Metal content - 27 year old Ford Ranger

Working on cars doesn't get any easier as we age - - - When I bought this old Ranger 11 years ago with 307000Km on it I paid to have the clutch replaced - $300 parts and $600 labor. (quote now is $900 labor plus almost $600 for parts and supplies!!!) It never shifted right after that - the clutch was always dragging because the clown didn't lube the spline. I fixed that last year when I had the engine out to fix the oil leak and I KNEW I should have just replaced the clutch while I was at it. Started slipping a few months ago -I put off replacing it 'till I got back from my 6 week holiday (New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, American Samoa, Fiji and Hawaii ) - took the plane off the hoist at the hangar andpulled the tranny on Saturday - put new clutch, slave cyl, pilot bearing and rear main seal in today - just have to bleed the clutch and install the shifter and console tomorrow.

10 hours so far - but 3 weeks shy of 71 I am NOT doing it again - - - Found out not onlyu did the "hired gun" not lube the spline last time, he installed the pilot bearing backwards too - - -

I'm into it for almost $400 not counting the pain relievers!!!!!!

Reply to
Clare Snyder
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Bleeding the clutch on the ranger is a TERRIBLE job. Finally figured out a simple way to do it - should work on any hydraulic unit. I just got a spare cap for the reservoir and drilled it for a 1/8" hose barb fitting to connect the mity-vac and pulled 20 inches of vacuum and let it sit for 10 minutes. Released the vacuum and repeated then let it sit half an hour or so under vacuum and VOILA!!! perfect pedal, and full release

Reply to
Clare Snyder

Bleeding the clutch on the ranger is a TERRIBLE job. Finally figured out a simple way to do it - should work on any hydraulic unit. I just got a spare cap for the reservoir and drilled it for a 1/8" hose barb fitting to connect the mity-vac and pulled 20 inches of vacuum and let it sit for 10 minutes. Released the vacuum and repeated then let it sit half an hour or so under vacuum and VOILA!!! perfect pedal, and full release

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Hopefully I won't ever need to, but thanks anyway. That's the sort of problem for which I lathe-turn fittings I can't buy. Square and hex 5C collets help a lot, partly by not having dangerous jaws spinning next to small delicate work.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I once owned a 1989 Chevy truck with a hydraulic clutch , the only way I found was basically the way you did it . I worked from the bottom , pushed the hydraulic fluid up from the slave cylinder . That clutch never did release properly , I suspect the clutch arm was bent .

Reply to
Snag
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You can't grind/reface the flywheel without also adding the appropriate spacer plate to make up the difference or you'll have that problem...

The old mechanical clutches worked PERFECTLY in their trucks. Hydraulic clutches were a solution looking for a problem :(

Reply to
Leon Fisk

The day before yesterday I pulled the carburetor off the emergency generator for a older buddy of mine. He is seeing the same thing. Getting up and down even is an issue, and he recently had surgery. I sat on the ground to pull it off, because it was just easier. I'm getting there too.

Maybe, or maybe didn't actually replace the pressure plate.

I fixed that last year when

Oh Dang-It!

Reply to
Bob La Londe

I don't know that it was ever worked on except for me replacing cylinders . I wished the whole time I had that truck that it was a mechanical linkage system . The only problem I ever had with a mechanical was the time my '65 Impala busted a motor mount ... and the restraint cable . That 327 was doing it's best to stand on one side .

Reply to
Snag

The day before yesterday I pulled the carburetor off the emergency generator for a older buddy of mine. He is seeing the same thing. Getting up and down even is an issue, and he recently had surgery. I sat on the ground to pull it off, because it was just easier. I'm getting there too.

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I store my ratty $10-at-auction platform stacker in a dirt-level extension of my tool shed. It has larger and wider stainless steel (ex-pipe) wheels because the area floods, and a 1/2T lever chain hoist to replace the broken lift cylinder. It's perfect for raising outdoor power equipment including snow blowers and my garden tractor to a good standing work height. The upright frame does restrict the size it can hold and access to one side, but provides a solid attachment to restrain wheeled things from rolling off. Since the lift mechanism isn't under the platform it lowers considerably closer to the ground than a hydraulic scissor lift, a great help in muscling heavy low slung equipment onto it. I use it as a welding positioner and the extension table for the 4x6 bandsaw in both horizontal and vertical modes. A chain sling around the platform turns it into a crane for loads with a centered lifting eye.

At Segway I ordered a winch-operated Vestil platform stacker as a work platform for heavy Segway bases, since I got in to sub for a tech who had dislocated a shoulder lifting them. Other than the winch ratchet being loud it served very well, and didn't risk an oil leak on the tile lab floor.

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One might be useful to you for moving and positioning molds and motors, they are meant to maneuver in tight spaces like between storage racks, and not shift sideways when you slide something on or off the platform.

-jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins
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Good Buddy had a 1988 K20 with the 4-Speed Creeper/Rock Crusher. Needed clutch work at maybe 100,000 miles and while it was apart he had the flywheel ground. Because that's what you did while repairing old clutches... It was never really usable after that. He fooled with bleeding the clutch and then finally added a spacer plate as he'd been clued in to. It was drivable then but not like it had been (He'd bought it new). He finally converted it to an automatic...

I drove it snowplowing with the original clutch. It was okay but not like the mechanical ones I'd used before. Think it was GM's way of converting stick lovers to automatics ;-)

Reply to
Leon Fisk

I had a '76 F150 with a 360 with a mechanical clutch linkage. You wouldn't think it because the 360 was a relatively low power V8, but I ripped the motor mount on it twice. I did put an RV cam in it. Anyway, the motor would lift up and the clutch linkage would fall out. The first time I crawled underneath adjusted it back, and used deep socket to replace the front piece of the linkage that was lost somewhere in the rocks behind me. I am sure I used half a dozen deep sockets to get home at one time or another.

I could start it in gear if I had to and then speed shift, but it was pretty brutal.

After I ripped the second motor mount instead of replacing it I drilled through it to install a modestly large grade 8 bolt to hold the two halves together through the rubber. The rubber still seemed to soak up engine vibration, and it never dropped a deep socket out on the ground again.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

He replaced it - and the spline was drier than the proverbial fart in a summer breeze,

Reply to
Clare Snyder

I've seen the ball on the engine block side AND the pivot on the frame wear out anf / or snap off - as well as the bell-crank arms bend on old Chevies. The hydraulic clutch solved a lot of wear-point issues at the expense of a few hydraulic issues. The concentric release cyl solved ALL of the moving part wear issues but at the expense of serviceability. Ford's problem (at least on the Ranger) was positioning the master withe the push-rod end higher than the inlet/outlet making a big bubble trap.

Reply to
Clare Snyder

The F100 mechanical clutch linkage was a TERRIBLE piece of engineering, exceded only by the column shift linkage.Didn't think anyone could make anything worse than the GM column linkage - but Ford managed!!!

Reply to
Clare Snyder

How about the Pinto Hatchback gas tank or the Pinto Station wagon starter?

Reply to
Bob La Londe

It wasn't a gastank problem - it was the bolts in the rear bumper that punctured the tank. Many other vehicles had the tank installed in EXACTLY the same manner and location - and what about the GM pickups with the tank in the cab behind the seat????? And how was the pinto station wagon starter different than the starter on the coupe or hatch??

Reply to
Clare Snyder

You had to remove the motor mount to change the starter.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

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