Suppose I should update this, as the truck has been back on the road for two months now... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The job wasn't terribly difficult, just time consuming. I followed the service manual, however I found that the fan and shroud did not need to be removed, nor did the front differential (it did need to be loosened, but the CV joints did not need to be separated.) I also bought one of those transmission jack adapters from Harbor Freight, which worked out very well. Man, that transmission is huge!

I found I had plenty of room to change the flex plate by moving the transmission back about 1 foot after separating it from the engine. The transmission adapter features a tilt adjustment, so repositioning it back against the engine went fairly smoothly.

It's still a mystery to me why this thing cracked to begin with. All six torque converter bolts were tight, and since the bell housing is aligned to the engine with dowel pins I don't think there was any misalignment there. I suppose the plate could have been defective, but I haven't seen or read about any other Tacomas with this problem... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Here's a photo of the converter. After removing it I discovered the crack to be worse than shown...there was actually about 1/2" left before it broke completely:


Happy Holidays!
-Dave