Dropping manual transmission from under vehicle- help!

Howdy- I have a 1995 2.4 2wd, 5mt, 89,000 original miles, first clutch replacement on this truck. I can’t seem to find the right angle to get the transmission out of the vehicle. I’ve done clutch jobs on a few others cars, and all of the seemed to have a crossmember that could be unbolted. I believe the 4wd models do, but this 2wd one is definitely welded in. I have a transmission jack under there and I’ve tried taking the pressure off and wiggling it around. If I pull it back as far as I can, I can’t seem to drop the bellhousing past the pressure plate. Do I have to remove the pressure plate first? It sure looks like the drive shaft flange on the extension housing will hit the transmission tunnel even after this is done. I couldn’t find any forum info- most of those seemed to be about having stuck dowel pins, etc. Any ideas? It’s frustrating because this should be the easier part of the job-gravity is supposed to be on your side at this stage. I’ve attached a pic of that’s any help.

Thanks,
Sugi

 

That crossmember has two bolts on each side that bolt it to the frame. Unless the previous owner of the truck welded it in, which would be hard to believe.

 

1995 Field Service Manual:

 

That makes no sense. That cross member should be able to be unbolted unless like Craig mentioned above, some idiot welded it in.

OP, can you take some clear picture of the whole cross member so we can see what you're dealing with.

 

My 04 is a welded in place cross member. I think the V6 cross member was removable. A huge advantage. Not sure about a 95. I saw a video where the guy rotates the entire tranny 90 degrees CC when viewing from the back. You must remove everything from tranny first.Looks like you have done that some rotation.

 

After you finish the tranny job you might want to take a look at the passenger side outer tie rod end. Looks to me like it's been leaking for some time now.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. I did look around and found two videos of the 2 Wheel Dr. 1st gen Tacomas with the welded in crossmember. One fellow looks like a professional mechanic with a four post lift and he struggles to get the bellhousing past the pressure plate. The other video has a mechanic that just shoves the transmission back far enough to access the pressure plate, clutch, and flywheel. Here’s what I ended up doing: I shoved the transmission back, unbolted the pressure plate so I could take that and the clutch disc off. I was then able to drop the transmission down past the flywheel. I was feeling like a hero until I realized that I forgot to drain the trans oil and leaked a pint or two all over the driveway. D’OH! Picking up the flywheel from the machine shop and I’ll put it all back together today or tomorrow. I probably would have just used the shove the transmission back method but I removed the shifter housing and dropped two of the washers from the rubber gasket down into the shifter mechanism (double D’oh!). Once I got the transmission down it was easy to use a magnet to get them out. I really appreciate folks chiming in, it helps me think of ideas to try when solving problems.

 

Seems to be the 2WD 5 Lug Truck with the 4 cylinder has a non removable cross member go figure .

Then how often does one change clutches unless your really bad at your clutch skills.

After all once the Truck rolls off the line it is someone else`s problem.