My 1996 Toyota Tacoma with its 267K miles has been driven in Chicago’s unmerciful stop-and-go traffic. On the rare occasions when I can take it out of 3rd gear it still drives great. But last night because of the Cubs game and its traffic I was in 1st-to-third the entire way home, 90 minutes. Whenever I was in 3rd, we’re talking original standard gearbox, it slipped out of the detent and I had to hold the gearshift there to keep in gear. Time for a new gearbox maybe or even a new buggy?
Yep, you need to either repair your gearbox, or replace it. If this is a 2WD pickup, (the Tacoma is a pickup, right?) then swapping out the gearbox for a used one from the junkyard should not be too expensive. If the truck is in decent shape otherwise, I’d fix it. You might even be able to get a whole engine and tranny with fewer miles on them for a good price.
I have not been in that particular tranny, but my limited experience in a couple of Toyota car manual trannys was that they were very easy to rebuild with no special tools required. Parts prices from the dealer were reasonable.
This in stark contrast to the 5 speed in my old Volvo. Special tools required and the parts prices would have exceeded the value of the car.
If the truck is otherwise in decent shape and you don’t want to rebuild it yourself, I would try to find a junk yard that would sell me one for around $500 with a 90-day warranty. Look at the clutch while you have the tranny out, but at 267k miles, I would consider just replacing the facings and throwout bearing if the clutch is worn. In city driving, this vehicle is probably approaching the end of the line.