Toyota Repair: 98 Rav 4 4wd 2.0L 5 spd manual, toyota service manual, gear puller

Question
Ted, I was a GM mechanic for 16 years before giving it up, but still work out of my shop at home.  Mother-in-law has a 98 Rav 4 with about 120k miles on it.  While still under warranty(30k miles or so) it started popping out of 5th gear.  Dealer repaired by replacing 5th gear synchro parts similar to what is in the TSB for this problem.  It is now doing this again.  I see by the TSB the parts were "improved" and since the TSB issue date the part #'s have changed again.  She is asking if I can fix it.  While with GM we did many trans repairs in the car and this repair looks like it could be done with the trans in the vehicle also.  Can you comment on this.  I have the Toyota service manual and it looks fairly straight forward.  My only concern is the special tools.  Can you tell me if they are really necessary?  Do I need them to pull the 5th driven gear off, and also the clutch hub and 5th drive gear?  Any advise would be appreciated, I would like to help here out and fix this for her, but I don't want to marry it either.  Thanks for your time and consideration.

Answer
Yes the 5th gear parts can be replaced in the car, these gears are on splined shafts and are extremely difficult to remove, you can try heating the driven gear with a torch to make it easier to get off, some kind of gear puller will help, without applying heat it's almost impossible to remove it unless the factory tool is used, the drive gear is also a tight fit and you may also use some heat to help remove it, a universal gear puller will probably work, the clutch hub has some 8mm threaded holes in it which can be used with a universal gear puller, this one is not too tight. Gears and transmission parts are pretty expensive, have you considered just trying to find a good used transmission, you may be able to find one for around $400-500, it may be worth a try to make some calls to some of the salvage yards especially if can locate one in your area that specializes in japanese cars.