Trying to help a buddy with his kickdown cable

Lots of threads that explain this, but his situation is a bit different.

He has an 01 Tacoma and just popped in a 30K motor, but the cable on the throttle body is seized. Truck and auto transmission themselves have 230K on them and that fluid may have never been changed. I've gotta give it the sniff and color test.

I warned him that if the pan must be dropped to save every drop of fluid and reuse it, or he'll more than likely have a slipping issue if he dumped all the fluid, changed the filter and assembled the cable.

Tomorrow I will identify his trans, but if he must drop the pan would you not also save all that fluid? Would you change the filter? When the fluid is filled with clutch material it's important to reuse that fluid, maybe siphon out a couple quarts but I never change it all at that many miles if it's the 1st change.

Lastly, what's odd is he says the truck is shifting fine in drive thru all the gears, but his idle at rest seems a bit high at 1700RPM. If that trans needs to be opened, maybe I can send some Kroil down the sheathing and get it freed up as it is not snapped. Can he run it if the only other issue is a high idle at rest? He has the new 150$ cable but we don't want to cook the tranny.

Any thoughts are much appreciated...

 

The procedure for changing out the cable is at the bottom of the first post in this link in PDF
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...sions-write-up-your-4-speed-automatic.325531/

Why do you have an issue changing the fluid ? if you are popping the pan , thats about 4 quarts of fresh fluid . Might as well throw a filter at it as well .
Wouldnt hurt to pop a few pictures of what the pan and magnets look like / contamination inspection

If you dont feel any slipping , try throwing oil down the sheathing . They usually stretch over time creating a slipping trans
The tighter the cable is adjusted , the later and firmer the trans will shift . If the cable is seized , chances are it seized in the wrecking yard and most likely at zero throttle

 

Okay, just to be clear it is shifting perfectly, had rather not even touch it at all. Especially if the only problem is a slightly higher model.

I will check out your link, thank you. He did get the transmission model and it is an A44D and it has the 4 cylinder engine, not sure if I mentioned it is 2WD.

I'm not sure if that makes a difference as far as removing the pan or not to replace the cable, as I read some models don't need the pan removed, (if I read that correctly in the post I found last night).

With 230K miles on a transmission that has never had it's fluid changed, most people say that draining a couple of quarts and putting some new fluid back in is ok, but anymore than that and you may have clutch slippage within the clutch packs. I've read about it and have seen it happen, which is why I'm hoping it can be done externally or that he can drive it the way it is. Bear in mind this is an older guy that doesn't travel much and doesn't have allot of money and again it seems to be shifting fine and he'd never do any towing...

Edit: I don't see an A44D transmission in any of those PDFs. They seem to be for the A43D or A340 models. Appreciate your help regardless.

 

The cable adjustment procedure is the same as the A340 series transmission .
In either case , to change the cable , the pan must come off .

If he is an older fella , chances are he wont be racing the truck anytime soon .
That being said , I would still change the cable because the cable tells the transmission how much load is being placed on the transmission .
If the cable is seized at Zero throttle , the transmission may slip at half throttle . When you select reverse and lightly apply the throttle , the transmission uses double the pressure of forward gear ranges


Whenever a transmission service is performed on a high mileage unit , it is best practice to remove the pan and thoroughly clean it .
Some guys just pop the drain plug without removing the pan . Thats a no no with high mileage units
Introducing new fluid with super detergents into a dirty pan will cause you grief down the road .
The detergents in the new fluid are so powerful they actually pull the contaminates off the magnets and force those contaminates through the all aluminum valve body .

 

Thanks very much for all of that, didn't know the kickdown cable did all that. I guess I compared it to any old GM vehicle I drove where when the throttle was opened the kickdown cable dropped a gear. I guess we've come a long way since then. The cable isn't broken, I'm gonna at least try to free it up with some Kroil, it's worth a shot...

Also, yes, he is at zero throttle. Previous owner also removed just abut every single piece involved with the emergency brake, looks like were headed to the scrapyard.

 

Here I am again 6 hours later and I just read this in another post: "the A44D is electronically controlled and A43D is controlled by throttle position and a governor".

The VIN says my buddies is the 44D but there is still a cable hooked up to the throttle position. Isn't a 44D (which we're dealing with now) controlled both by throttle position/cable and electronics??

I guess it doesn't matter, I'm gonna change his cable for him anyway...