How NOT to do a clutch (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

FJ40Jim

The Cruiser Whisperer
SILVER Star
Joined
Sep 26, 2003
Threads
117
Messages
11,207
Location
Lancaster, Ohio, USA
Website
www.tlcperformance.com
Fascinating post mortem on what should have been a straightforward clutch adjustment or R&R.

Vehicle: stock 75 FJ40
Customer complaint: Noisy clutch pedal.
Noted on test drive: clutch pedal out of adjustment.

Initial inspection reveals underside of truck, interior floor and engine bay coated w/ mud. Not good for clutch parts. Pulling clutch inspection cover off BH reveals BH full of mud.

Problem #1. The front BH cover is MIA, allowing mud to be scooped into BH.
#2. Mud has contaminated the release bearing, causing it to dry out and seize.
#3. bolts holding the tranny to BH have been replaced w/ smaller diameter UNC nuts & bolts.
#4. there are only 3 of the 4 undersize bolts holding tranny to BH. Parting line is visible, indicating relative motion between BH and tranny, explaining odd feeling of clutch pedal. Hole #4 has a coarse thread 12mm bolt loosely stuck in it.

So it is time to R&R tranny, replace the missing bolts & replace clutch.
Drop tranny, find that the reason the BH bolts were replaced is because the threaded holes have been destroyed.

#5. All 4 threaded holes have been completely stripped out and destroyed.
#6. shifter boot on top of tranny is MIA, allowing mud & water into top of trans (the thick mud on top of tranny and on floor inside truck indicate that the tranny has been underwater repeatedly).
#7. speedo cable is wrapped around exhaust pipe, vinyl sheath burned off.

OK, fine, we will replace the BH w/ one that has not been 'modified'. Put a jack under OP, pull off clutch. Hey, there are only 4 bolts (of 6) holding BH to block.
That explains the mystery coarse thread bolt in the transmission ear.

#8. Missing BH bolts into back of block. Threads are OK.

Remove motor mounts to pull BH, find that one of the bolts is missing. no surprise at this point. Drop BH out, motor mount bolt is not missing, but broke off in BH.

#9. one lower (stressed) bolt broken off in side of BH
#10. motor mount through bolt is badly bent?
#11. both rubber boots missing from sides of BH, allowing more mudwater entry.

Looking at block face of BH, there is something funny w/ cam plug. Inspection reveals cam plug is loose in block, spinning freely and driven by camshaft. Plug has been holesawing at front of BH. also explains oil leak at rear of engine, despite new, dry rear main seal.

#12. Engine rebuilt w/ wrong cam plug.

New correct toyota plug is installed. Fortunately, bore in block is not damaged, plug is still a good tight fit.

Inspecting clutch release lever and TO bearing, we find that the TO bearing hairpin clips have been replaced by roofing nails. This required drilling the hairpin holes quite a bit bigger. The nails have caused excessive wear on the TO ears.

#13. Wrong clutch clips.
#14. damaged/modified release fork and TO hub.

I am not taking anything else apart on this time bomb.

Time to go back together:
New clips and hub are sourced from Toyota. Good used release fork is installed.
New rubber boots installed on shifter & BH.
Good used BH is installed, replacing damaged fasteners as necessary.
New OEM clutch is installed on resurfaced flywheel.
Tranny is stabbed in and bolted up w/ new Toyota bolts.
Release cylinder is properly adjusted.
Missing front BH dust shield is installed.
BH pan is installed w/ all fasteners.
PTO driveshaft is installed w/ new correct Toyota bolts.
New speedo cable installed, routed correctly around PTO and exhaust.

Pics to come.:beer:

DSY6M
 
Last edited:
daaaaaang!

I can't wait for the pics...

IIRC my bellhousing was only held on with 2 bolts - at least they were the correct type. I didn't have any issues but then again my inspection plates all were on too.
 
It's like those picture on the kiddie funny pages "Find the three things wrong in this drawing".

