I have a 1990 Toyota pickup truck with about 135,000 miles on it that has run without any problems since the day I bought it more than twenty years ago. I’m a pretty decent mechanic, I’ve always repaired my own vehicles and built a few race cars, motorcycles and off road vehicles as well, so knew the truck needed a little maintenance after so many trouble free miles.
First off, with that many miles on it, I knew the clutch had to be getting near the end of it’s lifespan. I am pretty easy on the truck; there have been some moments, but it hasn’t been beat on and I don’t tow anything with it, but 135,000 miles is getting about all you can get out of the clutch. Replacing a clutch is a big job, especially tough in a dirt driveway with one small floor jack. Jacked the truck up, got it on jack stands, took everything apart and dropped the transmission. The clutch was pretty worn, could have gone another few thousand miles but the throwout bearing was shot, caked with dirt and grease and the flywheel surface was uneven. The uneven flywheel surface was causing a slight clutch chatter from a dead stop, it’s been that way since the day I bought the truck. Hadn’t planned on replacing the flywheel, but you don’t want to do this kind of job over again any time soon, so I bought a new flywheel at the local parts store. I got the clutch on Ebay from Gripforce; disc, pressure plate, pilot and throwout bearings and alignment tool for less than $100, shipping included. Everything fit fine, bit of a struggle horsing the transmission back on, but the clutch is smooth as silk. The transmission shift lever bushing was shot, a common thing on some Toyota transmissions, so I replaced it. You can tell if the bushing is bad; the transmission is hard to shift and it will pop out of gear.
On to the next job; replacing the timing chain, timing gears and chain guides. Toyota recommends changing the timing chain every 100,000 miles, that’s pretty close to when you should do it. Since I take good care of my truck, I figured I could squeeze a few more miles out of it. Taking the timing chain cover off is a little tricky, all the bolts are different sizes, you have to keep track of them. If you’re going to be doing this repair job, here’s a pretty good guide on how to do it. Good thing I decided to replace the timing chain; the driver’s side chain guide was broken and the chain was way too loose. Left like that, it would eventually cause a lot of damage.
As most Toyota 22RE owners know, it’s best to replace the driver’s side chain guide with a metal backed unit, which I got on Ebay from CNS Motors for $45. Deal. It’s a good idea to replace the water pump at this stage of the game, which I did, with one I got on Ebay from Panstone for $55.
Everything was going fine until I tried to wedge the timing cover between the head/head gasket and oil pan, when I crinkled the head gasket. Crap, now I have to replace the head gasket. That’s where I am now, got everything taken apart, a few more bolts and I should be able to lift the head, replace the head gasket and get the truck back on the road. It’s been nearly a week straight of truck repair, I want to get this job over with and get back to summer fun activities.
On the brighter side, I took delivery of my new Panasonic Lumix DMC LX-5 camera today. I’m going to try and get the basic functions down so tomorrow’s truck repair saga will have some beautiful pictures to go with it.
