2016 Sticky shifter remedy, TSB 0088-16 for RC62F 6 speed MT

Those who have read a lot on the forum, or who have the 2016 MT Tacomas are likely familiar with the sticky shifter problem, and that there was finally a TSB issued on this in late July of 2016. I recently experienced this around 6500 miles, happening multiple times in numerous gears on a slow trek around the Island with visiting family. It has not happened since, and that was 500 miles ago. My build date was 6/16.
I bought the parts yesterday at about $15 or so, the part numbers are in the TSB. Here they are.



The process for doing the repair is described in the TSB, but a lot of detail is left out of course. I just got done doing it on my Tacoma. No pictures of the process though since it is in a very cramped space without room for photos of any quality. I removed the cross braces and the transmission cross member as described in the TSB and used a floor jack to lower the back end of the transmission down. I made sure that my fan, etc didn't munch into my radiator or the fan shroud since when the back of the transmission comes down, the front of the engine goes up...
It is necessary to disconnect both of the rubber exhaust isolators located inside both frame rails, as well as several brackets holding wiring on the driver's side of the transmission as the plug is located right behind the uppermost one of these. At this point, with adequate lighting you will be able to see (barely) the offending plug. I used a 10mm allen socket and removed it, space is very tight here for people with big hands. The plug seemed to somewhat reluctantly unscrew like it had blue threadlocker on it. There is a spring under it that you can now pull out, but getting out the Pin, lockball is a challenge. I found that if you shift the transmission into a gear, it pushes the Pin somewhat more shallow in the hole, and you can get it with a magnetic pickup after a certain amount of effort and swearing. I took mic measurements of the old and the new, after marking the old one to make sure I didn't confuse the two. They are identical in every measurment as in length, depth of hole, ID, OD, etc BUT the new one has a flat ground down one side of the cylinder. The replacement plug is identical in every way to the original. Comparison photos. Look for the flat side on the new one. Enhance, enhance.....



Look closely and you will see the flat side on the new Pin. I suppose the theory must be that in operation and heat, transmission lube gets trapped in behind the plug, and it essentially hydrolocks the Pin, making movement of it very difficult. The flat side prevents it sealing in the bore so to speak, as fluid can move past it more easily via the flat side.

Reinstallation is in theory simple, but again in practice is a PITA. No clearance for a big hand, poor visibility caused by location on top/side of transmission, and other components in the way such as exhaust cat, etc. There is no need for indexing, or clocking the new Pin. The original detent spring is reused, and the new Plug is screwed in. Since the Plug has to compress the spring somewhat to be able to engage its threads, it is a real challenge to get this started, and I struggled to make several turns by fingers alone to make sure that it was not cross-threading as this would be a disaster. At any rate, patience wins, and old age/experience/cunning pays off.
It is very important before installing the spring and trying to screw the Plug back in that you shift the transmission into neutral as this allows the Pin to be pushed further down the bore, and you do not have to compress the spring as much to get the threads started. Of course, this was left out of the TSB, but if you think about what the pin/plug/spring does, it makes sense.
Jack the tranny back into position, reinstall cross member and brackets, exhaust isolators and wire loom brackets back in Kindergarten fashion--"Put things back the way you found them." You're done, smile and go drink beer, post a writeup.

If I had found a writeup like this before doing mine, I could have done it for free. I would recommend simply grinding a flat down one side of the Pin, lockball and reinstalling it with the original Plug/Straight screw w/head. I understand that current owners who still have their MT Tacomas under warranty would prefer to take this in to the Stealership, but you'll find they require that they must be able to reproduce the difficult shifting before they will do the repair since this is a TSB, and it is not a recall. You could be without your Truck for a long time, and they may not be able to replicate the problem and therefore refuse to do the repair. The hour and 45 minutes or so I took doing this and the $15 expense was worth it to me.

 

I have just purchased another '16 Tacoma, OffRoad DCSB with MT, quicksand. I don't believe the upgraded part was used on this truck as the build date is one month earlier than my Sport. I'm going to drop down the transmission and remove the detent plug, but this time will take some photos to post up if anyone has interest in the process. Planning on doing this on Saturday, 2 days from now. I don't think it's worth waiting until it hydrolocks on me, and I have no way of finding out if PO did anything regarding this known issue. Easy enough to just do the work on it and know for certain before this truck gets shipped to the mainland for some cross country trips.

 

Thanks for posting this. Just seeing the 2 parts side by side is helpful.

FWIW, I got this one covered out of warranty. Play up the safety concern and escalate as necessary would be my advice. I let them know that most recently this had occurred on trips where I ran 70mph for over 100 miles and hung in 6th trying to merge into a busy access road leaving the interstate. . They knocked it out for me and truck drives better aside from the hanging issue. It’s well worth doing.

 

Well.......I live on a small island in the middle of the Pacific, and it's pretty unusual to drive more than 30 miles at any one time without running out of dry land. Were I to take it to the dealership, God bless them, they'd expect to duplicate the malfunction and the likelihood of them being able to do that is also remote. I want to minimize any downtime and this isn't that big of a deal. Besides, I can do it myself in my driveway, and simply grind a flat on the detent with my grinder and reinstall it, and the orig plug along with threadlocker.
When this truck goes to a family member on the mainland who will have to drive it X-country, I don't want them stuck with trying to mess with it on the trip. As far as I'm concerned, this is just the same as the rest of the things I've done* to make sure it's going to be good-to-go when it hits the highways on the mainland.

*U joint lube, torquing of U bolts, rear diff, modification of plenum mount bracket, oil/filter, cabin filter, air filter, etc etc.

 

Okay, so now the photos. I suppose you can tell from how badly the photos demonstrate the offending part, how absolutely painful it is to actually get to it to do any of this work. At any rate, the orientation in the photos is from below, Driver's side, from the rear of the transmission looking forwards.
The electrical bracket with the 10mm socket on it; our target is behind that bracket. This is with crossmember and exhaust disconnected and transmission dropped down as far as it can go.


With the camera (iPhone) stuffed up in there, this is the cap that has to be removed, 10mm Allen type.



The silver bracket, looks like an "L" turned sideways, is pointing right at the cap, that is as good a visualization you're going to get of the thing.



10mm Allen socket engaged in the cap.



And of course, all the goods removed. You can see that the detent does not have the "flat" side on it, so this one would hydrolock.




And, it was just a simple process of grinding a flat down one side, and reinstalling as discussed in my original post.



Anyway, that job's done now, on to other things.