It all started with reverse, when I got to the friction point the truck would let out a loud and obnoxious wail. It has since moved to wailing during the first few gears as well. It has no problem engaging, just loud. Like it wants everyone to know I’m shifting. I have a team of amateur hobby mechanics that want to get their hands dirty, we just need to know where to start. Any ideas?
I would start with the throw out bearing.
Thanks, would I be able to just drop the transmission and grease up the bearing?
Nope, not a bearing you grease. If you drop the trans and replace the throw out bearing you might as well replace the clutch plate and in effect you are going to do a clutch replacement.
I agree with Turbo…If you are going to pull the transmission, replace the complete clutch…
FWIW, years ago Fords often had throwout bearing carriers with a grease fitting that could be reached through the bell housing fork opening and lubricated as part of regular maintenance. I scarfed up all that I ran across and installed them when replacing clutches on fleet vehicles. When the throwout is noisy it is toasting the fingers on the pressure plate and they will soon fail causing the clutch to chatter on pull off.
Well, you can grease the bearing if you know how to pull the seal without damaging it, but it wasn’t meant to be greased, just replaced. Even if you did clean and grease it, it won’t be long before the sound will be back, and that is a lot of work for a short cure. For a little over a $100, you can get a complete clutch kit. That is a new clutch plate, throw out bearing, pilot bearing and pressure plate, and an alignment tool.
That’s correct, Keith. current throwout bearings are not serviceable but just a few years ago they were.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it. Looks like I’ll be swapping the clutch. Given that I’ve already dumped about $400 into a truck only worth it’s wait in scrap metal (to everyone but me), would I be causing any irrepairable harm to other key components by waiting to do this project?
Weight* rather
The clutch might last many thousands of miles as it is, especially if the pedal is never held down. Idling in neutral and coasting in neutral with the pedal released might allow for delaying the repair without damaging any other components but it may fail quite suddenly and it could do so at an inopportune time. You roll the dice and hope for the best.
If the throwout bearing (which sounds like it is no longer rotating) rips out the clutch-cover fingers, at that moment all sorts of “your truck is now scrap metal” things can happen…Big chunks of steel being torn to pieces. It is unwise to continue driving it…
Lucky me. I have never had to deal with a failure like that Caddyman. How loud do they get before they disintegrate like that?
Mine sounds like I’m laying on a rusty air horn… It’s loud, so I can only imagine how Caddyman’s was
It can get ugly…If it happens at high RPM, the clutch cover can be torn apart, sending its contents flying into the bell-housing…The throw-out bearing, riding on the transmission mainshaft support, can get jammed up in the remains of the clutch cover…It’s sounds like a grenade going off…The 3-finger Borg & Beck clutches are more prone to catastrophic failure than the type that uses a multi-fingered steel disc which will scream like a banshee but seldom tear apart…
The throw out bearing in my wife’s car was extremely loud when it failed. A relatively inexpensive part that required $400 in labor to fix. Apparently if you let it go long enough it will ruin the transmission.