Better clutch for 2TR

I finally got around to doing this write up, sorry it took so long but here it is . . . . .

Install time was about 6 1/2 hrs. with a lunch break and a few beers. Ive done this 3 times now. First time was with help, second and third was by myself.

I have a 4wd so obviously some of the things might be different if you have a 2wd. I also have a 2008 so 2011 and up will be slightly different.

First off, if you're like me i just use what i got in the garage and make shit happen so here's a quick tool list:

* 2 floor jacks (one for the tranny, one for the motor) and a few wood blocks
* socket set (really just a 12mm, 14mm and 17mm is about all you use, 10mm for min cab bolts, 5/16" and 24mm for the pilot bearing and a swivel socket along with an extension or two)
* open end wrench set (really just a 14mm for the driveshaft bolts)
* philips head screw driver
* alignment tool
* some high temp joint grease
* red lock tight
* paper towels or rags
* brake part cleaner
* pb blaster


First, while you're clean, go ahead and remove the shifter from inside the truck. To remove the center console, open the center console box and remove the carpet, there should be 2 or 3 10mm bolts. Then pull up the cup holder (it literally just pulls up) and there are 4 philips head screws. The back half of the console should come out now. Remove the shift knob then pull the rest of the console up and out.

The shifter boot has 4 screws holding it down, remove those and the boot. Then the shifter plate has 4, 10mm bolts, remove those and pull the shifter completely out.
















Next remove the front and rear driveshafts (rear only from the t-case). Mark the flanges with something like a sharpie so that you can put them back on the same way you took them off. There are 4 bolts per side of each drive shaft. 1 side has bolts and nuts while the other side will be studs and nuts. This is where a 14mm wrench will be your friend .....
















Now go ahead and set the jacks. I put 1 on the middle part of the transmission (i had to use a few wood blocks to reach it) and the other on the oil pan of the motor (i drilled a hole in the wood for the drain plug to fit inside.) This jack will be used as just a support jack to help the motor from twisting down too much and help re-align the trans. The motor jack isn't neccessary, just can be more helpful.
















Next go ahead and unclip the clips from the transfer case, there should be 5 along with one mid way down the tranny












Next remove the slave cylinder, its 2 12mm bolts holding it on, and just bend it up out the way











Next remove the transmission crossmember from tha tranny and the truck, its 2, 14mm bolts on either side of the frame and 2, 14mm bolts per side of the tranny



















Then remove the transmission bolts. There are 11 in all. There are a few different sizes, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm. 1 does nothing but hold an exhaust bracket in and 2 hold the starter in. There are 2 bolts that face the opposite way as well, one on each side of the trans. You will have to use a swivel and extension to reach the top bolts. They are pretty easy to reach by lowering the trans down slightly.











Now the trans is ready to pull off but before you start to pull on it, unclip the wire harness from the top of the tranny or it will get ripped off. There are a few spots.





You will have to work a little bit to get the tranny off the dowel pins. It may take a bit of wiggling. A bead blow hammer may help and a flat head screw driver to pry a lil bit may help but once you get it out you should see this . . .







There are 6 12mm bolts that hold the pressure plate on. Stick the alignment tool in first to ensure the disk doesnt fall out and then remove the bolts and slide the clutch off its dowel pins. Now this would be the time to have your flywheel resurfaced if you were going to. I didnt do it the first time cause mine looked fine, it had a small hot spot but i felt comfortable with it. Check and make sure the inside bearing has grease on it, if not re-grease it. If the flywheel does have any kind of uneven wearing or discolor then its a good idea to get it resurfaced.

To remove the flywheel, there are 10, 14mm bolts. You will need a common 12 point socket for this. The bolts will be rather tight because they have locktight on them. Find a way to hold the flywheel. They make a tool that sits in the teeth and jams it up but i dont have that tool. Instead i just put 2 bolts back in the trans bolt holes, grabbed a big flat head screw driver and stuck it in a tooth of the flywheel. Put a little ass into loosening the bolts and they will come out. Dont worry about breaking a tooth or a bolt. I promise you will break the screw driver first .

