What a frustrating day of working on the Cruiser!

I got to it later than I wanted, around 11am instead of "early". Enjoyed some early success pulling a bolt that had given me grief earlier. Note: a good trick to getting the top bolts out of the bellhousing is to use a very long extension (I used a 24" and a 14" together) so that your ratchet is positioned behing the transmission, where you have room to turn it. I don't know how I'm going to get it back together yet... but that should be easier than apart based on the dirt/rust that was helping hold the bolt in.

After that early victory, it was all downhill.

My Cruiser started life as a gasoline model but was converted to a turbo diesel by a previous owner. The conversion was done pretty well, but every now and then I come across evidence that it could have been done a whole lot better. Today, for example, I learned that when they positioned the motor a little further back than normal, it creates a situation in which you can't actually get the transmission out because the bellhousing contacts the floor of the car. I tried pushing/pulling/twisting/praying/swearing... for about 3 hours. No dice.

I tried pulling the motor mounts off of the motor to lower it an inch or two to allow some more leeway. No dice.
I tried jacking the front of the motor up, but was foiled by the fact that the rear-bias means that the back of the head of the motor hits the firewall of the truck, preventing any significant tilting.

After literally hours of trying various approaches, I finally gave up. Right about then, my mechanic buddy (at whose shop I was working) made some free time and came over to help. Between the two of us, we managed to get the tranny far enough from the motor to loosen the bolts holding the clutch disc. Eventually that, and a lot of two people pushing/pulling HARD we managed to separate the two parts. Wow, that transmission is HUGE. I'll snap some photos by daylight.

Got the disc, pressure plate, and T/O bearing out and I was instantly dismayed to see that all three were in pretty good shape.
Dismayed? Yes.

You see- the whole reason to tear into this beast of a transmission was to eliminate a noise that has cropped up. The thing is- the noise is only really noticeable in San Jose- which is at higher altitude and also cooler. For no good reason, I thought that the noise -which can only be described as metal bouncing off of metal in a clangy and fairly random way with a fast pace- was likely the T/O bearing. Ok, it isn't really no good reason: The T/O bearing pushes on some thin metal teeth on the pressure plate. The sound is an awful lot like the noise of something pinging along on those teeth. And the noise goes away when the clutch is engaged, but is present when the clutch is out. I don't *think* that the noise ever happend unless we were actually moving.

So it wasn't completely silly to assume that the clutch is involved. After all, if it were the diff or the u-joints, or something in the transfercase, it might still rattle/clank/ping while the truck is moving, even with the clutch engaged. But it doesn't.

Back to my dismay: I had really hoped that the T/O bearing or the clutch disc were broken/bent/sticking or otherwise plainly demonstrating a condition that would make the noise. They didn't/aren't/don't. Grrr.

The pressure plate looks nearly new. The pilot bearing spins easily and quietly. The throw-out bearing (T/O bearing) spins quietly and easily (though it does look pretty dirty). The clutch disc is a little thin, but looks very good otherwise.

So I've spent two afternoons of pretty hard work to discover that I've been working on parts that are very, very unlikely to be the parts that need fixing. And I've got at least 1 more afternoon in front of me to put it all back together.

If you've replaced a clutch, you're probably chuckling at me right now. Thanks.

You're probably also thinking "Hey, at least you've got a new disc/plate/bearings and won't have to tear this down again for 15 or 20 years." You would be totally right, if the new disc and plate that I bought were the correct parts. They aren't. For those of you with the luxury of a Napa or Toyota dealer in your home town.... I envy you. Tomorrow I'll drive an hour to Liberia, where I'll then square off with the parts guy at the parts store in a sincere but not very high-odds attempt to exchange the wrong parts for right parts. If I had done this repair in less than 6 days from purchasing the parts, it would be better odds for me. As it stands, I'm hopeful and apprehensive all at once since it has been about 15 days since I got the parts, I'm almost certainly beyond the acceptable timeframe for exchange.

I'm going to further push my luck and try to swap the disc. but _return_ the pressure plate. The T/O and pilot bearings are the right part: Keepers. My old pressure plate actually has less rust than the rebuilt one that they sold me. So keep your virtual fingers virtually crossed for me on Tuesday when I'll try to get money out of the parts store based on a mistake that they made. If you lived in Costa Rica, you would understand my dubious attitude much better, I assure you.

The most perplexing and frustrating part of all is that I still don't know what makes the noise! My new theory is that maybe the rear air locker is involved. See, I haven't gotten the pump squared away yet (been fixing the dang tranmsission, among other things) so the air line is simply blocked off. I'm wondering if the change in altitude between here and San Jose (about 4,000 vertical feet) could allow the air in the locker to expand enough to make it clang and rattle. That, somehow combined with colder weather... it is a pretty unlikely explanation.

More likely is that my tranny has issues. After I get back from the parts store tomorrow I'll clean up the transmission and open it up to see if I find any "obvious" problems (like tiny unicorns, jumping around, poking holes in my synchros and defecating in the gears). I've never opened up a manual transmission before, so I'm not feeling lots of confidence that I'll immediately see something that will solve the issue.... but at least I will have looked. Before somehow hefting that goliath transmission back into place.

I'm also a little concerned about getting things buttoned up- geting it out was tough. Putting it back could be bobs-your-uncle easy, or a trying affair full of pulled muscles and loud explatives. I'm hoping for the former, based on the cosmic fairness principle. I've suffered enough on this particular job, especially since I haven't even fixed anything. Time will tell.

Labels: Costa Rica, landcruiser