Clutch is not disengaging very well and hard to put into gear

Hey guys I know there's a million posts about this and I have read a bunch of them. looking for a little more direction.

so my clutch is not disengaging very well and it's hard to put it into gear. I flushed all the old fluid out and replaced it with new fluid and bled it at the slave cylinder. it worked for about a week beautifully, but this morning I can't put it into gear at all now (I had to put it into gear while engine was shutoff just to limp it home). Also, the clutch pedal is very stiff. I have a 99 v6 and that clutch is so easy compared to this one.

My question is do you think one of my clutch cylinders is going bad, could this cause the problem? there are no leaks and the level in the reservoir did not go down.

Please help, thank you!

 

If changing the fluid and bleeding it helped for a bit, and then stopped helping, I'd be inclined to think that you've got a slave or master cylinder problem of some sort. Are there any outside signs of leakage?

 

Get a look at the pedal assembly, they can also break and cause issues.

 

Hard to push the pedal Check the Clutch Bracket

or the clutch Fork is about to break and the release bearing is twisted on the shaft

 

I dont like this answer, as I do not know what you are talking about but it sounds bad hahaha. can you please break that down a bit for dummies?

 

No leaking on the outside.

 

I ended up adjusting the pedal on the push rod and it seems to working now. but not sure if its just an intermittent hydraulic issue?

 

Clutch pedal bracket metal tearing is super common but it sounds like you likely have a clutch master or slave failing.

 

Check the Freeplay?

 

As others have mentioned I'd focus on the clutch hydraulics. The 3RZ Tacomas don't have the problematic torsion spring for the clutch pedal assembly, so that's probably not it. The master and slave are not so expensive, Aisin parts will run you under $100, easy job too. I've got a 3RZ manual 4Runner (which does have the torsion spring) with some weird intermittent clutch action, even after totally rebuilding the clutch pedal assy, so I'm replacing all the hydraulics next...

 

OP has V6

 

The original title was 3RZ clutch problem, and it sounded like he was comparing it to his other Tacoma with a V6....
From OPs earlier posts looks like his white Tacoma is a 3RZ...if that's what we're talkin' here.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/800-tacoma.669472/#post-23496981

 

Read it again

 

Sorry, but when this happened to me it was the throwout bearing binding up on the housing it slides on. My master cylinder linkage buckled while limping home.

Full clutch job.

 

Ya thats what I meant when I said I adjusted the clutch pedal, I didn't really measure it but I just thought that if I adjust it and might catch earlier therefore completely disengaging the clutch. because my problem was I couldn't get it into gear.

 

Ya I have two now hahaha, the red one in my pic is my TRD v6. the white one is 3rz that I bought for $800.

 

A quick test is to pull the two bolts on the slave cylinder and see if the pedal moves freely.

 

I just had my slave cylinder replaced a month ago- I couldn't get into 1st or reverse and had exhausted all other possible issues (my slave cyl was also NOT leaking). New slave cyl fixed it completely. However, I should add that my pedal was getting squishy and not stiff. I would think that a stiff pedal would result from a leak.

Ended up getting a whole clutch job as well, as my clutch was worn too. Honestly, I had spent many many hours troubleshooting this and replacing stuff on my own (and in full denial that I needed a new clutch), for my mechanic to diagnose it (clutch and slave cyl) in 2.5 seconds when I finally took it in. I am lucky that he specializes in older Toyotas.