So now that you got the flywheel off next step is replacing the pilot bearing. Some people dont do this, some people will replace it anytime the clutch comes off. I replaced mine the second time i changed my clutch. So ive seen all kinds of different ways to get this thing out. They make a bearing puller for this but i can never seem to find one at the local parts store so i use a different way. I was showed this to by a buddies dad when i was about 12 years old and have just used it ever since.

This is what you will see with the flywheel off .......



The bearing is pressed in so it will take a bit of work to get it out but go get you some paper towels or shop towels or newspaper, a cup of water and grab a 5/16" socket and a short extension. Now the idea here is to wet down the paper and pack it in behind the bearing and basically use pressure to force the bearing out.

So start by wetting the paper down and stuffing it in the hole. You want to pack in as much as possible. Use the socket to help push it in. Dont use too big of pieces as they wont go in very easy. It will take a minute but just keep working at it. Once it gets to where you cant push in anymore by hand, grab a hammer, mini sledge or anything to hit with and start hitting the back of the socket to pack more in. So now you are forcing the wet paper in which is creating a form of air pressure and will slowly start to push the bearing out ......





Like i said, it will take a few mins but it will eventually come out. Just keep putting in wet paper and keep forcing it in until the bearing falls out ....




Once you got it out then pull the paper out and make sure its clean inside ....



Now you need to press in the new bearing. I found that a 24mm socket fits perfectly in the hole and sits on the very outside ring of the bearing. Take some high temp grease and put a little bit inside the hole and on the bearing. Set the bearing up there and start it by hand as much as you can then take the socket and an extension and grab your hammer and hit it in. Make sure to tap it lightly at first to get in started evenly but once its started then just bang it in until it noticeably doesnt go any farther.

Now that the new bearing is in and you have hopefully gotten the flywheel resurfaced, its time to re-install. You want to put some locktight back on the threads of the flywheel bolts before installing them ...



Next put the new flywheel on. OOOOOOHHHHHHHH SSSSSHHHHIIIIINNNNNNEEEEYYYY!!!!!!!!



Hand start the flywheel bolts then tighten them all up to 20ft lbs or 27nm. You want to tighten them in a star pattern. Start with one then go to the opposite one, then to the opposite one, and so on until they are all tight. Once you tightened them all to 20ft lbs, go back and turn each one an additional 90 deg starting at one and just going around in a circle. Make sure to spray the face of the flywheel with brake part cleaner to ensure there is no oil residue left over.

Now take the new clutch and set it up on the dowel pins and go ahead and put the bolts in without tightening them down all the way. Use the alignment tool to help hold the disk in while you set it up there. Make sure that you put the disk on the right direction. Every disk has a flywheel side and a pressure plate side. DONT GET IT BACKWARDS!! Use your alignment tool to get the disk centered up and tighten the bolts up to 14ft lbs or 19Nm. Tighten them in a star pattern starting with a slightly less ft lbs and then using the full 14ft lbs.










Clutch side is now done. On to the trans side .......

Next start by removing the dust boot that on the outside of the trans where the clutch fork sticks out.



Now remove the throw out bearing. There is a clip that slides around the bearing and over the forks of the clutch fork. Make sure to pay attention how it was clipped on before removing it. You can pull it off by hand.



Once that is popped off then you can pop off the shift fork. It lifts forward in the direction the throw out bearing came off and the slides out. You can see the design of the clip in the pic .....





Now its time to lube everything. Grab your high temp grease and get to work.
There are numerous areas you want to hit. Pretty much anywhere that metal on metal is going to touch.

The ball that the clutch fork sits on along with the spot on the clutch fork itself





Go ahead and slide the clutch fork back in. Make sure it clips in right. It should move freely but shouldnt pop off freely. Once its back in then lube the outer ball pit area where the slave cylinder will touch and the two ends of the fork where they contact the throw out bearing .....





Next youre gonna want to lube the shaft ....... and lube the inside of the throw out bearing. Install the new TOB and make sure it clips back on right and is secure. Put a lil bit of lube on the very face of the TOB where it contacts the pressure plate ....










