Author Topic: More standard transmission woes (Read 4115 times)

grislyatoms · « **on:** March 25, 2007, 11:38:08 AM »

Well last night I was leaving work and my clutch pedal went all the way to the floor. ('88 F150 5 speed 4wd) Tried putting it in gear and starting it to get home (I can float gears pretty well, all those years driving rock buckets) and got about 15 feet. CRUNCH! from inside the bell housing, I could smell clutch material cooking. Truck didn't want to move.

I pushed it back to a parking space, called a cab and went home. Got another cab this morning out to the airport to pick up a rental (the agent on the phone said all they had were intermediate cars). Got to the counter, and the sweet attendant asked me if I would like an F-150, no extra charge. COOL!

I am in love. It's a 2007 4 door 4WD. Daddy like! Daddy can't afford, but Daddy still like, very much!

Anyway, "the beast" is getting towed down the street for repair. It's got one of those dumb-ass concentric slave cylinders that's INSIDE the frickin' bell housing, for pete's sake.

I don't have a tranny jack, and pretty much only have basic hand tools. I'm gonna let the pros handle this one, and I am going to have them replace the hydraulics too, so I won't have to worry about it. $800 or so, at this point. Damnit.

Did I mention how much I like the 2007? I REALLY like it!

Now back to your regularly scheduled banter.

Monkeyleg · « **Reply #1 on:** March 25, 2007, 12:57:25 PM »

The slave cylinder is inside the bell housing? Nice engineering. Sad

Tallpine · « **Reply #2 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:04:10 PM »

Quote from: Monkeyleg on March 25, 2007, 11:57:25 AM

The slave cylinder is inside the bell housing? Nice engineering. Sad

yep, it's a "donut" that fits around the input shaft like a throwout bearing Sad

My daughter has an '89 F150 and it is broke down more than it runs. First and last ford that I'll ever buy rolleyes

grislyatoms · « **Reply #3 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:11:10 PM »

Quote from: Monkeyleg on March 25, 2007, 11:57:25 AM

The slave cylinder is inside the bell housing? Nice engineering. Sad

When I saw the diagram in my cruddy Haynes manual, I thought "What bonehead designed this junk?" Then I crawled under the pickup to check for sure. Yep. Just like in the diagram. Idiots.

grislyatoms · « **Reply #4 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:14:12 PM »

Quote from: Tallpine on March 25, 2007, 12:04:10 PM

Quote from: Monkeyleg on March 25, 2007, 11:57:25 AM

The slave cylinder is inside the bell housing? Nice engineering. Sad

yep, it's a "donut" that fits around the input shaft like a throwout bearing Sad

My daughter has an '89 F150 and it is broke down more than it runs. First and last ford that I'll ever buy rolleyes

Mine has been problem free up until now, other than an alternator, battery, and some exhaust work. I flipped through my Haynes guide and thought, "No, I'll let the pros take care of this."

I had a '77 F100 that I changed the clutch in, no problem. I am not about to touch this one.

Monkeyleg · « **Reply #5 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:16:12 PM »

That's about as dumb as the motor placement on a Chevy I had. It was a V6. You had to pull the motor to replace the #6 spark plug.

280plus · « **Reply #6 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:34:33 PM »

hah, the clutch master cylinder on my '83 AMC Eagle was mounted to the firewall and was held there with nuts and bolts, one standard and one metric just to make it more interesting, so someone had to hold the nut on one side while someone else turned the bolt on the other. Naturally you had to go under the dash upside down and backwards to get to that side of the thing. Engineers... rolleyes

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:35:18 PM »

Those coaxial slave cylinder units are getting more popular. My 2001 S-10 started leaking through the slave cylinder, coating the pressure plate with hydraulic fluid, etc. Glad I had the drivetrain warranty!

Give me the good old days when the clutch slave cylinder was outside the bell housing, and actuated the throwout bearing via a connecting rod. undecided

grislyatoms · « **Reply #8 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:37:22 PM »

I had a water pump go out in an old Toyota Corolla, couple years ago. Simple. Just undo the motor mounts, jack the engine, remove the timing belt cover... ad nauseam. These engineers must have gone to the "Homer Simpson School of Engineering and Hair Styling". rolleyes

Art Eatman · « **Reply #9 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:39:27 PM »

The tight fit where the exhaust pipe(s) go past the slave cylinder led to temperature problems. So, instead of some re-route of the exhaust, or adding a little heat shield, they moved the slave cylinder to inside the bell housing. I disremember what year Toyota did this, but they took me out of the new-critter market with that. (Well, late-model good-used, anyhow.)

Art

280plus · « **Reply #10 on:** March 25, 2007, 01:44:45 PM »

Sigh, I remember my old '70 Fiat 124 wagon. You could do EVERYTHING from up above under the hood except pull the oil pan plug. Even the clutch linkage could be adjusted from there. The little clunker would do 90 mph in 3rd gear too! In 1980 I drove it from Long Beach to Hartford, I took 9 meandering around days and it only cost me $125 in gas for the whole trip. grin

DJJ · « **Reply #11 on:** March 25, 2007, 04:02:00 PM »

Don't blame the engineers. They're being designed by bean counters now; the engineers are (I would speculate) being told to design them to be cheaper, faster and easier for trained monkeys to put together once, and that's it.

mfree · « **Reply #12 on:** March 25, 2007, 05:53:32 PM »

Dodge shadow... been working on this thing for years. It's my beater... and I mean that literally. It's my rallycrossing car

Anyhoo, only two things stick in my craw about the design on the 2.2l engine. One, the starter's a beast to access, being behind the engine tucked down on top of the K-member. Two, the water pump has something like 15 bolts.

That's about it. its' the first car I've ever seen where you can drop the oil pan and change the rod and main bearings from under the car. I worked on another one, this one an auto... first car I've ever worked on where you didn't have to get under it to change the transmission... it comes out the "side", kinda rocks down and forward and such. You can also change the head gasket in about 15 minutes if there aren't any complications... just undo the bolts and the cam pulley (leave the belt on and secure), lift the head off the block about 1/2" and slide the old one out... slide the new one in, bolts in and torqued, reattach the pulley.... golden. Just crank it a few times with the plugs out to clear the cylinders enough to fire without breaking anything.

I'm going to stick with it, frankly. Even though I think the clutch is going south (doesn't slip, just REAL high on the pedal) and I'm no reasonably certain the fuel pump is failing (hey, 125000 miles, 15 years, and several runs bounding through fields at 45mph can cause anything...)

Most of your guy's accessability and design issues with the smaller cars come from adapting longitudinal mount engines to transverse work and vice versa. Wierd things happen when you take a block package that's designed to sit on two side mounts and try and make it fit hung from what used to be the front top and the transmission.

Sergeant Bob · « **Reply #13 on:** March 25, 2007, 05:57:05 PM »

Quote from: Monkeyleg on March 25, 2007, 11:57:25 AM

The slave cylinder is inside the bell housing? Nice engineering. Sad

Yeah, I have a Ranger, same deal. While your in there, ya might as well replace the clutch too.

Thor · « **Reply #14 on:** March 25, 2007, 06:25:23 PM »

Quote from: grislyatoms on March 25, 2007, 10:38:08 AM

... Got to the counter, and the sweet attendant asked me if I would like an F-150, no extra charge. COOL!

I am in love. It's a 2007 4 door 4WD. Daddy like! Daddy can't afford, but Daddy still like, very much!

Did I mention how much I like the 2007? I REALLY like it!

Careful. I was in San Diego in 04 for a Judo tournament. I wound up renting an 04 F150 four door. Nothing too fancy, but a year and a half later, I wound up buying an 05 F150 King Ranch........

(I liked my rental a little TOO much I guess) shocked

Monkeyleg · « **Reply #15 on:** March 25, 2007, 06:36:26 PM »

The easiest car I've ever had to work on was my Jaguar XKE. Just pop the bonnet, sit on one of the front wheels, and almost everything was very accessible.

The only hard part was adjusting the suspension via the torque bars. It took both a friend and I to get those bars to move.

280plus · « **Reply #16 on:** March 26, 2007, 01:06:51 AM »

The bonnet? Pop the bonnet? I'd be leery of any car that wears a bonnet. Except around Easter time of course... grin

wmenorr67 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 26, 2007, 03:19:25 AM »

Hey 280 yeah and he probably stored the spare tire and put his gear in the boot. Really how did the English get to calling the hood a bonnet and the trunk a boot. Just doesn't make any sense. Good thing we won the American Revoulion and the war of 1812. Otherwise we would be speaking English over here instead of good old American.

280plus · « **Reply #18 on:** March 26, 2007, 05:29:39 AM »

LOL,,,good point. We invented the car and called it a hood and a trunk first. Where do they come off with all this bonnet stuff? Newbs... rolleyes

mfree · « **Reply #19 on:** March 26, 2007, 05:34:21 AM »

"We invented the car and called it a hood and a trunk first. "

280plus, didn't know you were a German national...

K Frame · « **Reply #20 on:** March 26, 2007, 05:45:09 AM »

'280plus, didn't know you were a German national...'

SNORT! cheesy

Art Eatman · « **Reply #21 on:** March 26, 2007, 05:55:19 AM »

XKEs were neat, except for that boat anchor under the hood. And, ever adjust the valve lash on one of those?

SU carburetors are easy. If you know how. If you have a UniSyn.

Cheesy

, Art

280plus · « **Reply #22 on:** March 26, 2007, 06:06:38 AM »

Everybody knows Henry Ford invented the car. Don't be trying to tell me the Germans did it first. angry

charby · « **Reply #23 on:** March 26, 2007, 06:08:10 AM »

Easiest clutch I ever changed was a 87 Suzuki Samauri.

Didn't have to split the U joints, just unbolted 4 bolts in the tail shaft of the tranmission, supported the back of the engine with a block of wood, six bolts on the bell housing and two in the rear, tranny was so light I could hold it up by and lower it by hand on to my chest and slide out on a creeper.

-C

French G. · « **Reply #24 on:** March 26, 2007, 07:52:24 AM »

Quote

The easiest car I've ever had to work on was my Jaguar XKE. Just pop the bonnet, sit on one of the front wheels, and almost everything was very accessible.

It better be easy to work on since it will be worked on frequently. The most I know about Jags is my dad is the not so proud owner of a free XJ-6 because the guy he was fixing it for got told by the wife that either she or the car was going to go.

Of course a proper bonnet is made of alu-men-ium.

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Author Topic: More standard transmission woes (Read 4115 times)