ZF6 Clutch Issues...
 

i think i broke my clutch fork or throwout bearing. No bad sounding noises have developed yet but truck creeps in gear with clutch peddle fully depressed and is nearly impossible to get in first or reverse to start from a stop. i have to upshift and downshift matching RPM and Speed perfectly. i pulled the slave out of the trans and the plastic cap is still there. a measurement from clutch fork to outside of trans was 2 7/16 inches. should the clutch fork flop around easily up and down and front to back?? Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks.

If your fork is bent, it's not bent enough to cause the problems you're seeing.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...2&d=1274232933


How does the pedal feel? Is the fluid in thy hydraulics full? Is there a chance your firewall is cracked or weak and the firewall is flexing at the master and not allowing the slave to extend far enough?

the peddle feel changed just before i noticed the problems... it felt like the clutch only partially disengages ... almost like i need more travel but the peddle is already on the floor. i replaced the slave and master 20k miles ago ... i will go check the fliud level. thanks

That sounds a lot like what my clutch/transmission did. It was almost like the tranny fluid had been replaced with peanut butter. Very difficult to shift from one gear to another. Only mine was from first to second... on the same rail in the transmission.

Mine ended up being a cracked syncromesh gear and worn out clutch. But ultimately the cracked syncro was the hard shifting problem.

Search for a post that I started about my transmission troubles. I think I included pictures of the crack and other carnage...

Look at these links. This is a broken fork but you will not have any pedal. The old and new pic was posted by one of the other great members on this site.
Old and New picture by Eddie__S - Photobucket
Broken Fork picture by Eddie__S - Photobucket
Broken Fork picture by Eddie__S - Photobucket
Broken Fork picture by Eddie__S - Photobucket

I just change a clutch in a 2000 last Thursday with the same problem. one of the springs in the clutch disc came out and was trapped between the disc and pressure plate and was holding the diaphragm from moving enough to release.

Does this picture show a good or bad fork measurement? Is there any official measurement that will tell me if mine is bent? I'm probably going to drop the transmission in mine but i was curious if a measurement like this would give me an indication. Mine shifts fine when it is cold but after a good highway drive or hauling anything it gets warmed up and then is hard to shift into gears. We already replaced the master/slave with a prebled unit and that didn't help.

Sounds a lot like mine did when my synchros were bad. Except mine did some grinding when shifting. Like yours, mine was always worse once it warmed up.