Now you just have to put it all back together. Do everything just like the tear down, if it helps put all your bolts and nuts back in the holes as soon as you remove them so they dont get lost. Once you get everything installed, go ahead and bleed the clutch to insure there is no air in the lines. And you're done. Generally clutch break in 500 - 1000 miles, which will involve no clutch kicking, no clutch dumps, no power shifting, etc ....

Heres some torque specs for putting everything back in .........

* Flywheel - 14mm bolts - torque to 20ft lbs or 27Nm then tighten an extra 90deg
* Pressure plate - 12mm bolts - torque to 14ft lbs or 19Nm
* Transmission to engine - 12mm bolts - torque to 27ft lbs or 37Nm
14mm bolts - torque to 27ft lbs or 37Nm
17mm bolts - torque to 53ft lbs or 72Nm
* Transmission crossmember - 14mm bolts - torque to 30ft lbs or 40Nm
* Driveshaft front and rear - 14mm bolts/ nuts - torque to 65ft lbs or 88Nm

 

Great write up man! Excellent. I finally got to drive mine. It catches a little high for my liking, but none the less a solid clutch.

 

Excellent write up. I have a 2011 purchased new, have 9000 miles and clutch feels fine.

 

Thanks for the write up - I have a 2.7 so appreciate it. I suggested it be added to a maintenance list - see what happens. Thanks again for the work.

 

yeah i wish i could change it lower too but you just find that spot and get used to only pushing the clutch in that far to shift

 

How is the clutch doing?

 

Would adjusting the clutch pedal height to factory specified minimum measurement move the actual clutch take-up friction point closer to floorboard? Just a thought...

Motoretro

 

clutch is awesome! Its got a really good pop to it when it engages, not so much to where you cant ease into a gear but its a lot harder to ride the clutch! And the best part, IT DOES'NT SLIP!!!! haha but im def very pleased with it. If anyone plans on doing a clutch install it is well worth it!!! and another suggested thing to get with it is a URD short shifter. Besides a supercharger these two are the best mods as far as driver feel goes for the 2TR in my opinion. Just some food for thought.

 

thanks for the write up!

 

I just got the LCEngineering clutch Pro series and love it!

Feels exactly like stock and just feels really responsive: http://www.toyotacatalog.net/M1WebG...UniqueID=B672B793-0667-4075-ADCE-94A9FED50680

 

FYI----

URD Carries a complete line of clutches for the 2TR from mild to wild!!!

G

 

How is the friction take-up point, Closer to floor board than stock? Is the engagement smoother?

thanks, Motoretro

 

Random but did you not seal the spacer plate and shifter assembly in with rtv or anything when you installed the short shifter, or is it just really cleaned up in that beginning picture?

 

Yeah I cleaned it up good so no residue would fall down in tha tranny. Def use that silicone when putting that spacer in, otherwise u will be frequently adding trans fluid

 

I already installed mine ha I just saw that picture and thought, man this guy seems to really know what he's doing, better than me anyway, but it's worth asking just in case. . .

Cheers mate

Liking the mods thus far, we have similar taste I think

 

thanks man, yeah that short shifter is badass aint it!? I cant even drive another stick shift without immediately going "Damn my clutch and shifter are way better then this one"

and i like that 2012 man, black is def the hardest color on these trucks

 

Hardest to keep clean ha I've thought about switching out my clutch but after the short shifter I'm definitely happy with the improved driving experience for now.

Its just the gearing of the 6 speed transmission that irks me

 

If it were my truck, I would replace the pilot bearing (since you're already in there), and remove/clean/lube the fork. The spot where the slave cylinder pushes the fork is where some of the squeak comes from. Some copper anti-seize will keep new rust at bay.
Otherwise, nice job and write up!

 

sub'd

 

Thanks man. And mentioning pilot bearings, yes i recommend changing this at the same time. Some clutches come with a new pilot bearing (mine did), some you have to order separately. And def lube the fork and pilot bearing when re-installing