Hi there Folks,
Gotta question. I was having trouble shifting gears in my 87 F150. So I took it to a tranny shop. They informed me that the tranny was fine but the firewall that the master cylinder is mounted on was flexing. This apparently doesn't allow the piston to depress completely making shifting hard. First of all has anyone ever heard of this before. If you have heard of this problem before what did you people do to fix it. They also told me that I could purchase a bracket to mount the master cylinder on. Just as an aside I contacted ford and they told me there were no recalls for this and it wasn't their problem. "Go Figure". Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Freakin Old Guy

 

This was quite a common problem. Ford came out with a repair kit for it. Your local dealer should be able to get it for you. It is a patch sorta thing that goes in between the clutch master cylinder and the firewall. It also attaches to the firewall.
It seems that what happened quite often is the pressure plate would get stiff which made you have to push harder on the pedal which made more pressure on the firewall.

 

I was looking through the archives for this problem, as I am having it on my 1987 F-150. This has flexed ever since I bought the truck 8 years ago. Years ago I went to Ford and got the retrofit kit, and paid my mechanic to put it on after what I perceived as the clutch breaking and the pedal going all the way to the floor. What I know now is that just the little push rod that goes into the clutch master cylinder had come loose and my mechanic fixed it with bailing wire while charging me for the installation of the kit and keeping the part himself. (If my mechanic from years ago is reading this, M.P., I'm on to you).

I have had to do complete clutch replacement (pp, disc, throwout bearing, turn flywheel) three times, so far, each lasting about 30,000 miles. The rebuilt Autozone parts were the worst, and the new NAPA parts lasting longer.

The movement of the steering col. is so bad now I am going to put on a reinforcement kit and hopefully make the current clutch with 10,000 miles work better and last longer.

If anyone has any thoughts or advice, I'd welcome it.

 

My brother had a similar problem with his '93 Ranger (4.0, 5sp manual) Except that he had a cracked firewall near the pedal.

It was so bad for a while he couldn't start it because the safety switch in the clutch pedal wasn't closing even when the pedal was to the floor.

I have no idea how many times he had that thing in the shop trying to repair it (they never did fix it) but I'm sure the mechanic shed a tear when my bro traded it in for a newer model.

 

I had the same problem with my 87 4 speed. The firewall was flexing enough to effect the preformance of the master cyclinder. I had heard of the $400 Ford fix kit but my truck isnt worth that. So I ran a piece of 1" square tubing from the the firewall where the MC mounts, down to a brace at te bottom of the radiator. It has been working great for almost a year now. It cost me nothing and took about 30 minutes.

 

Ford makes 2 kits to fix the flexing firewall. The "minor repair" kit is $10 and the "Major repair" is $90. When I look from the front as someone pushes the clutch pedal, I see that the clutch master cylinder does not move at all (maybe my old mechanic put the bracket on after all; some day when I'm standing on my head with a flashlight looking under the pedal cluster, I'll look more closely).

What I DO see is a major deflection of the vacuum brake assist unit (with the brake master cylinder mounted on it) and some substantial movement of the steering column. The geometry of the situation is that I believe the flex would affect the throw of the plunger going into the clutch master cylinder (less throw).

I would guess that this would mean I need the $90 kit, if that is the one to fix a broken firewall down lower. Are there replaceable bushings or other parts of the pedal cluster that could be adding to the problem?

I'll study over the problem a little and see if I can devise a way to brace it up myself. Maybe even go to the Ford house and take a look at the $90 bracket to see if it addresses the problem before putting out the cash.

 

Decided to put in the $90 reinforcement kit. It turns out that in order to do the installation you have to basically strip the truck down to a bare chassis. After removing a list of parts that I did not even think were removable, I discover that the castings on the pedal cluster are broken.

So, what really happened here? Did the flex of the firewall cause the pedal cluster to break? Was the firewall flex a result of the broken pedal moorings? This thing was probably broken when I got the truck years ago, and could be a contributing factor to many clutch, and other nagging problems in this area.

So, you just can't go to this much trouble and do a half-way repair. I need to go find another clutch pedal assembly and put the reinforcement kit in.

 

i am having the same problem with no results. when i have some one press the clutch you can see the mc move. i have went to the ford dealership and they said there were no fix. any help?

 

Look in the diesel section and you'll see lots of info on this. Their clutches are lots harder and it's a common issue. The repair plate is a common upgrade even if you're not having issues.

 

Kit

Terrapin Manufacturing


Install:

Clutch problems due to cracked Firewall? Here's what to do.... PART1

 

the reinforcement kit from terrapin manufacturing is a little expensive and i believe i could make it myself although i cant find a template for it anywhere are there one and if so can someone one put a link to it in the forum it would help me a lot