Hey guys, I was wondering if any of you have ever had to swap out an old clutch and if you could guesstimate how long it might take. I have access to a shop with lift at $4 per hour and i want to be able to plan for the cost. Also any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

 

Plan on at least 8 hours. I think the flat rate book is somewhere around there.

Tip - get a complete clutch kit, including disc, pressure plate, slave cylinder/throwout bearing, and pilot bearing. Pull the flywheel and send it out to be bench ground, or replace it with a new or preground used one. You will need help bleeding the clutch.

 

Thanks! I did buy a full kit including flywheel. I've got 2 buddies to help me with everything but none of us have ever done transmission work so this should be interesting.

 

Another tip - get an alignment tool. This is a rod that you insert through the disc into the pilot bearing so when you bolt the pressure plate down, the disc will be aligned and you can get the tranny input shaft through it. I've used broomsticks for this before, but it's best to rent the right one for your vehicle, it will have splines on it. I also know people who use input shafts out of junk trannys for this.

Drain the fluid out of the tranny before removing - I don't know about the 95, but my 03 required the tranny be rotated 90 degrees after pulling it back to clear everything to get it out.

If your engine has a rear main seal that can be removed and replaced with the flywheel out - not requiring oil pan removal - change it.

A shop manual will be very valuable.

 

yeah the alignment tool comes with the kit. I picked up the shop manual yesterday and it looks surprisingly simple, which means it'll be harder than it looks. It does say to drain all the fluid so i'll have to look up what fluid I need to refill it. The biggest part of it seems to be the transfer case removal before the transmission removal.

 

The tranny and transfer case both take standard ATF - Mercon V.

 

Awesome. I love this place already. Thanks for all the help.

 

by the way it doesnt have to be rotated 90 degrees, its just the 04 and up that need it, the newer body style... just take out the 18 mm bolt that holds the shifter to the shifter rod... should come straight back and out.

 

My 03 OBS needed the rotation.

 

did you unbolt the shifter from the shifter rod or the shifter rod from the housing? i have dont clutch jobs on the obs and if you take the shifter rod from the housing (to where the shifter bushings are) you dont have a problem

 

No idea - I had the job done and that's what the mechanic told me he had to do.

 

Success!! took 8 hours and we ran into some problems but my truck feels like brand new. parts and shop fees grand total came to $262!!

 

Congrats on the clutch job. I will soon be changing out my clutch on my '96 2wd 4.9. Have almost 185,000 on original clutch and it started slipping some, especially in reverse w/ trailer on it. What clutch did you go with? are the trannys any different from 95-96, plus difference in 2wd and 4wd trans?

 

I recommend that you use an OEM clutch.

 

Hey guys. I was given a 95 f150 with 145000 miles. xlt 2wheel drive about a month back. It sat for 2 years. After you drive in for about 20 miles the clutch is sluggish coming out and it eventually sits in the floor and I end up having to manually disengage it. Does anyone have any ideas?