did you change the pilot bearing? did you check to see if it was the right one?

 

Sounds right after having seen this happen on truck my brother owned.
I am also wondering if the slave cylinder to clutch master cylinder line might not have been fully seated when connected.
Anyhow, Leaking fluid from the front on the trans right by the inspection cover/dust cover leads to possible crack or even the seal inside the slave went bad.
If you have a leaky seal then you will not have enough pressure from the system to push/force the clutch pedal back where it should be.
Hence, Low pedal.

 

jerk it out and check everything and replace the slave and pilot. surface the flywheel. clean everything with tones of brake clean.

buy the best pilot bearing money can buy becalus if you drive your truck the way I do your clutch will out last the Pilot and the next time you pull your trany it will be for the pilot

 

The transmission should not be grinding from replacing the clutch. Unless you dropped a screw down through the top when you removed the shifter to drop the tranny. It could happen.

 

First of all Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. Got a new slave today installed it..put the tranny back in a nd tryed to bleed it out before putting everything back together...problems got even worse. I pulled the tranny back out and put the original LUK clutch back in and magically everything is wonderful now..pedal travels all the way back up and no leaks...tomorrow I will put everything back together and take it for a ride..Word to the wise..Never buy advance auto clutches!!!! This piece of crap caused me 3 weeks worth of headaches and wasted time and money.Thanks again.

 

did you check it out to see where the deference are? all here would be very interested in knowing this and you could save some other folks the same grief you went through. please let us know.

I always like to check all parts before installing them. on clutches I place the flywheel clutch disk and presser plate on a drill press with a bathroom scales under I press untill it disengages and note the reading on the scale. lock the press and measure the distance between the plate and the disk. lastly with a screwdriver See if you can turn the disk freely. I have returned many clutches and saved my self and my customers a lot of time and grief. I rarely have a car come back.

 

thats a pretty cool way of finding out before you put that in....I will have to try it with my next one

 

I'd buy a LuK brand clutch and not screw with any Autozone junk.

 

I am unsure of the term, my mechanic friend used but correct me if I am wrong, but he said my noise and jerking problem may be a "head of transmission bearing" I have not pulled the tranny back out and replaced this to see if my noise and erratic jerkiness will subside, but according to him, that might be my problem and newowner's. Anyway, I am writing because I have a generally similar experience as newowner1 with a few other issues as well.

In December I put a new clutch in my 1988 F250 4x4.
Prior to my clutch replacement, I had a lowering pedal situation plus a noticable jerkiness when going at low rpm's in 2nd, 3rd gear in 4x2 mode like when engine braking down an icy hill for example. I also had noisey U joints when in 4x4 so I suspected U joint replacements would cure my sloppiness I thought was in the driveshafts.

For the pedal issue I wound up swapping out the little grommet that the linkage goes thru under the pedals. Not much improvement, and I have simply been considering a helper spring to draw it back up the last 20% of travel my foot usually does. I also had been losing my clutch and fluid for about 1 yr when finally merely adding fluid no longer got me clutching properly so I replaced just about everything needed.

I got a new Master, Slave, Clutch Pressure Plate and T/OBearing and pilot Bearing. Also machined flywheel, installed new Ford line from master to slave, replaced all U joints and put all new Tranny fluid in tranny.

Put everything back together and hoped for my 3 main issues to be corrected. The clutch seemed to work OK but it grabbed pretty close off the floor and took a little getting used to. I noticed similar noises as newowner did. When I let the clutch out, I seemed to get a knocking chattering from tranny area. Also, instead of new U joints seeming to make shifting gears and low rpm operating smooth out more, things got more jerky instead. In reverse this is at its worst.

All in all, I give the clutch a 90% as it should be. ( noise and pedal travel)
By the way, the noise seems to go away when I pushed clutch in, but occurs when I let it out.
My 4x4 U joint noises are gone, but I have lived with the jerky operation when letting out clutch or coasting at slow speed for the gear I am in for 6 months now. I am used to driving old junk so it is not too worrisome.

I will research and maybe try the head bearing thing if I can call my friend and get exactly what he was referrring to and see how it works. I guess I would say to ask someone who knows Tranny's and clutches if they think your noises might be that head thing too. My guess is our old clutches with wear were not exerting as much force on that part and then when a new clutch was installed, the old part is being stressed more than b4.

Good luck.

 

I think by head bearing he means pilot bearing but I cant be sure.

what brand of clutch kit did you install?

 

I did put a new pilot bearing in. I'll ask my friend what he meant and I will have to check to see which brand of clutch as it has been 6 months since I did it.

Without that info, do you have any insight as to why the truck is so jerky when backing up when I let clutch out, or when I am in 1st or 2nd and letting clutch out from dead stops?

Thanks

 

what engine do you have? is it a 5 liter or 302?

 

Bruce,

I have a 351 with 263k miles on it and I got the paperwork from the clutch. It is a Perfection clutch. Does that ring a bell?

 

Perfection clutch doesn't ring a bell it isent one of the name brand s that I use. where did you buy it?

the jerking is some thing that fords do that have standard transmissions and are operating at low RPMs It gets worse when you have tall gears. and also it is usually worse in reverse becalus it is a higher ratio tha first. it can be very irratateing but I have never found a cure for it. it is calused when the engine is chugging a little at low RPMs and it makes the whole drive line go back and forward frome thrust

 

Well, I got my clutch at Advance or Auto Zone and it seems to be working ok. I think you hit the nail on the head with the thrusting description.
I do think I have tall gears as my truck will pull a lot of weight, but when going uphill in 5th I do have to down shift a lot to keep speed. Thanks for your insight, now I have to solve my non starting problem that arose a week ago b4 I went out of town on my motorcycle. I guess tonight we will see what is causing that. Not sure, but I think it is fuel related. She's been a little tempermental as I have had to crank it over several times before it will begin running. I am suspecting low fuel pressure as I think spark seems ok.