clutch hose help

[LittleHorse]

I'm sure I'm the million and one-th person to have problems with this....the things I would do to the engineer that came up with this would put me in prison for multiple consecutive life sentences...

The slave cylinder disconnect...my manual is no help at all, and I've never done one of these with the internal slave cylinder so I'm shooting in the dark. Combine that with the apparent mangling of years past and I'm lost. I've found plenty of relatively short references to it here on TRS, but nothing descriptive enough to provide much help.

I'm going to refer to the visible sections as the "hose" which is strictly the black hose, the "largest cylinder" which is the big blue part, and the "intermediate cylinder" which has a little metal ridge around it and a dome surrounding where the hose enters.

What I've ascertained:
All of these three parts will rotate independently of eachother.
There appears to be remnants of some sort of plastic sleeve between the two cylinders. Don't know what it is. Hoping it's not important.
The intermediate cylinder telescopes slightly (about 1-2mm) into the large cylinder.
I've been working this telescoping action using a screwdriver prying against the bellhousing case to force it...it doesn't move by pure hand pressure alone. Pressing it in while pulling the hose doesn't appear to be doing anything.
I've sprayed the hell out of it with PB blaster.


What I don't know:
After separation, does the intermediate cylinder stay with the hose or with the large cylinder?
What am I doing wrong here??!!

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!

 

[4x4junkie]

That plastic sleeve part needs to be shoved all the way in to where it's no longer visible anymore before it will come apart (this releases the tabs that hold it together).

The fitting will separate where the plastic sleeve is.

 

[LittleHorse]

that's what I was afraid of. The plastic sleeve was so mangled when I started that I'm not sure there's enough of it left to push far enough in to perform it's purpose. When I push on it it just seems like it's deforming under the pressure, and it's now stuck part way down.

I'll keep trying, but I'm eyeing that master cylinder to just remove it all as one unit and take care of it off the car. I really don't like that option but it's there.

They couldn't have just used an external slave like everybody else...

 

[locovaca]

It seems like it's stuck because it kind of is. You have to work it around on all sides, twisting the hose to get clearance on the back. When you push it only on one side it gets jammed and lopsided. What worked for me (which I found on this board) was to make sure you use one hand to push on the sleeve, and the other to work the hose, then when the sleeve is almost in, push in the hose towards the tranny and then back out. The pushing in/out helps it disengage.

It took me about 30 minutes of pushing, pulling, and drinking to get it off. It would've taken me several hours if I hadn't read the tips on other threads here.

 

[LittleHorse]

well, it looks like I'll be able to use your advice AFTER I get the transmission out, because I went ahead and pulled the master cylinder and snaked it down under the truck so I could proceed. Hopefully in proper light and not being restrained by miscellaneous crossmembers, the body, etc. it'll come easier.

Does that plastic sleeve come with a new slave cylinder? I think I'd like a new, clean, unmangled one in there just in case I ever have this thing apart again.

I'll be spraying that mother down with simple green and cleaning it too, what a freakin mess. Looks like I need to look into how much harder an oil pan gasket swap would be while I've got the transmission out.

Thanks for the help guys, hopefully I'll have better luck with the trans out.

 

[locovaca]

No, the plastic sleeve is with the hose, not the slave. It'll make sense when you eventually get it out. However, it'd be easy to get a new one on there (the sleeve isn't connected all the way around so it can pull off), but I don't know if you'll find anyone just selling a sleeve.

 

[AaronC47]

Clutch disconnect

I dont know if I am to late with this or not, but I just pulled a 5spd from a 2 door explorer and I found that pushing the clutch line towards the transmission at same time your inserting disconnect tool will really help, it did for me anyway, and If your line is mangled up or you dont really want to use it again, I have the clutch line and and the end is in really good shape,

OH YEA,, And the DISCONNECT TOOL,, looks like a half circle,, put it over the plastic piece the side away from the trans and use tool and push plastic piece in and also push the line a bit towards the trans, otherwise its all a tight fit and it doesnt want to move very easy,, but keep on it like that and wiggle and jiggle the line while slightly pushing in on it and it should pop loose after a little go around,

Aaron :icon_cheers:

 

[LittleHorse]

thanks...hopefully I'll have the transmission out in the next couple days and can take another stab at it. Full-time job plus wife means I get to work on this thing an hour or two at a time.

I may take you up on the clutch hose if my luck continues it's current path.

 

[jmcarthy]

Wow I'm doing the same thing your doing on my ranger right now. I also get a couple hours a day to work on it (same reasons). I did one worse though, I broke the line at the master cylinder. $96 for that hose from the stealer (the only place you'll find it). My biggest fear is removing that y pipe at the manifold. Looks too tight to be able to put heat to both studs. Only had my truck for a year, and this my first ford and the first time I've had to do anything to it. I helped with a few f150's before, they were big and open. God this stuff is tight in there isn't it? The body on mine is in pretty good shape but there still seems to be a lot of rusted bolts on this project. Mak'in me a nervous.

 

[LittleHorse]

I went into it thinking I was going to have to remove the y-pipe because of reading it on here so many times, and after rounding off the bolts I was nearing desperation and ready to cut the y-pipe out with a sawzall...HOWEVER, I gave it a shot and got mine out Sunday night with the y-pipe still on!

I won't lie, it's a major PITA, but by manipulating the transmission around you can actually snake it through and get it out. The biggest problems are the body seam where the firewall meets the tunnel, and there are 2 or 3 "ribs" formed into the top of the tunnel that the top of the bellhousing will want to catch on. I'm going to hammer my firewall seam flat and maybe the ribs too so hopefully it will go in easier than it came out.

 

[jmcarthy]

I only see about an inch clearance between the pipe and the tranny. How heavy is the transmission anyway? I was thinking of replacing my rear main while I'm in there. It is not leaking but has 125k on it. I was wondering if there were any strong opinions on this, one way or another.

 

[rurouni20xx]

if it aint broke dont fix it, my rear main is at 280k and not leaking. the oil pump died and i started running on 3 cylinders to the house, the only oil leak it has is where i spill the bottle filling it and the crush washer on the drain bolt is missing, hence the rtv every time i change oil.

 

[LittleHorse]

I only see about an inch clearance between the pipe and the tranny. How heavy is the transmission anyway? I was thinking of replacing my rear main while I'm in there. It is not leaking but has 125k on it. I was wondering if there were any strong opinions on this, one way or another.

the pipe is pretty close. The idea is to have the transmission resting on the pipe and lower the tail enough to get the top of the bellhousing past all the ribs and seams in the tunnel, and then you can just pull it right out. You'll of course want to have the transfer case off if yours is 4x4. Without the transfer case attached, it weighs a good chunk but it's manageable for a 6'0" 165lb guy like me...

On the rear main...replacing it wouldn't be a bad idea at all, but I'm always nervous about whether I'll screw it up installing it and it'll leak after I replace it when it wasn't leaking before...so it's hard to talk myself into doing it. Mine is dry as a bone with 101,500 miles, so I'm in the same boat, struggling with the decision.

 

[rurouni20xx]

lets put it this way, when i was working on stuff like that, the first thing that crossed my mind was hey lemme do this while im in here that way i dont have to worry about it...end up doing it and whatever it was ended up skrewing up. hence the reason i say if its not broken dont fix it. now if you were in there and didnt fix it and it started messing up after you put everything back together, i would be rather pissed. the only time ive seen oil pan gaskets and rear mains leak is when they get brittle from overheating, as long as you change your oil and dont let the engine get hot enuff to make 3.0 valvecover belgian waffles on you should be okay.