Hello,
My 93 Explorer 5 speed when stopped will not disengage completely to where it will shift into 1st or reverse until the clutch has been depressed for at least 10 seconds. The clutch was replaced less than 10000 miles ago and has never been "right"... Any ideas?

 

Yeah, they didn't replace the pilot bearing and its dragging. Either that or the slave cylinder didn't get blead adequately and its not fully releasing the clutch.

Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT

 

Thanks Steve,

I was thinking along the same lines... The clutch slave and master have been bled several different times and has not stopped the slow spindown of the transmission. Any one have any ideas how to prove the pilot bearings the culprit without replacing it? I found out some new info from the previous owner - the clutch, pressure plate, slave cylinder, pilot bearing, and throw out bearing were replaced about 10,000 miles ago. About 2 months after they were installed the transmission input shaft failed and they then rebuilt the transmission. According to the previous owner that is when this problem started... He said he gave up on trying to get it fixed?? I imagine they did not replace the previously installed clutch components and possibly the pilot bearing was damaged when the input shaft failed. I just wish there was a way to prove this without removing / replacing the transmission /clutch components... Any ideas???

Thanks,
Greg

 

Ouch. That sucks. Two things. The M50D has a leak problem with the shift rail plugs at the rear of the top cover. They leak. That runs the fluid level low and that kills the input shaft bearing. Pretty common failure.

Trying to think through this problem, I would bet that the input shaft failure ate up the pilot bearing. When the input shaft bearing fails it allows the input shaft to move around alot. That could quickly kill the pilot.

Or, the pilot bearing surface of the input shaft was chewed up and the bad pilot bearing and input shaft nose allowed the input shaft to walk too much and that wiped out the input shaft drive gear.

I should also note that Explorer clutches are notoriously hard to bleed because of their location inside the bellhousing. We alwaysed used a fluid pump and pumped the fluid in the bleeder valve and up to the master. It frequently took a second bleed after driving it a few days to get all of the air out.

Unfortunately, if you are confident that the slave was fully blead then the trans will have to come out again to inspect the nose of the input shaft and the pilot bearing. Oh, and its possible too that when the trans was installed after the rebuilt that they messed up the pilot trying to stab the unit.

Good Luck,
Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT