Hi all,

I have 88 F150 4x4 xlt lariat manual trans, while my wife was trying to pull a tree out on a low4x4. she experienced lack of drive power which turned to no drive at all.
the truck starts fine.... I still have to depress the clutch to start it, but if I put it in grear it wont move an inch, when it is in grear I can take my foot off the clutch pedal and the truck wont die nor it will jump.... tried to drive it 2 wheels, hi 4x4, and even low 4x4 but it wont move.

Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

How many miles is on your clutch? Does your wife really know how to drive a manual?

If you are really really lucky all she did was break the shift linakge but that is unlikely since you had a symptom of diminishing power.

I am afraid that she may have burned up the clutch or glazed it. If the clutch had a lot of miles, a clumsy driver trying to pull a stump could push it over the edge. A newer clutch might get glazed, you might be able to fix a glazed clutch but better to replace it. If she burned it up, your flywheel and pressure plate may also have a problem and need replacing or can be cleaned up.

Did she notice a lot of smoke or a funny smell? Was there any snapping or weird mechanical sounds, clunk grinding etc?

I hate asking women these questions since most don't pay attention to machinery until it stops.

I am no tranny expert but I can't think of anything that would cause this problem except a burned clutch/presureplate/flywheel, ground up gears or synchros, broken U joints or ground up dirfferentials, all in this order. I would lean to clutch since it would be unusual for both diffs to go and I would hate to think the tranny itself is wrecked.

Man I hate letting the wife drive my vehicles, they break stuff and don't even know it.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

you are so Right... when I asked her if she notice anything, she had no I dea and did not hear anything or smell anything.
She wasn't even looking at the gages.
The clutch was replaced about 2 years ago, since then the truck has been parked for most of the time, I don't think I put 2k miles on it in the past 2 years. I hate to think about spending that kind of money again.

 

I would check the linkage under the truck. It is possible she was just dumping it and the linkage popped off the clutch fork. That would be a $8 repair to get a new cone or even put a star adjuster from a drum brake over it.

I would block a front and rear wheel (block each tire front and back), have her sit inside with the engine OFF, remove the flywheel cover and verify if the clutch disc is moving to and from the flywheel with the clutch being depressed.

When removing the cover, do it knowing you might end up breathing in the remaining parts of the new clutch disc. Wear a breather if possible and hose/blow yourself off afterwards.

 

Unfortunately a 1988 F150 doesnt have external clutch linkage...it uses a hydraulic slave cylinder.
Sounds to me like she fried the clutch. I bet that if you take a look under the truck you'll see clutch fibres sticking out in between the block plate and the bellhousing

 

The '88 most likely had NO mechanical linkage at all. By that time, all F-150s should have had the internal (concentric) slave cylinder with only the bleed screw visible thru a slot in the bellhousing. I'd guess that it overheated and the clutch (brake) fluid boiled, hyperextending the slave to the point that it jammed against the diaphragm, permanently DEclutching the trans.

You can't see anything but the front of the flywheel thru the access hole, even IF it has one, but most manuals DON'T have that.

 

To bad you can't see in there. I guess that none of you guys have burnt out a clutch yet. I don't think you could even do it in 4 low. And I know you couldn't do it in a day and not know it. Heck, they clutch smoke would make you pass out (ha ha).

I am thinking that people forgot the whole pulling a stump issue. My guess is that you broke something.
Will the truck move in any of the transfer case settings? You don't have a vacuum/electric transfer case engagement do you? (with the hubs in of course)

Crawl under it, are your drivelines in place, anything look amiss under there?

 

I'd spent most of my day yesterday under the truck, but yet I cannot see anything wrong... I know it did not smoke, because I was on my bobcat digging another stump 20 ft away.
I raised the truck on jacks, truned it on, put it 2wd, I put it in grear 1st, 2nd, 3rd, reverse, the rear tires were turning.
then I put it in Hi 4wd, the rear tires are moving, the left front is moving ok, but the front right is struglingl
I put it in low 4wd, the rears rotate the left front rotates, andthe right front rotate but not at the same rate.
I brought the truck down tried to drive it but it wont move, in lo4wd, the truck moves few inches on a slight upward slope.
so the wheels are actually turning... they just don't have enough power to move the turck.

just like steve83 said there is no linkage, and I cannot see hardly anything thru the access hole.

Anyone has an idea.. what to excatly look for?

Thank you all.

 

Ask your wife if she felt the clutch pedal pop. I had a truck that one day, I got off the interstate, and the clutch was really hard to push in. I had to force it in, and it popped, went to floor. I had no clutch. I didn't have many miles on the clutch, but one of the springs popped out of the disc and got caught, this leaving the clutch dis-engaged. I could shift without the clutch and it never did anything.

Just another idea, but unfortunately, you will have to replace the clutch to find the problem for sure.

The clutch is engaging just enough to spin the axle without weight on it. I bet you could stop the tires by hand.

Good luck

 

Just because there was no smoke doesnt mean the clutch isnt burned up.
I've seen quite a few that didnt really smell bad or anything but had no lining left on the disc. The lining was all laying in the bottom of the bellhousing.

 

I noticed that my clutch pedal does not have much of freeplay, is it possible that the pedal needs to be adjusted to allow the clutch to engage fully?
how can I adjust the pedal for the clutch, the clutch does not have linkage, nor it has adjustment rod underneath?


Thank you.

 

The clutch isn't adjustable.

 

You broke something in your front end and the truck is unable to move itself forward. if the clutch was toast you could let up on it with the truck in gear and you could not kill the engine.
Can you kill the engine with the clutch?

If so try removing the front driveline and driving it. that shouls be pretty easy to do.

be careful under there.

 

No... if I put it in grear and let go of the clutch the truck will not die... and it wont move.... because I'm parked on a slighty sloped ground when i put it in low4 reverse, I move just a little.. but it wont move up the slope.

So is that mean the clutch is dead?

 

yup, and if not it is the pressure plate, one way or the other it needs the tranny pulled and some new parts intalled.