I have a 1990 F150 with 4.9 and Mazda 5 speed.My throw out bearing went out completely. Was making noise with clutch in, then eventually the pedal hit the floor. I have a new one on the input shaft and when I had my wife work the clutch pedal, nothing moves. there is a white plastic ring on the front of the hydraulic cylinder that was part way out when I pried the remains of the old bearing off. I would assume that when the pedal is pressed, I would be able to see some movement of the throw out bearing. Do I need to replace the slave cylinder? or do I not have the bearing installed properly? I normally check out the position and fit of the old part as I remove it, but there wasn't enough of the old bearing left to see how it was supposed to fit.

 

As long as you are in there, I'd do a complete clutch rebuild, especially if the bearing was literally falling apart.

I was not aware that you could change the throwout bearing by itself, I thought the throwout bearing and slave cylinder were an integral assembly.

 

I have a new clutch assembly to go in. The new throwout bearing came with the clutch. Is it possible to attach the new bearing to the old slave cylinder? Or do I need to get the whole thing as a unit?

 

Highly recommend you get the throwout and slave as a unit.

http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo....121904&jsn=476

I would also pull the flywheel, get it bench ground, and replace the rear main seal and pilot bearing.

 

Well. I've decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and replace everything. I want this truck to last as long as possible. I've had it over 20 years now and I plan to drive it as long as I'm able to drive. So.... new clutch, pilot bearing, rear main seal, and new throwout bearing complete with slave cylinder. Also I'm upgrading to 11 inch clutch from 10 inch.

 

Well, I've been fighting with this clutch install for a while now. I can't seem to get all the flywheel bolts to line up with the holes in the crank. Since I didn't pull the transmission all the way out, (I just slid it back on the crossmember) I have about 4 to 6 inches between the back of the engine and the trans and I can't actually look at the holes to see if they are correct. It looks like the bolt holes in the flywheel are spaced evenly, but I don't think they are. Is there a way to figure out the alignment so that when I lift this thing into place I can just put the bolts in?

 

Update to the above post. I talked to a friend and found out that the bolts are not evenly spaced. I just have to keep turning the flywheel till it lines up. Kind of weird for ford to do that.

 

That helps with balancing the whole assembly.

 

I now have the flywheel bolted in! I used a piece of gasket paper to make a pattern with the flywheel and a small ballpeen hammer. an then used it to get the alignment right. the flywheel went in place with no problems.

 

Well, I got this thing back together. Not easy, but I got it done. However, I'm having problems with bleeding the air from the new slave cylinder. I tried just bleeding it like I would brakes with little success. Right now I left it for the night with the bleeder open and the master cylinder uncapped and full. My thinking is that maybe it might gravity bleed as there appears to be no place where the line isn't going downhill. Any thoughts or pointers on this?

 

Reverse bleed it. Get one of those old school pump handle oil cans and fill it with brake fluid. Connect it to the bleeder screw with a piece of vacuum hose. Open the bleeder screw and reservoir cap and pump the fluid through till air bubbles stop coming out of the reservoir.

 

Tried the reverse bleed method. Didn't seem to work very well. There appears to be some kind of obstruction, I got little if any bubbles in the master cylinder and eventually built up enough pressure to blow my line off the bleeder. I got hold of a shop manual and followed that procedure as well. I'm thinking there is an internal problem with the master cylinder. I found a replacement on ebay that is supposed to fit my application. however when I looked at the connection on my vehicle. I can see no way to disconnect it. no clips, no drift pin. It appears that it does not separate. Is it possible that someone has changed it to an early model setup?

 

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/f...+cylinder,1996

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/f...hose/line,2332

 

Thanks for the info. I have ordered the line and master cylinder. Should be here in a few day. I will update my progress when I have the new stuff.

 

I did have a bad master cylinder. When I took the push rod off the linkage pin, it fell out of the master cylinder. From the information that came with the new one that's not supposed to happen. I replaced the master cylinder and the line and tried the reverse bleed again. I was surprised at how much air came up through the master cylinder. I now have (I think) all the air out but I have just enough travel to get the trans in gear and the clutch starts engaging at about 1 inch off the floor and it's hard to get in gear. Is there a step in the process I'm missing.