Heya guys.

I am on the road and 1100 miles into my trip. All has gone fairly well thus far..actually, a small collant leak actually stopped and full radiator (perplexing but sometimes a good long shakeout cruise helps reseat things).

WHen stopping for the night this evening in Gillette Wyoming, I noticed that my clutch was real low to the floor (right on it) and getting into 1st was a little harder than usual. I figure I am running into that bushing issue thats know about. I cannot address it though becasue I am on the road, and realy not using 1st much except when refuling and gwtting on and off the hwy. I have 1500 miles to go....am I gonna fry my tranny if I continue like this? Do I have to bite the bullet and see if Ford can do their all expensive repair and parts replacement?

Thanks in Advance!

Andy

 

if the bushing is the problem your trans is fine, no worries if you know how to drive a stick, i would always drive clutchless in my car with the exception of takeoff and i have had some emergency trips with broken clutch cables taking off from lights with no clutch. i would check to see if its the bushing\rod issue first, if so then i wouldnt worry about it, just keep it in back of my head or stop at a dealer and pick the clip up to get you home. only other thing i can think of right now would be the actual slave and master cylinder goin out, of which i would just nurse it home if it was mine

 

Joe, you got time for a quick phone call? I sent you my number via Private Message, but if ya like PM or email me your number (andywe1@hotmail.com) and I will be happy to ring you if you prefer (and have time).

 

I often wish the ZF's had straight cut gears so we could power shift them all the time, but the synchros don't seem to like it much....That or I'm not as good at it as I remember being.

I don't know if I would try to nurse a hydraulic issue 2500 miles or not. Well actually I know I wouldn't, but I carry a spare set of assumbled clutch hydraulics on long trips. 30 minutes of work is not too much to ask for a properly operating clutch. Probably longer than that on the side of the road....but y'know what I mean.

 

climb under there and look to see if your slave is leaking..if it is you can top off the reservoir with brake fluid. those bushings are 10 bucks and take 45 seconds to change if that.

 

Leave it to a guy from Shelton to give me a bad time hehe (thats a joke). I say this as jsut now I see your from WA..I was in Belleue for 24 years until 2 days ago heh.

I wish I knew how to check all those things. I will crawl under the dash and look for what I cna in the morning, but just found out I am 2 blocks from a stealership and if they have time I may have them replace the master/slave and the damm bushing if it isn't too expensive. I don't like the idea of nursing her for 1500 miles if it is the master/slave cylinder.

 

slave is around 140.

 

feel free to call if you need anything else or have questions

 

Thanks Joe and all!!

Update:

Im now in Mitchell SD....60 miles west of Souix Falls. The stealership in Gillette Wyoming was not veru friendly por helpful so I pushed on.

THe dealer here is more friendly and got an experinced guy on it. Good news is my linkage assembly including the bushing is good and operating Correctly. Bad news is it it ias Joe thought...the master/slave cylinder assembly. They have the slave but are going to try a slight retrofit of a master to get it to work. Seems my year the master has the hydraulic line connection on the bottom and the one they have comes striaght out. He's gonna try and eroute the line to fit as it is the dame fitting and the master cylinders are the same other than the connoection location.

If it gets me to Nashville by Sunday ten I am happy with it, and can straighten it out once down there if need be.

Andy

 

yeah if your truck never had problems with the clutch before this then its got the old style which sucks.

you may even find that you will need to update your master to the newer style due to the old slave/master being smaller and the master cant supply enough fluid to get the slave to fully travel.
but i hope it works. clutch problems suck. good luck man it could be worse.

 

glad to hear you got it handled

 

Sorry I haven't updated..I ended up in towns with no Internet access.

Here's the rest of the story:

As stated above, the dealer retro fitted a new master/slave (but not the new assembly as they didn't have one and I didn't have time to wait), and that works like a champ. I never knew my clutch pedal had so much oomf hehe. We also verified that whomever owned the truck before me already had the clutch rod clip go and replaced it (good news for me).

So happily down the road I go, UNITL.... 360 miles later I hear a (THUMP) and then a constant rattle and see my brake idiot light is lit like a xmas tree. My brake pedal is a rock....at 70mph hauling 7000lbs behind an already loaded truck bed.

Well, god graced me with a stick so getting over wasn't too bad, and the trailer brakes still worked if I pushed real hard on the pedal...

3 hours after I call AAA I finally get a guy with ***** who will to w the truck and trailer. And son of a biatch..he's the parts manager of a FORD dealer in a small farming town 60 miles away....and he moved to parts from being a dieles machanic for them for 10 years prior..hmmm..are the gods smiling on my misfortune?

Turns out I blew the vacum pump...blck goo all over the pulley and the A/C unit. He gets on the phone, makes a call to his buddy who runs down to the shop (it's 10am saturday night) and advises me he has one in stock. Ok great do off to Sabetha Kansas I go.

We spend the nexy 60 minutes getting there..he pulls up to the shop (about midnight now)..opens the door, and has me drive the truck in. He pops the hood, grabs the part, and we put it on. Man what an awesome deal. So few people actually help anymore..this got got me back on the road at midnight and it was a dealer..wow.

I got the part for $75 bucks less too.

I got a room at the town hotel, and completed the last 700 miles to Nashville. Funny thing is the trucks runs better now..I had a slight chatter in 4th gear..gone now with the new master/slave cylinder. My engine is less noisy now with the new vacum pump...and I ordered the ZD-11 GP's as advised Friday night for $2.99.

Thanks to all those who offered advise and help..and for listening to my ramblings here.

 

Breaks downs stink!! glad to hear you got things straight and are on your way!!

 

Congrats and welcome to TN. Great to hear there are still some nice people out there.

 

Yeeeeeeehhhaaawwwwww!