New Clutch won't disengage

[don.t]

I need some help here, I'm at the end of my wits....

2003 Ford Ranger Edge. 4.0 SOHC, 5-spd, 4WD. 80,000 miles.

Was having some, what I thought were, clutch problems. Clutch travel between full engagement and disengagement was only about 1 inch from the top of travel.

Purchased a new Sachs clutch kit, including disc, pressure plate, throwout bearing, and release bearing. Dropped out the tranny and transfer, and replaced all of the above. The old ones didn't look all that bad. Put everything back together. Had a problem getting the hydraulic line to go back on, per a mechanic friend, opened the bleeder to release the pressure a bit, quick connect went right on. Topped off the master cylinder, did a quick bleed.

Fired it up, had to force it into gear. Clutch will not disengage at all.
Here's what I've done to try to fix the problem so far:
1. Bled the system again, and again, and again. Gravity bleed, the pedal pumping, every which way any book says. No access to a vacuum bleeder.
2. Unbolted the MC to change the angle, bled again, and again.
3. Pulled the access cover, checked to make sure the pressure plate is moving. It is.
4. Pumped the clutch about a 1000 times, both with truck off and on.

Fixed nothing. The clutch is way worse than it ever was. I have plenty of pedal pressure. It just won't disengage.

I think I have it narrowed down to one of three things.
1. Somehow, after three hours of bleeding, there is still an air bubble in the system. How it got there, no clue.
2. The slave cylinder is bad.
3. When I did the little adjustment thing with the forks on the pressure plate, I didn't get them far enough compressed.

Help me out here, please. I don't know what else to do. I need to get this thing back on the road ASAP, its my only vehicle.

 

[grnrngr]

OK my first question is..what "little adjustment thing with the forks on the pressure plate"? You should not have to "adjust" anything and certainly nothing on the pressure plate...you put the clutch plate against the flywheel and cover it with the pressure plate, finger tight the bolts on the pressure plate, center the clutch disc with the alignment tool, and tighten the 6 bolts on the pressure plate. No adjustments. Slide the trans back on, bolt it all up and bleed it, and it should work. There is nothing to "adjust"....

 

[grnrngr]

The fact that the old parts "didn't look that bad" is a good sign.. if your clutch had gone metal to metal, it would have grooved the flywheel or pressure plate, or both. As it is, you can probably get by without having your flywheel resurfaced, which you're supposed to do when you change the clutch. But, it's like you're supposed to have your rotors turned when you put on new brake pads, and while I hate to say "most", lots of people don't. You can get a little idea of how worn your old clutch was, by comparing the depth of the rivets that hold the clutch material to the disc, to that depth on a new disc. Anyway, though...if you did make changes to the springs on the pressure plate, you may have to replace it... those tensions are set to spec at the factory and are not "user serviceable".

 

[don.t]

I'm going to paraphrase here, because the book is out in the truck. The Haynes manual tells you, before installing the new pressure plate, to completely compress the forks on the pressure plate, then slide the retainer ring (I think it says clockwise). Either way, we did it exactly how the Haynes manual said, and followed the pretty pictures.

Also, on mine, the clutch doesn't touch the actual flywheel. There is another metal disc in between the clutch disc and flywheel. There was absolutely no wear on that.

The old disc still had the cross slotting visible. So the wear level on that was negligible.

I've got a good strong pedal feel. It just feels like I need another inch or so of pedal travel. The pedal doesn't feel like a bleed issue.

I've got one mechanic telling me its a bleed issue. I've got another one telling me its the pressure plate. Everyone is in agreement that its not the slave.

I don't want to rip it all apart for what turns out to be a bleed issue. But I have to get this back on the road today.

 

[Sprag-O]

There's a metal disc that touches your flywheel??????

And also, why you were in there, why not replace slave cyliner?

 

[don.t]

Question 1: Yes, kinda. Bolted to flywheel. About 3/4" thick machined metal. In between actual flywheel and clutch disc. Almost seems like its there to spare the flywheel and provide slightly more rotational mass for smoother shifting.

Questions 2: Two parts. Didn't think about it, didn't quite realize it was internal until the tranny was out, and then I have no way to drive to get one. Part two, I'm almost broke as it is from this.

 

[don.t]

K, done this:

Borrowed an injection pump, bled the system from below. Got some air out. Gravity Bled the system. Pedal pumping bled the system. Vacuum bled the system with a vacuum pump.

Now I have ZERO pedal pressure. Worse off then I was. Anybody??

 

[don.t]

Ok, I gave up. Its at the dealership now.

 

[gotmudd]

gotta ask the question nobody else did........... did ya make sure you put the clutch disk in properly[facing the right direction]

 

[Mutant Pony]

gotta ask the question nobody else did........... did ya make sure you put the clutch disk in properly[facing the right direction]

That is what I was thinking as I read this.
Then I read that thing about the metal disk, And the adjusting the pressure plate thing.
I think that there was absolutly nothing wrong with his clutch when he tore it apart. It is normal for Rangers for the pedal to be all the way to the top.

 

[grnrngr]

Well, that's a new one on me...I have a Chiltons and it doesn't mention anything like that, but then it's for 84-90s maybe yours is a new and improved version. I'll have to look into that. The most recent one I've done was a 96 Explorer and it went pretty much as I described..So, sorry you had to send it to the shop, but let us know what they find out...got me really curious now. Never seen a flywheel with anything other than a pressure plate attached to it. Gotta agree with the high pedal, took me awhile to get used to it in my 90 Ranger. At 80k miles, unless it was replaced recently, an original clutch would be expected to be going out about now, seems to me someitmes the pattern in the clutch disk does go below the rivet depth, which is the only reliable guage I know of determining clutch wear. I wouldn't have changed the slave cylinder, I've changed a few clutches and as long as there has been no damage to it, and there's not a lot that can really damage it, they work a long time...

 

[MAKG]

Clutches need changing (or at least a good looking-at) if they don't engage properly or don't release properly. That's IT. Changing a clutch due to pedal height is like changing a fuel tank because the gauge reads empty.

 

[green_duck42]

i also just replaced my clutch, pressure plate, and slave while doing a motor swap. I just bolted on my clutch and put everything back together. My clutch is still really soft even after bleeding it a dozen times. Later reading my hayes manual i also found the part about adjusting it. Theres a few threads on the issue and one says you will get sever slippage after a few tousand miles. I really dont want to drop the tranny after swapping the motor.

 

[Nebman]

Ok, I gave up. Its at the dealership now.

What ended up being the problem? We're having the exact same problem.

 

[55trucker]

lol, don't think you'll get a reply from those names, the last entry for the thread you've dug up is 12 years old

You might want to start a new thread on your issue