How do you replace the clutch in 2001 Toyota tacoma 4wd truck?

Answer 1

From the interior of the truck:

Spin off your shifter knobs

Remove the shifting console trim by the 4 screws around the perimeter

Remove the inner shift boots

Remove the shifters by unbolting the plates underneath them, paying close attention to the way they were oriented as they came out

Stuff rags in the holes of left from the shifters

Set the parking brake and/or chalk your tires

Remove the front and rear driveshafts

Unbolt the slave cylinder from the side of the bellhousing

Remove all of the bolts on the bellhousing

Place a tranny jack underneath the transmission (floor jack if you want a challenge)

Unbolt the rear crossmember

Pull the transmission back until the input shaft clears the clutch

Slowly lower and pull back the transmission at the same time until it is completely out of the way

Remove all of the bolts on the clutch housing, and the clutch disk will come off with it

Remove the flywheel and have it either resurfaced or replaced

Remove the pilot bearing

Here's a little backyard mechanic trick to the Toyota pilot bearings. It works better than commercial pilot bearing pullers, and "the grease trick":

Get a couple pieces of newspaper, and soak them in water. Tear up the newspaper, making little "spitwads" Shove the spitwads into the center of pilot bearing Get a socket that closely matches the diameter of the hole, and pound the spitwads back with a hammer. Keep shoving more spitwads in and pounding them back. Soon you will start to see the pilot bearing moving, but keep going until it pops out. You will just be left with a big ball of wet newspaper that's easy to throw away, rather than a broken pilot bearing puller or a bunch of messy grease. And usually it only takes a couple of minutes which is much faster than the other methods. Strange, but it works.

Now slip off the throwout bearing from the transmission input shaft and replace it with the new one.

Put your new flywheel on, and make sure that it is torqued to spec, and with new thread lock applied

Put the pressure plate and clutch disk on the alignment tool

Using the alignment tool test fit the new clutch assembly and bolt it on

Torque the pressure plate down using a cross-pattern, so as to not warp anything

Remove the alignment tool

Install transmission, and everything else in reverse order

Oh and one major thing: Do not touch anything on the clutch or flywheel with your greasy hands. Make sure you have some CLEAN gloves when you are dealing with the new parts.

If this is your first clutch job, expect about 6-8 hours of work. Otherwise, maybe 4-5 or so.