Bram van den Heuvel wrote:

While the clutch worked for two hundred miles getting there and getting
back, at some point during the high-stress hills, the clutch pedal sort of
just stuck at the low position a couple of times. What would cause that?

A leak in the hydraulics. Check the master cylinder first, then check
the slave. If you aren't changing your brake fluid every year or two,
now might be a good time to try doing that. My inclination would be to
pull the piston from the master and check the condition of the seals too.

Also, at about the same high-stress time, it was hard to get into first and
second gear. Like really hard.

That could be because the clutch isn't completely out, or it might be for
some other reason. Could be sticky synchronizers.

Given the fluid I put in will definitely be GL4 and 75W90 (as per Toyota
specs), would a synthetic matter for this issue?

Or do all transmissions do that?

One of the things about SOME of the synthetic oils is that they have strong
solvent properties. I know this is the case for the Royal Purple, but I
cannot speak for all the others. If your transmission is gunked up from
varnish due to years of not having changed the fluid properly, the high
solvent oil may dissolve some of that. It's possible one of the "Toyota
Guys" is thinking that your synchronizers are gunked up with sticky goo
and that a synthetic oil might help free them. And that is likely not too
bad a plan. $50 worth of oil is a lot less expensive than dropping the
transmission to look inside. However, your clutch issue would make me
suspect the clutch hydraulics rather than the synchronizers. Even so,
you should be changing fluids on a regular basis and it won't hurt to
start now.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."