BJ60 Clutch Saga Pt.1: A Lost Hope

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Holy shit it’s difficult to find parts you’d think would be very common.

Last week, it was -35° Celsius here in good old YYC. Naturally, I set the Webasto (my 12v diesel coolant preheater) to warm up the engine before I got outside that morning. Stupid me, however, forgot that the other fluids would still have the viscosity of molasses, and upon pushing the clutch in to start the engine, I triggered a set of events that have caused me irritation and pain for the past week now.


I went to select first gear, but the clutch went all the way to the floor with no hesitation. Okay, annoying. Maybe it’s just cold. I drove all the way to school that morning, and all the way back, with no clutch. That evening, I called my local auto parts store and ordered in a new clutch master cylinder. It would be here the next day.

Indeed it was. But it was the wrong one; in April of 1985 Toyota added a vacuum booster to the BJ60, thus requiring an entirely different sort of reservoir. Guess what exact month my particular 60 was made.

The nearest supposedly compatible proper cylinder was in Coquitlam BC, and would take a week to arrive. Today, it came in, and was also the wrong one. Granted, it was closer to correct this time, but still completely wrong; that one was meant for the non-boosted LC. After the (very helpful) folks at Bowness Auto looked through every supplier they could, they suggested I find the stock part number. I called Stampede Toyota, to be met with news that a new part from them would be…. $350. And Bowness still didn’t have any luck finding anything. Either I get one from FJParts or I call Steve at EBI and see if he’s got something. Fingers crossed. Or, maybe I try to rebuild the old one…?


More to come when I figure more out, but for now – if you have a vacuum boosted Canadian BJ60 built after April of 1985, you need this part number:

 

31401-60022-J

PART TWO

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