2006 Tacoma 6 spd manual

Hi everyone,

Purchased my Taco 4 years ago with 180,000km (110k miles), and it always had a lot of free play between gears (or rocking back and forth if I was to park it in gear without the park brake). it seems to me that there is either play in the transmission or transfer case, or rear end. my driveshaft and Universals all appear to be good.

This may be just the nature of these trucks, but I'd like to get it figured out. I've found the sweet spot with my speed and rpm to minimize this, however, I would still like it fixed. It's more noticeable shifting between first and second, kind of clunky from the play if I don't shift just right.

I have a buddy with the same truck and he has the same issue.

 

It’s probably just normal driveline slack.
Have you also taken a look at the carrier bearing?
When it gets worn, it can cause you to feel the slack/play a lot more.

 

I was thinking normal slack but assumed a specific component may cause it to get worse over time. do you mean the drive shaft barring? I had considered that, and although it has some play in it I figured it was a normal amount. I could be wrong though, perhaps worth changing... whats the average life of those?

 

The one that holds the drive shaft up in the middle. It had big rubber bushing around it.

There isn’t really an avg lifespan.
A lot of it has to do with how the truck is driven and used.

I am at 151k. Mine is still doing fine so far. But I’d say it won’t make it to 200k.
We’ll see….

 

I've been considering changing it, I think I'll pull the trigger. Probably go with SKF, any experience with brands for these?

 

Nope, never changed one on a Tacoma. (Yet)
But SKF makes good stuff.

I would stay away from Doorman.

 

Every manual takes a second when parking in gear with the e brake off
Which you’re not supposed to do
E brake is supposed to be on

regardless, any wear items at their expiration years/mileage will still wear and need replacing whether it’s auto or manual and doing so never hurts

 

I have same experience this too especially manual transmission each gear shifting I will feel my truck jump, on automatic transmission maybe not so much. I was thinking may be there is setting on transfer case can limited the slack by tightly the bolt or something.
I was thinking maybe because I do delete accumulate clutch make the engaging each gear kinda rough. I still try to figure out but maybe someone has fix the problem in here.

 

Alot of the clunkiness in shifting can be attributed to "rev hang" on the engine side, it takes awhile to get used to it (some people never do).

 

Wonder if there is an option to turn it off with a tuner?

 

Yes tuning can get rid of it.