1997 Toyota 4-runner 3RZFE 2WD 5speed manual W59 transmission shifting issue

1997 Toyota 4-runner 3RZFE 2WD 5speed manual W59 transmission shifting issue

I need help figuring out what the problem is with the W59 transmission.
This problem has been happening for months.

It's very hard to describe but there are no grinding sounds at all.
I already replaced the fluid recently with Redline MT90, 3.7 quarts exactly.

I park in neutral overnight in the garage, with temps in the 50s & 60s.
I start the engine and back out of the garage & K-turn down the driveway.

When the RPM is low (especially when backing out of the garage in the morning to do a K-turn), the transmission is stuck in gear. No amount of force on the shift lever will unstick it. I have to shut down the engine, and then I can move it from reverse to neutral or vice versa.

Same with first to neutral, and vice versa. Even though reverse has no syncros, shifting in and out of reverse doesn't "feel" different than shifting in and out of first, as it gets stuck in either gear as much.

Once I get moving (or mybe the fluid warms up?), it shifts, sort of OK from there on in (for my 40 mile commute). Then it starts all over again at the end of the day.

The clutch may need to be replaced based on miles but the clutch is stalling the engine if I put it in the wrong gear and hold the brake pedal down. Likewise, letting out the clutch in gear while rolling downhill definitely raises the RPM, so the clutch is not slipping I don't think.

It's hard to describe but I don't think the clutch is working perfectly though as the pedal feel is really hard to describe. It's not right. It's not linear. It grabs in like one inch but it's really hard to describe. Sometimes it seems that it grabs one inch from the floorboards and other times it seems to grab at near the top of the pedal travel, but I think that's impossible so all I can reliably say is that the clutch feel is not linear.

Sometimes it feels better after I pump the clutch, but the fluid level isn't leaking as it's the right level. I don't know how to adjust the clutch pedal travel, and the clutch pedal return torsion spring was removed and replaced with a linear spring long ago.

Any idea what is going on here and how to debug to what parts are needed?

 

Nobody?

 

The shifting problem WAS the hydraulics.

I rebuilt the clutch master cylinder with Toyota parts (where they moved from metal to plastic for the piston and they gave me the wrong-sized boot).


And I rebuilt the clutch slave cylinder:


That seems to have solved the hard-to-get-out-of-gear problem in the morning but time will tell as it has only been a day of testing.

Apparently (I guess) the fluid was leaking past either the master or slave and therefore the throughout bearing wasn't going far enough, so the clutch wasn't disengaging fully (I am guessing).

One warning is that a Toyota rebuild kit does NOT come with the fragile paper gasket for the interface between the firewall and the clutch master cylinder, so caveat emptor.


My next big mistake was in not knowing I needed extra bleed screws so I had to make my own, none of which worked very well.


Bench bleeding the clutch master cylinder wasn't much of an issue because the reservoir makes it easy, but you do have to block the outlet port with a spare bleeder valve.


But bench bleeding the clutch slave cylinder is something that you have to experience yourself, or you have to read up an a GOOD DIY (none of which exist, to my knowledge) in order to do it right the first, second, or third try.

It's hard to fill the clutch slave release cylinder with fluid because you it doesn't have a nice reservoir like the clutch master cylinder has:


And you have to somehow pre-fill the hose with fluid without losing that fluid when you connect it because the clutch slave cylinder just doesn't hold a lot of fluid.


Not pictured is the 15-minute washing of my eyes (clutch fluid hurts when it gets in your eyes, and do not ask me how I know that) because I didn't wear goggles and the first press of the clutch slave cylinder with a phillips screwdriver squirts far more powerfully than you might think it does!

So I took another fifteen minutes to fashion a catch jar out of a Costco gummibears vitamin jar where the hose was too short (because I had cut it to make the clutch master cylinder loop prior):


Where finally I got the job done by hooking the funnel on the end of the hose and just holding that up in the air with one hand and then pushing in the clutch slave cylinder piston with a phillips screwdriver (not pictured because I was using both hands at the time).

All that effort was wasted, because it's not easy getting the clutch slave cylinder back on the car without losing all that fluid anyway, so, in the end, it was a total waste of time to bench bleed the clutch slave cylinder because my technique was just all wrong.


So I have to ask for your advice on technique.

Given that bench bleeding the clutch master cylinder is a piece of cake compared to bench bleeding the clutch slave cylinder, and given that reinstalling the clutch master cylinder is also a piece of cake compared to the clutch slave cylinder, and given that the clutch master cylinder reservoir handles a lot of drips but not the clutch slave cylinder.......

Would you ever recommend bench bleeding the clutch slave cylinder?

 

Great job rebuilding those hydraulics!