Last week was kind of slow at work so I decided to do some maintenance on my truck. It has 150K miles on it and still on the original water pump. I replaced the water pump, T-Stat, fan clutch, belts and hoses. Changed oil, filter and trans oil.
Was on the way to a job monday, climbing up to Tehachapi pass at 4400 feet when my clutch started slipping. It would not take full throttle in high gear but if I dropped down a gear would maintain 50mph on the grade. Got to the top and pulled off the freeway and at the end of the offramp tons of smoke engulfed my truck. Opened the hood and found the fuel tube from the fuel filter to the right head had broken and gobs of fuel was running down the back of the engine. Looked at the fuel gauge and realized I used 1/2 of my rear tank to go 45 miles.

Fixed the fuel line and limped on to my job. When I got home I ordered a clutch kit from Carolina Clutch. Worked around town tuesday, wenesday and thursday when my clutch finally arrived. But by thursday afternoon my clutch was working fine again.

Is it possible the fuel saturated the clutch plate and then burned itself clean again? I only have 65K miles on this clutch and do not have the time to take the truck off the road for a couple of days. I plan on waiting till I have some slack time at work and then change it.

 

I just had the same thing happen last Friday except the seal on my fuel bowl tore. I got fuel on my clutch and it slipped like crazy. Even worse than the stock clutch ever slipped. It dried out by sunday with a little stop and go driving.

 

Actually....it's probably in better shape now than it was before the leak. One of the tricks for fixing clutch chatter back in the day was to soak the clutch in a pan of diesel over night.

 

Been there. I burned the fuel off my clutch by starting hard on a steep hill about ten times in a row. The problem is the fuel washes the lube out of the throwout bearing and the factory pilot bearing. The squeek will start soon.

Make SURE you put a Kevlar bushing instead of the pilot bearing. The bearings fail. The bushings last longer than a clutch.

 

I learn something new every day!!!

 

I had fuel come out of mine to, out of the two holes in the bottom of the tranny. This happened after my fuel drain valve was leaking.
How does the fuel get down into the tranny???

 

The "V" of the engine block has a drain hole all the way in the back. Whatever comes out of there runs right down the bellhousing and all over everything under there if you're going down the road.

 

Great design right?