I wanted to find out what everyone thought about this scenario. A couple of months ago I helped a friend out which had just bought a new boat. It was a 24 ft. Sportcraft (pretty heavy hull). As I was pulling the boat out of the water the clutch had no strength. I literally had my foot off of the clutch pedal and giving the truck plenty of gas. The clutch was so weak that the truck would not go anywhere. It would not grab it was just spinning at the clutch. The clutch started smoking. I finally got it out of the water. Till this day the clutch gives me problems pulling out of a stop. It vibrates, almost like if the clutch is warped. Today I was backing up my little 17 foot boat and the clutch started smoking again. It had no reason to smoke, I wasn't even passing 1300 RPM. I couldn't believe that this clutch could not hold this pressure. I've been driving manual tranny's for years. I've never had this problem before. Will Ford warranty the clutch? I only have 19K miles on it. Does anyone think I simply need a stronger clutch. A Centerforce perhaps? Or maybe it's not the clutch but the pressure plate? Any suggestions would be great.

Sorry for the long message. I just had to say the story in full.

 

Netwurk,
Sorry, I don't have any answers for you. That really sucks though. I drive a 5-speed, and I may be (I hope!) towing a small boat soon. I have heard that the Mazda transmission is not the best for towing. I didn't think too much about the clutch. I like the truck. I really like driving a manual. I don't want to have to get an automatic. I would hope you could get it fixed under warranty. That shouldn't be happening. Did you tow something too heavy?
In any event I, and I'm sure others, would like to know what happens.
Tom

 

wittom: I will let you know what happens, but in regards to the question about hauling anything too heavy the heaviest I've ever hauled was that 24 footer. It isn't too light, but I would think this kind of truck could handle it.

 

Welcome to the Ford POS tranny club! The trannies on these trucks are the weak link. The clutches are even weaker. I can fry the clutch playing in the sand. I have in the past towed my wife's Explorer with no clutch slippage . It tipped the scales at 4300 lbs. But as mentioned I can smoke the clutch when in deep sand and just trying to maintain speed. I looked at Centerforce today and they now have a duel friction clutch. The only concern I have is that they list an 11 inch clutch for the 4.6 and 11½ inch for the 4.2. Both motors use the same clutch and it is 290mm (11.4 in) in dia. BTW the 33 inch tires you have are not helping the clutch.


Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

No offense Netwurk, but I would never have attempted to pull a 24 foot boat up a ramp with a standard transmission F-150. I’m not saying that the clutch should have failed when doing that, but with the notoriously week clutch’s on these trucks I’m not surprised that it did.

That’s allot of boat to be pulling out of the water.

One question, how steep of an incline was the ramp?

 

I never knew, up until that point, that the clutch was so weak. The ramp wasn't, to say the least, the best.

 

I’m amazed the 4.2 didn’t stall out.