I have to replace my neighbor's slave cylinder on his truck. He's got an f-150 w/ the V-6 and the 5-speed. As I understand it, the slave cylinder is inside the transmission. I've heard the only issue is removing the hydraulic line from the slave clutch. Could anybody shed some light on the procedure or any do's and don'ts. Thanks in advance. I'll be doing this either tonight or tomorrow night. By the way, the wife's 97 Explorer is doing great with 180K miles on it.

 

This is not a difficult process, as long as you don't have to drop the transmission. The most difficult part is taking off the hydraulic line. Once you disconnect the hydraulic line, clamp the hose, and remove the slave cylinder. You should be able to replace the slave cylinder through the wheel well. Then just replace the cylinder, and re attach the hydraulic line. In some cases you have to drop the transmission to get to the slave cylinder, this was the case on my old pickup, a 2000 Ford Ranger. Hope this helps a little anyway.

 

If you're not dealing w/an external mount clutch slave, some FORD clutch slaves are of the 'concentric design' requiring that the tranny be removed to get at it from it's location encircling the input shaft & bolted to the front of the tranny.

These slaves are not actually "inside the transmission". They're inside the bell housing, surrounding the tranny's input shaft. A simple forked FORD special tool is used to disconnect the hydraulic line. Looks like it would be easy to make an equivalent once you see what it looks like.

 

We had to drop the tranny. Started at about 7pm and ended at about 2:30am today. It wasn't that bad, but we did have do disconnect the exhaust in order to get enough clearance for the transmission to drop. Once it was out, it took 5 minutes to put the new slave cylinder in. We did a clutch change while we were in there. One of the pita's about the job was the hydraulic line to the slave. The tool that comes with the kit is worthless and I used the trip of a flat head screwdriver to push in the teflon ring. Truck seems to be doing fine. Will go back this afternoon and tighten up a small exhaust leak and drain/refil the transmission. Overall a 5 on a scale 1-10 on difficulty.

 

.........one of the worst "Better Ideas" FORD ever had !

 

The concentric, or annular, clutch slave cylinder design was not one of FORD's "Better Ideas" they just choose to adopt it from Europe where it's simple & direct action's benefits had been enjoyed as far back as the 60's.

I 1st saw them on SAAB 99's in the 70's & they were far more reliable than external levered clutch release systems. Of course the unique SAAB design meant these clutches were the easiest to replace I've ever seen. With practice I can change a 99/900 clutch in less than an hour.

 

IMHO they could send their slave cyl & the Saab's back where they came from....

No offence but everyone I know that's had a Saab ended up wishing they didn't. (just my one-sided observation)

 

Not to derail further, but SAABs changed dramatically after the end of classic 900 models in '93. Before then SAAB enjoyed quite remarkable brand loyalty, it was the envy of the auto industry & a major reason GM bought into the company.

The concentric clutch slaves were a huge improvement over the traditional cylinders on the model 99/900. You'll need to send your FORDs "back where they came from" to determine why the design was adopted for your application.

Back in the early days of SAAB, when Americans were driving clumsy, bloated tanks w/tailfins, that couldn't get out of their own way in bad weather-the Swedish aerodynamic, light weight, unibody, front drive, compact, fuel efficient cars were nothing short of revolutionary. Generally the worse weather conditions became, the more outstanding the performance of SAABs was recognized. The little cars actually beat everything running in Monte Carlo-Porsche, Mercedes, Jaguar, Ferrari, AU, Renault, you name it, SAAB beat it & not just once! SAAB's rally records were extraordinary! Virtually "everyone I know that's had a SAAB ended up" buying another. You can't offend the sterling records in competition & innovation SAAB has had. Just look around & see how many cars today are front drive, unibody & aerodynamic following SAAB's original pattern. VW did a 180, scrapped their rear engine/rear drive in favor of itty bitty SAAB's layout.