128k miles, 4.2 5-speed.

Recently,

Pushing my pedal down, the first half has no pressure, still catches though. Haven't noticed slipping. Checked all fluids, seems good. Since I've owned the truck she "hops" a bit letting out the clutch smoothly rather than abruptly, not sure if this is a truck thing. Always owned VW's and Hondas in the past. I let out the clutch smoothly and never had hopping.

I went to Ford and asked for pricing on a diagnostic and reman clutch. Diagnostic was around $200 and full reman clutch was $1100. This sounds REALLY pricey to me for a 14 year old truck. Suggestions?

Thanks

 

sounds very pricey to me. Check other shops.

 

Just found a place that's gonna check it out for me at $65 hour. Not cheap but not bad. Hopefully it'll be a master cylinder issue.

 

very well could be a master cylinder or ive seen throw out bearings do that before. as for the hopping that could be a warped flywheel. does the hopping happen when the truck is cold but stops once its warm?

 

I'm hoping it's the master cylinder. Will have it looked at monday. I had a mechanic suggest the hopping was a warped flywheel right after I got the truck. I got so used to it I don't even remember if the hopping is worse when it's cold or not. lol But I've noticed it coming off exits on long trips too.

 

Well. It was the clutch as a whole. Needing to be replaced. Problem, on this particular year and wheelbase, they have to drop the torsion bars to get the transfer case and tranny out. The problem is, the torsion bars are so rusted out, they can't get them off. Hmmm.... How much to replace torsion bars? And also, I've dropped over $3k on this truck. Got it for $4k. Should i keep at it? Other than the clutch i don't know what else can go wrong rust related outside the cab corners. I know now if I go to sell it, i still won't get more than $4k. That's pushing it in the area I'm in, and with a bad clutch, that's a loooot less. I'm starting to think i may have blown about $5k at a time i didn't need to blow $5k. :-(

 

Replaced clutch on my 98 F150 last year, big job, and I posted a few comments, but don't recall how to find them. As for torsion bar removal, I found rearward tension (come-along) on crossmember, while BFH finally worked well. Clutch ($400), Flywheel resurface ($40), Slave Cylinder ($80), Miscellaneous parts ($50), Gas to shop ($150)

 

$1100 is not out of line for a full clutch rebuild at a shop. I paid more than that to have mine done.

 

Is your truck A REG CAB OR a SUPERCAB? I know for a fact that on the SUPERCAB the torsion bars can stay in.

 

If you ordered the stuff from rock auto and you went cheapest you could do clutch kit and slave for $200 flywheel resurface for less then $50 total less then $250. If you have some help its not that hard I've done one alone and that was kind of tough.

 

Make sure the flywheel is either bench ground or replaced or the new clutch will chatter. While the flywheel is out, replace the rear main seal on general principle and don't forget a new pilot bearing.