I am in the process of removing my tranny to possibly replace; and as well replace the whole clutch system. I posted a week or so back about Aamco telling me I need a new tranny; really hard shifting, but for years it was never good then just got really bad. Aamco wanted $2200 for a tranny and clutch with 18 month guarantee . I found a place that would have done it for $600 labor and I was going to provide the clutch kit and tranny(rebuilt with 90 day warranty) if needed. So I was looking at around $1500. I am doing it myself though.

I can obsess over getting the right parts for a good price. I have my Luk brand "gold series" clutch plate and disk that also came with the release bearing.

My next step was to get a "good slave"; which I thought I had in getting the Luk slave (some say this is the manufacturer for oem slaves from ford now)from Pep boys($40 bucks with discount). Then I compare it to the Napa slave(which some say is Ford OEM-LUK?) which I did not buy-just looked at. In comparing the two the plastic base was the same(FTE brand with same #s) with blue bearing casing, but the Napa slave had a firmer and smoother spring action and the release bearing looked better than the one that came with my clutch kit(see picture link). No brand name on it and the Napa guys did not know who manufactured it. One guy sort of guessed-cant remember.

Anyway, after reading many horror stories of people replacing their slave 2, 3, and 4 times( for Ranger, Explorers, F150's) in a short period using afternmarket ones; and many of those same people saying just go with "OEM Ford Motorcraft". So I called three or four different Ford/Mazda dealers and they quoted me $130 for the slave but all of them said it was not a Motorcraft slave but a "ford" slave. They really didn't know.

I did ended up getting a Ford one and I believe it is the best with a rubber protective sleeve (which all brands I have looked at online and live did not have this); nice solid feel and the release bearing was the same one that came with the Napa slave. But as you can see from the pics (I assume the links to photobucket will work) the two -pep boys and ford- are quite different, especially height wise- or length wise. How can they be so different? Even when at full compression the ford one is about 1 inch lower than the Luk/Pep boys one. Any comments? Experiences?

Excuse the long ramble but I thought this thread might help people in the future decided in which direction to go.

Tried a link and an image. let me know if you can't see either.

And, oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!


Slaves Photos by markmoore404 | Photobucket

 

Here are you pics...



What engine are you working on? The one on the left is the 2.9/4.0 unit.

I installed a Perfection style in my 87 Ranger early last year and actually just replaced it a couple weeks ago for the guy that bought the truck from me. Doesn't look like it leaked much before it blew out. The guy didn't want to spend much so a Perfection unit went right back in unfortunately.

Either way, the one on the right doesn't look right for either the 2.9/4.0 or any of the 2.0/2.3 or 3.0 slaves.

Josh

 

I don't know about the factory slave. I bought my Ranger used at 68,000 miles and around 70,000 the slave cylinder leaked and had to be replaced. Big pain getting at it have to drop the tranny. I used to have a 1984 F150 and it's slave was outside the bell housing, moving a clutch fork like the old mechanical clutches had. Wish they still were like that.

 

Josh, this if for a 4.0. 1997 - And if you look at any Ranger 4.0 slaves on ebay they all look like the one on the right. I am wondering if I got the wrong one from ford. The ford guy says they are all the same for all engines for 97 at least.

 

I should added my old Ranger had an M5OD swap... The slave on the left matches all M5OD slaves.

The throw out bearing on the right is completely wrong for the M5OD

Josh

 

Just looked at Advance Auto slave and it looks like the ford slave on left but the release bearing looks like the one on the right(pep boys)-flat. Perfections slaves though are supposed to be terrible.

 

They used to have an "acceptable" quality. Much better than Auto Zone or what O'Reilys has to offer.

Josh