1993 f150 5.0 5spd tranny, My clutch is starting to slip pretty bad, so i need a new clutch correct? and i woudl hav to change te slave cylinder right? about how much would it be to have some one do it, to rebuild or just replace my clutch?

 

I'm not your friend (only because I don't know you yet), but let me give you some friendly advice. STAY AWAY from dealership service shops for this job. I can tell you EXACTLY what a Ford dealership wants. I had my '92 done last year February thinking I would get all NEW parts. WRONGO!

The price tag? $1433. Included Master, Slave, pressure plate, disc, resurfacing the flywheel, pilot bearing, and even the pedal bushing. Dealer parts cost, about $570. Labor was $860. They'll bend you over, stick it in, and break it off in you on labor. Expect to pay 5% over MSRP on parts, and NEW part prices, whether new parts get used or not. You can get new Motorcraft parts for about 20% less than MSRP if you buy them from online distributors, i.e. you'll pay a dealership a 25% premium.

Here's the clincher. You're in there, flywheel off. Rear main seal is obviously drooling a little. This is a no-brainer on an engine with 129,000 miles on it. PUT A NEW ONE IN. It'll add about $15 to the job. (Dealer quoted $17 for the seal, I found it (Felpro) for $13 from a local private parts house). Did the dealer bother to do this, or at least call me and recommend it? Nope. When I went back last week thinking it was the slave leaking again, the service rep told me that recommending a rear main seal replacement would have been oversell and unnecessary replacement of parts. I pointed to the oil dripping on his nice clean floor, and asked if he really thought it was unnecessary with less than a year and 19000 miles on the repair job. So, I'm doing that myself before I wreck the clutch after finding puddles under the truck again. It took me all of 30 minutes to replace the rear main seal (after about 6 hours of getting the tranny out). And I'm not very experienced with the Ford tranny R&R on the truck. I've been taking my time, taking pictures, and recording everything I do so I can put a tech article together for FTE with illustrations (and perhaps some legal reasons too). I've done a C3 before in a Mercury Monarch. Whole different ball game. VW's a piece of cake. Tranny stays in, engine comes out. My whole point is, when you go in and replace a slave, pressure plate, disc, and have the flywheel surfaced, there ain't but two more parts that can come off the back of the block, and neither of them has a single bolt in it. The back-plate is just hanging on the dowels for the bell, and the seal is easily removed by drilling it and putting two small sheet metal screws in it. The Haynes book says get the special seal install tool (good luck finding it), but I tapped mine in with a small dead-blow hammer, and then seated it all the way down with a drift punch at the outer edges, and very light taps from the same dead-blow hammer. You can definitely tell when it bottoms out. Just be extra careful not to hit the crank or the recess with the punch, or with the drill when removing the old one. Most of all, be VERY gentle with that seal. Distort it in the least, and you'll be back in there a lot sooner than you want to be. Sorry, I digress on the seal installation, but it's a VERY small adder to a clutch job, and an excellent idea on a high mileage engine if you've already pulled the flywheel anyway. The dealer wanted another $557 (with 'discounted labor') to put this seal in for me. I spent $179 for a tranny jack, about $100 on supplies and tools that I didn't have, and $13.30 for the seal. My time is free to me.

The job isn't really that complicated if it's 2WD, with the M5OD. It's hard work, but not rocket science. Half of the bolts involved in the removal are in the cross-member. If you're talking a 4WD, though, I can't help you much there. As I write this, I'm at the point of sliding my tranny back in. I started Friday night, and got to the point of pulling the cross-member and bell housing bolts. (pretty much the start of the job). I didn't seem to have an 18mm deep well socket (cross member bolts) nor enough extensions to reach the bell housing bolts. (gonna need about 32 inches to reach 'em from back at the tail). Friday night, I had the starter out, the drive-shaft off, the stick off, and the back-up light switch disconnected. (About 2 hours with the photo documentary) When you get ready to take out the bell housing bolts, I recommend some Kevlar gloves (which I didn't have). The heat shields on the cats are like razor blades on the edges. When the bolts break loose (using a 1/2 inch drive breaker bar), you're WILL hit something with your knuckles, and it's probably gonna be the heat shields. Me and Neosporin are friends.

