Just thought you guys would get a kick out of these. Test driving the Bronco the other night when it detonated. I had been tuning on the new carb and playing with the timing... I had just pulled out on the highway and I had it in O.D. doing 70 ish when it happened, locked up the entire drive train and put me into a skid for several hundred feet.

 

WOW. I've never seen a disc come apart like that.

 

Wow, you sure grenaded that one. How old was the clutch?

 

It had about 50K on it... it was a borg-warner clutch and pressure plate. It never gave me any problems or anything, no slipping, no signs anything was wrong.

It's seen it's share of abuse though, I figure I just dumped the clutch one too many times and started a stress crack somewhere. This is a first for me though, I've burnt up a few, but never had one detonate like this...

 

So did that take anything else out with it when the clutch grenaded like that?

 

sure seen a lot like that in my shop days only from pople who should have been sold a automatic by a greedy sales man.

check out the LUK clutch packages in www.lukclutch.com thses are some very high quality units that we use only in our shop clutch work.
for the psd guys they make the normal fly wheel convertion to do away with the troublesome dual mass set up.

 

I hate to tell you this the life of a clutch is dependent on the driver. Looks like you have dropped that clutch by sliding your foot of the pedal. The springs are there to cushion the engagement. I have seen it before.

 

Is that what they are there for? I had (well, still have) an Escort with the 1.9l and a 5spd. I went to change the rear main seal one day and found that the clutch, with less thank 15k on it had one broken spring. The spring broke at one of the coils and otherwise the clutch and pressure plate looked perfect. The car was never abused either. Could that clutch still be used?

 

Had you not pulled it apart to change the seal I would guess it would still be working. There is always the chance that a broken spring escapes and locks up the pressure plate that it won't release. I have a son who had that happen. Yes if you look at the disc closely you will see that the splined hub is designed to rotate a certain amount against the springs to soften the engagement. I know for sure but for the 500 and 600 Fords B/W made a disc without the springs. I think they called those undampened clutch plates. We never used them because of the shock loads that a bad driver would cause on other components. While I'm at it if your going to replace a clutch get the heavy duty plate and disc. Instead of 4 rivits holding those spring plates on you get 6, and I believe the lining has more attachment if I remember correctly.

Kotzy

 

Do you know who has these? I haven't found a parts house around here that does yet.

 

so did you inspect the rear end,tranny or tcase to see if they locked up. i find it hard that this damage was caused stricly by the clutch itself. something else caused your lock up and the clutch took the brunt of it.

 

I put it in gear last night and turned the input shaft with the detonated clutch plate by hand and I couldn't see any "out of round" or wobble at the end of the shaft. I don't have a dial indicator or anything to check it with though, but it appeared to be fine. I had really hoped the tranny had detonated because I wanted an NP435 or T18/T19... but I may swap it out just to be safe if I find a donor unit that's reasonable.

 

how about the tcase or rear differential. does the truck roll as it sits now?

 

Ok, so maybe I had taken way too much cold medicine last night when I was looking at it. I pulled it out from under the Bronco today so I could look at it in the daylight and there was some noticable "wobble" in the input shaft. So I put the shifter back in the top and put it in gear (I guess it was actually in Neutral last night) and nothing... it's locked up tight in every gear. And now that I have had the top off of it and been screwing around with it I can't get it back into Neutral so it's completely locked down now. Not sure what happened, it was a little low on gear oil when I opened it up, but not more than a 1/2" or so below the filler plug. And there is wear on the gears but nothing looks broken or chewed up.


I also found a hole in the bell housing...



Thanks Kemicalburns for insisting I be a little more thorough on the inspection. Go ahead... say it... I TOLD YOU SO!!!
Feels good to be right huh...

I would have wasted a good half day putting that turd back in and pulling it out again when it wouldn't roll. Hopefully I can locate a good donor unit for it here pretty quick.

 

i would locate an NP435 and go hydrolic while your at it. or better yet find a zf 5speed out of an f250/f350. this would be the best of both worlds, because it has a granny first and of course OD.

im glad you were able to figure it out. ive found its beneficial to just check everything. might even open the rear diff cover and inspect your ring/pinnion just incase. probably needs a gear oil change anyway.