First up, the formerly 12mm fine thread holes that had a 12mm coarse fastener run into it, threby drawing all the threads out of the hole, and even pulling chunks out of the iron BH.
attachment.php


Here's the broken off stub of bolt that somebody chewed on w/ a vise grip until it was hopelessly rounded off, then they said heck with it and reinstalled anyway.
attachment.php


And the rare "high mis-alignment" bolt, used when the motor mounts don't line up.
attachment.php

DSC05840.jpg
DSC05838.jpg
DSC05842.jpg
 
Holesaw imprint in BH from the spinning cam plug.
And yes, that timing pointer is bent. I have no idea how to fawk that up, But these guys were very talented.
attachment.php


This is the bore where rear cam plug lives. Note semi-polished finish from rear face of cam rubbing on plug.
attachment.php

DSC05835.jpg
DSC05843.jpg
 
And finally, the awesome modified TO bearing. This is a customized roofing nail, drilled through the TO ear.
attachment.php


This shows the resulting wear to the ear and/or fork.
attachment.php


That all goes in the trash. Here's what is supposed to look like. I'm done posting for now. hopefully it will test drive just fine today.
attachment.php

DSC05845.jpg
DSC05854.jpg
DSC05859.jpg
 
Seems like you'd have to try to **** up that many things at the same time:rolleyes:

Ed
 
Now if that mess isn't testament to a Land Cruisers ability to take abuse, I don't know what is! All that wrong and it still drove!

I would have sold him a complete drive train, beat him with the remnants of the speedo cable, and THEN charged him 3 times the going price for the work...



You must have went to church Sunday... :D
 
Awesome.

Kind of reminds me of the wiring on my FJ40 when I bought it.
 
These are situations where you just have to focus on the job at hand and not "inspect" too much or you could easily end up opening an even bigger can of worms. Mean worms. You do however, have to admire the PO's ingenuity, and especially his resourcefulness. Square peg, meet round hole :flipoff2:
 
too funny, Gawd cannot beleive the stuff poeple do to save money. You would think they at least put the bell housing cover back on to keep dirt out. Mud/dirt will act like sand paper if not cleaned but the whole idea is to keep it out in the first place. What a big mess.
 
It's why a lot of shops won't work on older stuff. It gets ugly fast and on a lot of vehicles it quickly ends up more than the value of the car/bike. The local Firestone big bills anything older than 10 years old hoping they'll just go away.

So here's hoping you're getting paid for all that extra work:cheers:
 
When I bought my current '71 cruiser I also purchased a '79 with all the parts. Apparently a local shop had done the job of replacing the whole body with a fiberglass body as the old body was apparently completely rusted out. Not only was the tub off to the right by 5", it was attached to the extremely rusted frame with large sheet rock screws. I s*** you not.

Out of curiousity, why not just heli coil the BH back to the right threads?
 
im seeing doubles.





and the good news is after all that was done wrong it still ran

nothing like a cruza
 
These are situations where you just have to focus on the job at hand and not "inspect" too much or you could easily end up opening an even bigger can of worms. Mean worms.


Disagree 100 percent:


My name is on the trucks, equipment and components that pass through my shop. I will not half-ass anything, period.

Not digging into issues and finding everything that could be causing problems is only inviting further issues to manifest at a later date.


You do not want me to fix it properly, feel free to stop by and pickup your junk.


:wrench:






Thank you for taking the time to share your findings Jim. Looks like you are having a lot of fun. :lol:



:beer:
 
This is all PO work.

The CO is the one that agreed to fix it correctly.

If I find the PO, he will be beaten w/ a cruiser fan belt.

Ah! The infamous PO strikes again. :hillbilly:

I gotta agree on the ingenuity of this PO. The roofing nail 'lost part substitution' will be a classic from now on.

Regardless, CO did the right thing for sure... :D
 
Disagree 100 percent:


My name is on the trucks, equipment and components that pass through my shop. I will not half-ass anything, period.

Not digging into issues and finding everything that could be causing problems is only inviting further issues to manifest at a later date.


You do not want me to fix it properly, feel free to stop by and pickup your junk.


:wrench:






Thank you for taking the time to share your findings Jim. Looks like you are having a lot of fun. :lol:



:beer:

You're right, I agree with YOU 100%. What I wrote didn't read exactly as I had intended it. We are lucky in this community to have mechanics that share this attitude... knowing that whatever work they do is a job done right. I would never half-ass anything related to the job I was asked to do. I would do just as Jim has and replace and do the clutch and bellhousing properly, to spec, and correctly or I wouldn't do it. There is no question about that.

In the end it is the customers decision whether or not to "open" the can of worms, but our responsibilty to show it to them.

:beer::beer:
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom