Clutch Issues with 89 F-250 7.3 IDI
 

Hello Guys,

So I have been having issues with my truck.
Background:
Got the truck from my uncle, he blew the motor, it sat for about 11 yrs. He gave it to me for free. I found another 7.3L, rebuilt it. put it in the truck. It runs great! Then it came to the driving.
The clutch does not seem to be releasing, even with the clutch pedal to the floor. When in gear and clutch pedal to the floor the truck is even being pulled by the starter.
I put in a new clutch slave cyl. I am 99% sure it is bled as much as it could be. I managed to take it for a drive and work through all the gears, but it is defiantly hard going. I am 99% sure it is the clutch. The pedal seems firm, but maybe could be firmer. I did not drive the truck before the motor went, so Im not sure how it felt before.
The fork is in the right place for sure. The slave cyl is pushing, but could it be pushing more.......... I don't know. Any Ideas? Could it be the master cylinder?

This is the only thing holding the truck from being used.
And its a 5 speed manual tranny.

You have a ZF5 trans. I would bet you still have a small amount of air in the line, did you bench bleed it prior to install? It may also be an incorrect part or mis manufactured? Luckily that should be an external slave instead of the internal slave like mine.

After sitting thst long, maybe change tha master as well and see where that gets you.

I have bled the hell out of it, and drove it around like some guys have said to get the air out. I guess there could always be air in it still but last time I was very diligent about making sure there was not. I have done this twice now. I am lucky it is external, but holy sh*# is it hard to get it back in after you take it out. The master cyl is not a nice thing to take out, as it bolts to the firewall from inside the cab.

Appears to have been little confusion in your previous post, sounds like the flip side of issue clutch doesn't slip problem is you can't release it.

Yea measure how far the release bearing moves from static position (note its position clutch pedal all the way up, then have someone push the clutch pedal to the floor, it should travel min of 0.67"

Is there some sort of adjustment, or are you just wonderimg if its moving far enough? Would thus be the slaves fault or something else?

You can Lose a good bit of your travel if the bushing where the clutch push rod attaches to the pedal assy and the bushings on the main shaft of the pedal assy.

Oh, so you think its just a problem with the master cylindet adjustment or predal bushing wear, resulting in not enough slave movement?

Exactly, according to my book the release bearing should move that far (the slave's push rod, it might have to extend twice that distance to move the bearing that far for example).

If it does that would suggest problem is in the clutch itself, if not it have to be in the release system.

Ok so to confirm. Is this the distance the master cylinder extends or the distance the bearing moves, that pushes the fingers on the clutch? I think it will be almost impossible to measure the bearing on the inside.

I don't think this is your problem, since you recently rebuilt the engine, but I've had cars where the clutch "rusts" onto the flywheel after sitting a while.. but based on the fact that you presumedly separated the flywheel and clutch during the engine swap, and the fact that you've driven around I think the chance of that is pretty small.

Only other options as stated are air in the lines, a bad cylinder, or mechanical slop.