Thank you for the detailed advice F-One. I just replaced the u joints along with the carrier bearing. Rear main seal was replaced with the first clutch, but it turned out the leak was from the oil pan gasket. That has now been replaced with the one piece fel pro gasket. But not before it leaked into the bellhousing. I also had a coolant leak that was making it's way back there (now fixed, just loose hose clamps). I was planning on taking the flywheel to get resurfaced, but hadn't thought of bringing the pressure plate to. Very good idea.

 

I got the disassembly done. I'm not sure what a contaminated clutch looks like (if any different). Mostly I found a lot of dusty clutch material. No evidence of any more oil leaking into the bellhousing. Any clues from these pictures?

 

Only thing I notice is the pilot bushing looks beat to heck on the inner diameter. Also looks like the input splines rubbed the pilot bushing pretty good. By chance is your truck missing the bell housing shim? I don't have an inline 6 so I don't know if they have one.

 

Bellhousing shim? I hope they don't have one, because mine definitely doesn't. The pilot bushing does look a little beat up now that I look back at the pictures. Somehow it didn't seem so bad in person. Probably from having the transmission misaligned for awhile.

It's all back together now. Apparently nobody around here does flywheels. But mine didn't have any cracks, hot spots, or ridges. So I cleaned up the flywheel and pressure plate with lots of brake cleaner and emery cloth. Here's how they looked after:




It was getting late, so I haven't test driven it yet. Do you guys follow a procedure for breaking in a new clutch? Last time I followed one that was mostly a bunch of first gear starts. But I've also heard to just drive gently for the first few hundred miles.

 

I think they're also called separator plate or spacer plate. With an FE engine they help locate the starter to line up the starter gear and flywheel. They're about 1/8 inch thick.

 

My 1966 300-6 has a spacer plate between the engine block and bellhousing. It helps to keep dust and road debris from getting into the clutch surfaces.

You can see part of it in this picture. Engineering ID number C5TE-6A373 is stamped on it. No suffix.



Your flywheel and pressure plate looked a little like the clutch is slipping. Are you sure they are making good contact and fully engaging when you take your foot off the clutch pedal? It seems like something might be holding it up and not allowing it to make normal contact, possibly just not adjusted right?

Chad

.

 

Is that the dust cover? Like one of these:



If so, I do have that part. Otherwise the back of the bellhousing would just be open. I think the clutch may have been slipping just due to my driving. I've only had one other manual car, and that was a 67 VW. I just sort of taught myself, so I'm probably not doing it right. I'll try to slip it less on the new one. Anyway, I drove it and so far so good. It hopped once or twice (not like before, more like chatter), but hopefully that's just because it's a new clutch and I was used to the old one. I took a few laps around the neighborhood, starting gently about 15 times from a stop. Now I'm letting it fully cool before I drive it again.

 

Yep, that's it - well, it sounds like maybe it is OK now.

Chad

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I've driven the truck for a few days now, and it seems like everything is good. I took those clamps off the springs when I did the clutch, but I think I'll put them back on. Right in front of the axle was good, firmed the suspension up just enough. I just wanted to try it without them to make sure I wasn't masking any problems.

 

Good to hear it is good now.
All it takes is a little oil on the disc and you may not even see it when you pull it like yours but it was trashed.

I saw you posted the trany was not lined up right? Can you explain this more as I can not see how this could be.


As for "riding the clutch" after each shift place your foot on the floor.
Start in 1st and once moving foot on floor, 2nd gear foot on floor, 3rd gear foot on floor. Also use the toes of your foot not the arch, you can feel it grab better.


Been driving sticks for 45+ years, dad said we had to take the driving test on a stick.
Now that I think of it all driving tests were with sticks: car (van w/3 on tree), motor cycle, straight truck & 18 wheel truck.
I have never kept a new clutch car/truck long enough to see how long it would last as I would sell them.
Dave ----

 

The first time I replaced the clutch, I had trouble getting the transmission to slide all the way back in. I did what you're not supposed to do, and used the bolts to pull it into place. This created a vibration at certain speeds and it took me awhile to figure out what was causing it. I'm very much still learning as I go. This time it took me about 4 hours to replace the clutch. The first time took 2 days!

As far as riding the clutch, I'm definitely not keeping my foot on the clutch while driving. Just when starting out in first gear, I think I've been giving it too much gas and staying on the clutch too long. So slipping it a little too much in order to start moving without jerking.

I'll try the toe suggestion, that makes sense.

 

When it's difficult to get the transmission in that last little bit, it's usually slight misalignment of the disc. If you have help, have someone push on the clutch pedal to release the clutch and then it will slide right in.

Forcing it is definitely a bad idea.

 

Well, I think you nailed it. After a few days, things were better but I was still getting some wheel hop if I wasn't careful. I started thinking more about the pilot bushing. I noticed that if I put it in first and very slowly let the clutch pedal out without giving it gas, there was a moment that it vibrated and jerked a little right at first, then smoothed out when it engaged further. So, I thought maybe that chewed up pilot bushing was allowing too much play in the input shaft before the clutch was fully engaged. If I didn't take off carefully, the vibration really got out of hand and started the wheel hop/clutch slipping situation.

So I went back in and replaced the worn pilot bushing with a bearing. Problem solved!