Two things really hacked me off about the dealer job. Like I said, I expected NEW Ford parts from a Ford Dealership, and was willing to pay that premium. Umm, I got some really nifty photos of the Remanufactured Part stickers on both the disc and pressure plate. I'm not opposed to reman discs or PP's, I just don't like paying new price for reman parts. Secondly, the resurfacing job on the flywheel really sucks. It ain't real smooth. They (the dealer's contractor) used a cutting tool on a lathe, obviously, but didn't polish the surface where the disc rides by grinding. I had already noticed a LOT of clutch dust coming out the bell housing vents (currently less than 20,000 on this clutch). When I got the pp and disk off, didn't take me long to figure out why. Machine a flywheel from the center out with a cutting tool, and you have this really nice spiral pattern of grooves. What's that gonna do for the flywheel side of the clutch? Nothing helpful toward the lifespan of the disc, I can tell you. I'm used to seeing a ground finish that's almost a mirror sheen on my VW flywheel and pressure plate. This is FAR from that.

The master and slave they installed appear to be new, and since the slave is mostly plastic, I don't think you're gonna see that item remanufactured too much. Haven't looked that closely at the master, though.

My first clutch (OE) went 129,000 miles, so obviously, I'm not real rough on a clutch, and 95% of my mileage is highway. But, the slave went blammo, and the master followed suit. Disc was saturated with fluid, and the slipping didn't do the flywheel or pressure plate any favors. The big thing, is take care of it early before it does much damage to the flywheel. If you have the M5OD, be ready to find some interesting things in the bell. It's got a lotta vent holes in the bell. I found beetles, rocks, leaves, you name it. inside mine, and that's after less than a year since the clutch was replaced. Keep lots of brake-cleaner around to keep washing things down as you reassemble. Nothing worse than getting one back together, only to have it slip or chatter because of a greasy paw print somewhere.

I was expecting fluid to go everywhere when I disconnected the line to the slave. I was impressed. Ford actually put a check valve in the end of the line at the slave. Not ONE drop came out when I disconnected the slave. The disconnect comes off easy, IF you use the right tool. There should be one in the new slave kit, depending on what brand you buy and where you get it from. I didn't have the right tool, so I made one. Take a piece of sheet metal about 1/16 inch thick, and about 2 inches wide, maybe 1-1/2. Cut a slot in one end .660" wide (just over 5/8). Clean off the connector, and you'll see a white collar on it. Slip the tool between the white collar and the black flange, and push the collar toward the slave to release the grips. Gotta push pretty hard to release the clips, but remember, you're working with a piece of plastic pipe. Just try to make sure to put even pressure on opposite sides of the collar, and push it in STRAIGHT. Pull on the line when you think you have the collar all the way down. It'll pop right out. There's a great bleeding procedure in the Haynes manual when you get everything back together. Gravity works quite well for bleeding most of the air. Top off the master, and you'll have to do a little pumping, but it isn't really all that bad. The bleeder's easy to get to, but you're gonna need someone in the truck pushing the pedal for you.

I hope some of this helps, albeit, if you have 4WD, umm, you're in for a lot more work with two driveshafts, transfer case, etc. You didn't say, but your user name suggests you do (not many put lifts on 4x2's). Some of the other 4x4 drivers in here can probably give you more detail on pulling the transfer case, and those with more experience can probably give you some good time estimates if you're set up with the right tools and equipment. Beyond the transfer case and extra shafts, the procedure for the clutch should be about the same as it is for the M5OD.

 

thanks for the advice! so i will have to get a clutch kit, throw out bearings, adn a slave cylinder since i jsut replced the clutch master cylinder. And sohudl i have teh flywheel check to make sure its still in balance?