2022 Tacoma Clutch Upgrades

What brand and viscosity did you use twice?

Agree the trans shifts better with more miles.

 

Motorcraft and Ravenol. The normal

$28 75W-90 Synthetic Gear Lube - 1 Quart (Pack of 2)

75W-90 GL4 each. They all felt fine but I still get blocked out of 1st here and there. I get blocked out less now than when I got the truck, but I think that’s a miles thing, not a fluid thing. Not entirely sure though.

I’m tempted to try 75W-85 Nissan MTF. It worked extremely well in that transmission, although that transmission had a different feel in the way it shifted in general. But I bet it would work well in ours still.

 

Most of the time I would just flip into neutral on my stuff when stopping . When in traffic no Never had an issue. 160 k on my last Nissan Frontier and clutch was perfectly fine. So right or wrong it worked for me. On the other side of the coin I had a older 1970 car ( hot rod ) that would eat throw out bearings if you stayed on the clutch . So I stopped doing it and it was fine .

 

I had experienced occasional first gear blocking which I was not particularly troubled with as I have had many older manuals, you just have to learn what the truck wants you to do.

I changed to the Motorcraft at 30K. On the first trip around the block I was stunned at the improvement in smoothness, the transmission felt "slicker" for lack of a better word. Previously I was frequently conscious of the syncromesh working, I could feel it in the stick, it wouldn't grind but you knew it was there, after the fluid change the sensation was gone.

Reading here I believe these transmissions take quite a while to fully wear in, probably a change with any quality brand will make an improvement by getting the wear particles out. The Motorcraft product seems to have a reputation of being a problem solver, the Miata forum fellows rave about it.

 

You all have never driven an old 3 speed and it shows. The 3rd gen has 4.30 gears…2nd gear is pretty close to 1st on the old 3 on the tree cars. Granted, they had low end torque, but it’s still not a huge deal starting in 2nd if you aren’t revving it up and burning the clutch.

 

But you can’t avoid burning the clutch starting in second from a standstill.

 

Think what you like, I've driven many-many miles in cars with either a "three on the tree" or a floor mounted 3-Speed manual; the top three for time in the seat were a 1966 Mustang, a 1966 Valiant, and a 1970 Challenger.

 

What brand / viscosity GL4 did you use?

 

I have. Referencing a CJ7 304 V8 with 27” tires and 3.54 gears. T150 trans which had 2.99, 1.75, and 1.0 ratios.

1st gear on the CJ would be 1317 rpm at 10 mph. The 4.30 ratio with 2nd gear puts 10 mph at 989 rpm on stock tires. You would need a 5.71 axle ratio on stock tires for your Taco 2nd gear to match the CJ7 in my example’s 1st gear. Not to mention those were torquey V8s and I6, not a low torque at idle V6. They were also turning smaller tires with less weight as well although that’s minimal.

Starting in 2nd sucks on this truck.

 

Motorcraft and Ravenol. Both the specified 75W90 GL4.

 

I certainly don’t make a habit of it, but have definitely started out in second a number of times with no burning clutch. My old flat fender jeep had a pretty ridiculous 1st gear (2.79) that was awful once I put 33’s on it. Better than the old rock crushers though, they had a 2.20 1st gear. I’ve logged hundreds of thousands of miles on manual transmissions, from little British sports cars all the way to class 8 trucks. Only had to change one clutch, and that was on an old abused yota that spent its life plowing snow in high range.