I had to do some work on my ZF6. I thought it would be just a throwout bearing and throwout lever replacement, but we ended up replacing the clutch. He guys, I'm just a fair to middlin mechanic and with the help of a few friends, the job is not a big bad horror. The right tools and your okay. Don't be afraid and pay those high prices. At the dealer it would have been $1,000.00 labor plus parts (new clutch was double what I paid!). Another independent shop was $550.00 labor and I have no idea how much for parts. My total bill was about $380.00
I have a manual and simply followed the steps. Most of the preliminary work I did myself: disconnect negative terminals on batteries, remove shifter, put the truck up on jacks stands, remove the inspection cover, disconnect the drive shaft, drain the ATF from the trans, remove the starter, disconnect the electrical from trans and take off the clutch slave. From there I then placed a jack under the oil pan with boards to support the engine and strapped on a tranny jack.
My buddies and I then removed the tranny bolts. The upper ones are easiest if you use long, very long extensions to get to them. Once all the bolts were out we wrestled a bit and finally got it pulled back.
What we found was a throwout that was pieces and a pressure plate that was failing (some of the retaining straps (3) had broken off). After calling around and finding a new clutch kit we got busy reinstalling.
The most interesting was the pilot bearing. Didn't have a puller but a friend told me to use soap! That's right, a bar of soap cut up and stuffed behind the bearing. Find a bolt or socket extension that fits tightly in the bearing and fill, tamp, fill, tamp. With about 3/4 of a bar the bearing came out as simple as could be. Used a cloth with hot water to wipe off soap I couldn't scrap off. Pretty simple.
New pilot bearings installed, new clutch disc, new pressure plate all lined up with the tool provided in the kit. New throw out lever, new throwout bearing and work tranny back into place. It went back in slicker than it came out. A little turn of the spindle and right together. After that just reassemble everything.
I would guess that total time was maybe 10 hrs or less.
Yes, I took her out for a ride and everything felt as smooth as could be. Looks like we are ready to head for SD in a week!
You can check my album for pictures. They are out of order so if I get a chance I will redo them in order to make it easier to see. By the way, I also have a old fork, new fork picture. That new fork is one hunk of metal!
I will tell you that I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to tackle this if it would be for all the stuff I've read on this site. You guys have taught me that WE CAN! Thanks a bunch for being such a great bunch! As I said on my first post, I had been reading on the site for the past year and finally made the step to join and become a supporter simply because of all the knowledge I got and money you saved me in just that year.

 

Great job. But I think your experinece jinxed me. I was watching your posts with care to see how things turned out. Since my ZF6 has been acting up and was at the transmission shop for repairs. Lo and be hold I need a clutch too. Darn it I hate suprises especially when the have hundred dollar bills attached to them.

TinyWonder

 

Changed the clutch on my SIL's 99 F350CC LB. It is a 4x4 and I had about the same experience as you did.

The one piece of advice I have is that unless you have a heavy duty transmission jack (I used a Harbor Freight 2,000 lb. model) you had better take the transfer case off first. We did not, and needed the strong jack to keep the tranny from rolling off to the driver's side. If you take the transfer case off, you still need a good jack, since this transmission is HEAVY!

 

Since your throwout bearing was destroyed did you notice any damage to the input shaft? Apparently if the input shaft has some wear it causes the shaft to put additional stress on the bearings in the transmission. I just found this out via my transmission shop... see my other post about the continuing saga.

TinyWonder

 

We inspected that shaft very carefully and determined that the one small mark was not sufficient to warrant replacement. We used an 800 grit sandpaper to smooth it down and put on the grease? that came in the kit. And yes, we actually used a Harbor Freight jack but the one rated for 495 lbs. Transmission in my 2x4 weighs in at 240 lbs so it was quite sufficient.

 

Sounds like you covered all your bases. Good job!

TinyWonder