OK, I just bought this truck in Nov. it has 185,000 ish miles and the flywheel teeth are half wore off. I found this out today when the starter started turning the engine over then switched to a horrible grinding noise. I let off the key & tried again and it did the same thing. I did get it to start & got it home hopeing the grinding noise was bad starter gear teeth but much to my chagrin the starter teeth looked fine, the flywheel teeth were bad. Did I mention it is 10 degrees out there tonight? Anyway, why am I the lucky one to have this problem? A search on this subject just shows clutch problems and how to tell if a flywheel is dual mass or solid. Is it possible the po changed the flywheel with a cheap pos that had soft teeth? How can a flywheel with all the teeth it has wear out while the starter with far fewer teeth look fine?

Anyway from the searches I did I guess I need a new LUK flywheel and clutch, kevlar bushing (not pilot bearing) and a plastic bushing for the clutch fork? Anything else? All tips or advice is appreciated.

I don't have a heated shop or the time to take on this project so unfortunately I have to farm it out, wish I could put a bandaid on that would get me by til spring.

 

Is the clutch bad ?

 

I feel your pain. I do not have a heated shop either and it has made the last couple weeks a bear. The only good thing about it is the extra clothing padded me some while on that engine.

If the PO replaced the starter because both were headed south, then the starter would look pretty good, I think. Handshaker guys will have to take it from here.

 

I am thinking the same way Mike is the starter probably has been replaced .

 

Sounds like your on the right track. I went ahead and had the rear main seal swapped out when I did my clutch since it's cheap insurance once the tranny's out of the way. Southbend and LUK seem to be the top choices here. Several guy's remove the clutch assist spring after the swap because of the lighter pedal.

I paid someone to do mine too since transmission jacks don't work well on dirt, but if it were 10 deg. outside I'd pay someone to change the oil.

I have noticed that several people (including me) have had to change out the clutch hydraulics within a few months of replacing the clutch. I don't know if this is really related, but if the hydraulics do go, buy the pre-bled kit from Ford. It's a plug and play type system that you can do yourself in 30 min. or less.

 

The reason that the starter gear is undamaged is because they make it out of a much harder metal so it wont' chew itself down with use.
I'm guessing that the PO flogged a marginal starter until it wouldn't start anymore and was forced to replace the starter. Then sold it right after he found out that the flywheel was now ruined and didn't want to have to deal with it.
Take a good look around on your truck. You may find a lot of "non-maintainance" going on and have some catching up to do.

 

The clutch could be wore but I haven't seen any indication yet, I haven't had a load on the truck yet. I bought it for its ability to pull a camper or boat or car trailer and haven't pulled a one. So far I just drive it because it's a 4X4 and Iowa is getting a fair amount of snow.

The starter was covered with grime like a 6 yr old starter should be but that don't rule out the possibility that it isn't original like you guys suggest. Also who would design the starter eeth with harder metal than the flywheel teeth? I had that starter out in under 20 minutes and that was with the temperature handicap and I couldn't see the top bolt.

I've been going over in my mind what all is involved with droping the tranny & transfer case to do this job and am unsure on a couple of things.
1. How does the shifter disconnect? It isn't like the old shifters that were bolted to the side of the trans, but instead it bolts into the top don't it?
2. And I havent checked this out yet, what kind of slave cylinder does it have? I had a 94 with a 5 spd and the slave was a collar that circled the input shaft. When it went out I farmed its replacement out also but I had money then.

I need to crawl under it & really see what I'm up against here. Dont it suck how when the truck is acting up you can't get your mind to shut down for diagnoseing it in your head? Or is it just me that can't sleep?

 

The shifter is in the top, remove the four screws holding the boot down, pull up on the boot and remove the two 10 mm bolts holding the stick to the top of the transmission. The slave cylinder is hydraulic, and if its anything like a ZF5, it sits in a little notch on the driver's side of the tranny. To remove it you slide it outward and take the push rod with it. Dont disconnect the lines because it will get air into the system.

 

the slave cyl is external. you remove it by twisting the cyl 45* or so and it pops out. If it was mine to do, I'd get all the parts and then tear down. if you don't need em, return em. nothing worse than to get halfway though a project and find out you need another "widget" to finish the job and its Sunday and all the real parts house are closed. Barney

 

Power Strokeme the tranny is very easy to remove. Lot's of access and tons of room.
Disconnect the batteries.
As Kris said, detach the shift boot, lift it up and remove the 2 torx bolts holding the handle to the shift selector.
Then remove the six bolts holding the selector from the tranny. It's just a ball and socket. You cannot screw anything up by removing it and it being out of the way makes removal 10x easier. Stuff a clean rag down the hole to keep the dirt out. You're done in the cab.
Go under and detach the drivelines from the transfer case.
Detach the 4x4 lever by removing the two bolts holding it to the transfer lever on the tranny.
Twist the slave cylinder in it's socket and remove. Tie it out of the way.
Unbolt the starter and leave the wires connected. It will be fine where it's at.
Disconnect the two bolts from the exhaust flange next to the tranny on the passenger side. It's not really necessary to do this step, but the downpipe makes a very handy lever for rocking the motor when re-installing the transmission. It's only two bolts and well worth the extra step. If you have a big exhaust like I do, you might have to disconnect the downpipe up at the top at the turbo outlet to be able to move it out of the way and not interfere with the side of the bell housing.
Get a tranny jack and chain it to the bottom of the transmission/transfer case assembly and remove the rear crossmember and the rest of the bell housing bolts.
Out it comes.
This is what they look like. The little tranny is out of an old VW Dasher for a size comparison. (Mostly for laughs. )

 

Nice post Dan. I think that picture explains why I paid someone to do my clutch.

Besides, I haven't found a tranny jack that would work on the dirt floor of my barn.

 

Yes a concrete floor is a must!

 

Oh, so you don't remove the tranny from the bell housing like on the old stuff I'm used to and there is room to get to the bell housing bolts. That don't sound so bad as I imagined. Just need to borrow or rent a transmission jack.

Do you not even jack the truck up, or will it clear with the tires on the floor?

 

I jacked mine up as high as the floor jacks would lift and used some 6 ton stands and I was barely able to schnizzel the tranny out from under the truck and take that picture. Truck is heavy enough to require two, 2 ton jacks under each spring joint and they are at the very limit of thier lifting capacity.
I don't think you HAVE to jack it up if you just want to pull the tranny back a short distance to do the work. It would be very close quarters trying to get the job done without lifting it up.

 

Oh, and replace the clutch fork while the tranny is out. $50.00 very well spent.
They have a reputation for suddenly bending out and then you have to pull the tranny again.