Hi fellows,

First time posting, but I've been using this forum for a couple of months now. I picked up a F250 with a 300 six with a ZF-S42 transmission. I bought the truck knowing it had a bad clutch. I finally tackled that project this week.

I installed a new flywheel, rear main, slave cylinder/throw out bearing, pilot bearing, organic clutch, and pressure plate. I also changed the transmission fluid while I was under there. I got all of the parts from Oreillys. Not top of the line, but its an older work truck with better than a quarter of a million miles on it.

I put it all back together and now I've got a rattle at idle with the transmission out of gear. If I press the clutch pedal even slightly, the rattle goes away. I've done a bit of reading on the forum and I'm not quite sure what it is. I've done several clutch jobs over the years and this is a first for me.

I did clean the back of the crank and used a torque wrench to put the new flywheel on. The old one was pretty tore up and I had my doubts about it machining out. The old and new flywheels are single mass.

I installed the pressure plate using a torque wrench as well.

When I let off the clutch I can hear the transmission spin and it sound good from that point. I've got a rattle coming from the bell housing. I thought it might be the thin plate that goes between the block and tranny, but it clears up as soon as I put a little pressure on the clutch.

Any ideas or pointers?

 

could be crappy clutch with uneven pressure plate fingers. It could also be "neutral gear rollover" which is normal to a point. Did you use the correct fluid?

 

Yep, used synthetic Mercon atf. I'm guessing cheap pressure plate. Definitely not pulling it back down to take a look. It's annoying but not a noise that causes me to cringe. If it keeps it up I'll try and post a few seconds of video of the rattle.

 

I've been watching some videos of loose clutch springs. That sounds about the same as I'm hearing. The rattle never goes away as long as the clutch is engaged. Even going down the road it rattles. Anyone ever dealt with loose clutch disk springs? Not an issue I've ever had before, but I can't rule it out. I didn't check the springs before I put it in.

 

You say "it clears up as soon as I put a little pressure on the clutch". I would guess maybe the slave cylinder/throwout bearing is dancing around in there and bouncing back and forth against the pressure plate fingers.

Can you have the truck running in neutral and safely crawl under the truck to see if the line that goes into the slave cylinder is moving somewhat? For safety purposes maybe have someone sitting in the truck with their foot on the brake, clutch pedal up of course. Just a thought.