop is baffled by it as well. I have a message in to LCE to see if it could have been a bad clutch on the second one. The first clutch was just terrible. So awful, that trying to drive it was probably its demise. It had pucks and I hated them. It wanted to GO all the time. I made a mistake choosing that one.

 

Clutch pedal free play is a concern when they are wearing this quickly.

 

Sorry. Just realized the link was for the 6 speed.

Maybe @gearcruncher can help you?

 

Clutch Masters.

Group buy happening right now. Valid thru Monday. Call and talk to Luis or Kevin.

A thought: Make sure that your flywheel is machined properly. With the correct height to the step. .5mm (0.020") I believe. One could easily imagine a machine shop doing it improperly for you in the past. All future clutches would be destined to fail prematurely until corrected.

 

I replaced the flywheel when I had the LCE installed.

 

Not to criticize just asking here but, with those performance clutches did you break them in properly before using them normally? A performance clutch has a very critical break in procedure the first 500 - 1000 miles, if not followed then they will have issues and fail prematurely

That being said, I hear great things about the clutch kits that Marlin Crawler sells. I'm going that route next time.

 

/\ /\ /\ /\

This. Break her in gently.

 

Yes sir. On both of them. No towing and no rough driving or holding them on a hill.

 

I'm now starting to question the installers. I've never had this many issues with any manual I've owned and I typically get 80-100k miles out of a clutch with intermittent hard driving and towing mixed in that mileage range.

 

I had a performance clutch (Competition Stage 2) installed backward by a crappy hole in the wall transmission shop here where I live, it was toast within a few weeks. Was a huge headache of epic proportion. They put the clutch plate in facing the wrong way.

The shop that removed it showed it to me and why it failed, told me it was an easy mistake to make but shouldn't have been done that way. Tried getting my money back from the installer but it was a pain in the ass. Had to settle on a stock clutch through Toyota.

 

These guys have done quite a bit of (solid) work for me and the guy that put it in has been doing it for a while. I don't THINK they would make that mistake but I guess anything is possible. I'm actually friends with the shop manager and if this was the case, I'm sure he would cop to it and help me out. I may go the Aisin route and see what happens. I can't keep dumping money into it like this. It sucks because I love the truck. Have owned it for many years and it has been jam up to this point. I have recently dumped nearly 8 grand into it between the SC, install and clutches/install. It feels really crappy to have that kind of money in something that's not functioning like a well oiled machine.

 

Here’s all kinds of information on the transmission.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...on-your-5-speed-transmission-write-up.338836/


I’d seriously consider having the Free Play looked at and adjusted.
It may not be your issue, but from my limited reading on the matter, it seems to be an important adjustment when replacing any clutch in these Tacoma’s.

Hopefully you get it sorted out.

 

I may just bite the bullet and take it to a dealer. They're gonna cream me on price I'm sure but at least I know it will be right when it comes out. Thank you for all the info fellas. I'll update this when I find out what is going on.

 

That was what I did after my last botched install that I mentioned above...and you're right, they'll cream you on the price lol. I got charged almost $3k for a clutch job on my 04 from the dealer. Granted I live in CA where dealer prices are probably the highest in the country, but still. In hindsight I wish I had taken it elsewhere but I was in the same position...needed my truck running ASAP and more importantly, needed to know it was done right.

On the plus side they did do it right, but that hit to my wallet stung for a bit. To the point that I honestly think next time I'm going to try and tackle it myself.