Toyota Repair: 91 Tercel Clutch Replacement, engine cherry picker, clutch replacement

Question
Dear Ted:

Discovered your site tonight while trying to help a co-worker deal with a leaky rack on a 92 Camry.  I couldn't tear myself away until I read at least a hundred postings; great service you perform.

I've been working on cars, mostly as hobby for almost 40 years, tending toward Bowties, but recently tripped over a decent-appearing deal on an elderly man's 91 Tercel 5-speed, my first-ever Toyota.  Paid 800 for this 114K-mile unit, pretty decent shape for its age, and even cold A/C.

He sold it because he found a newer Honda from an even older person at a phenominal price, and the clutch is just about completely gone--I call this the "slip-slide-away-mobile".  I've changed dozens of clutches, even converted half a dozen cars from auto to stick, but never on a FWD car.

I even have a nice little engine cherry-picker, and tons of tools collected and inherited over the years.

The real question popped up when I bought a Chilton manual for the car and found 3 pages and 67 discrete steps involved in removing the engine.  1990 and prior had about half that many steps; this must be a very special car.

I was shocked--I think the only thing they don't suggest removing is the RR taillight!

Since you have been at this a long time and may have done more than a few of these along the way, I'm wondering if Chilton's way is the only way?

Ultimately what I am getting at is, is it possible, using good judgment and restraint to be able to remove less than every single thing they mention, but to say, loosen certain things, that the transaxle can move enough to the drivers side, maybe ooched over a bit toward the driver's side that one might get enough space to get some daylight between the engine and the transaxle?  The "front" of the engine is extremely close to the pass side frame/inner fender sheet metal.  Precious little space available.

Do the axles necessarily have to be removed?  If so, I keep seeing references to some being clipped in, others apparently not.  How to tell the difference between clipped/non-clipped versions?  Just don't have a sense of how much give there are in the front-end components that might allow one to swing the front of the engine out enough to clear the fenderwell, or maybe tip it up, or some combination of the two.

I see postings from people who claim to bend crowbars trying to pry axles that should just pop out--I'd be nervous prying on a trans case hard enough to bend a crowbar!  This car could be a decent proposition if all I need to do is put in a new clutch set, but a big loser if I have to start replacing stuff that wasn't broke when I started.

Does the rack have to be removed, or the tie rods disconnected?  

My experience with shop manuals is that occasionally, there is an alternative way to accomplish certain tasks that might take fewer steps and less time--I recently cut about two-thirds of the steps out of the Chevy manual on replacing the heater core in a Suburban!  Didn't lose any integrity of the work, just some skin from the back of my hand.

Reading between the lines in some of the exchanges on this site, perhaps this wasn't Toyota's finest offering, but with a new clutch, it looks like it would be a decent little grocery-getter and might even get better mileage than the Suburban.  It can sit for months, and then catch immediately when the key is twisted.

Any risky areas to watch out for?  

Thanks for what you do.  This is a great service for those of us who like to keep the older units running without going bankrupt.


Jeff McCee  

Answer
The clutch can be replaced without removing the engine, what I've done in the past is remove the axle nuts then pull the rotors and hubs off the axle shafts and tie them out of the way, removing the left lower control arm will give more room, after the mounts and crossmembers are removed(leave the front motor mount in place) the engine can be dropped down, you will need some sort of engine support so it can be lowered down until the transmission will clear the body, the axles can be left in although it makes it a little awkward but if you decide to pry them out do so while transmission is still on the engine, they can be difficult to remove, there are small circlips on the ends but they will slide over the side gears, after that it's just a mateer of removing the starter and transmission bolts etc. pretty straightforeward.