Clutch Pedal Truffle Shuffle

So the previous owner didn't keep up on maintenance - this is what I found:



I dropped it off at the shop down the street and saw if they could just fill in the metal, but they went all out and filled it and grinded it down.



I made a bronze bushing following this write up:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clutch-pedal-squeak-new-bushing-design.76599/



But the pedal still felt pretty bad. When pushing the pedal in there was a lot of free play and on return it would get kind of stuck for a moment before it returned. I took a video of the free play in the push rod:



I then followed this FSM diagram.



In the first measurement (1), the distance from the floorboard I got 170mm. The measurement is from the actual floorboard since the interior is removed for now. It may be the asphalt sheet measurement since there was some black coating on top of the floorboard sheet metal. Either way I guess it was pretty much in spec. The disengagement switch (what I'm calling the switch at the top of the travel) is pretty much maxed out so I couldn't get much closer to the floorboard anyway:



Found the amount of free play (3a) is almost 30mm at the center of the pedal (from top to bottom).

I adjusted the push rod so that I only had 10mm of free play and the pedal works much better:



I measured free play with this ruler put to the floor board:



10mm feels alright - I may decrease it once I run all the other tests when I have the truck running tomorrow - the battery was out for charging

 

Reserved

 

How are those plastic or nylon bushings that big clunky spring rides in??

Getting rid of that spring was one of the best things I did to my truck.

 

They seem stout enough on my truck. Plenty of grease was still on them and I added some more.

Did you use a linear spring? If so, which one? I have a brake spring here as another route I can go. Lol.

 

I used the brake return spring out of a mid eighties Toyota 4X4 pick up

Parts truck I have it was close and has been a few years now.

 

Update - think I'll be going the Ace Hardware #70 spring route and cutting off the torsion spring tab on the clutch pedal since it's getting in the way of the Ace spring...

 

Been there, done that.

My 2000 Tacoma had the nastiest clutch pedal for the longest time until I figured out how to tighten up all that gross slop. Figures I got it nice and tight about 2 weeks before I sold it...

Don't do that stupid linear brake return spring nonsense. The torsional spring works really well when it works properly.

So first of all, the hook the on my clutch pedal (your first picture) was chewed up nearly as deep as yours. I just filled it in with weld and then ground the excess metal off. Kind of inefficient but I wasn't going to pay for a new metal, or source one.

The second thing is to order all new bushings. There's only 3 I believe. There are 2 end cap bushings that the spring rides in, and one bushing that isolates the spring from the clutch pedal hook. Unfortunately, that bushing breaks, and chews up the hook, then it's all downhill from there.
So I got the new bushings from a Toyota dealer online. I think it ended up being like $30 because the shipping was $12. Whatever. Toyota schematics suck and it's hard to find the right part number, but it's there if you spend the 10 minutes to look.

I took the entire clutch pedal assembly apart. The key is to take apart the long bolt that holds the pedal to the bracket. Then I wrapped everything in teflon tape to take up the slop. There is a lot of slop in the bolt that the pedal rides on. I tried to wrap as much Teflon on as I could get away with, but be careful not to put too much on as it will just bunch up when you try to slide it in the hole.

New bushings, wrap everything in teflon tape, slap some multi-purpose grease in there, and put it all back in. Wish I took pictures. My 2nd gen Tacoma has the same slop even though it's a plastic pedal. Go figure

 

I had the pedal assembly down to individual pieces 3 times... I didn't like how the torsion spring felt even when it was perfectly lubed. It's just a matter of personal preference at this point. Figured I'd leave this here for future reference since I had to poke around a bunch of different threads when trouble shooting.

 

Like I said, the torsional spring works really well when it works properly, which is only when all the slop is eliminated.

If you didn't go through and eliminate the slop in the sleeved bolt and other areas then you didn't do it properly.
It took my 4 times of yanking my clutch assembly out to finally take it all apart and find a real solution.

 

There wasn't any slop - it barely fit through the holes with the plastic washers. I just don't like the feel - the linear spring did the trick for me. You can see the direct movement of the clutch pedal in the fixed video I posted in the first post. It's not a big deal. As long as it's not getting stuck to the floor anymore lol.

 

Interesting you sold the truck two weeks later !

Do you still talk to the person that bought it?

So you have no idea how it held up?

 

My truck? She's sitting with no engine in 'r.

 

Not yours

 

Yes the torsional spring works well, but those plastic bushings don't last. You will have to replace them in a few years. Well the person you sold the truck to will anyway. The linear spring will last the life of the vehicle, and works just fine.

 

Replying to note the information for near future use...

 

I just removed the torsion spring and called it a day. That was some 10-15 years ago, and no problems since.

 

If you have cruise control, without a return spring it usually won't pull the pedal up far enough to hit the switch that allows your cruise to work.

 

I don't have that problem, but thanks anyway for the info. It's good to know if the problem does come up.

 

Subd

 

I just pulled out my torsion spring today and replaced it with the I4 linear clutch spring from the dealer. $8 for the spring after tax, but my clutch feels like it has some life in it, and fully returns now.