84 Bronco 2 Rear Main Seal Replacement-Clutch Hydraulic ??

[wildbill23c]

Here in a week or so I'm going to tackle the rear main seal replacement job in my 84 B2 2.8L with TK-5 Tranny. I know the tranny has to come out, but my question is, due to my horrible abilities of being able to get hydraulic systems bled, if I disconnect the quick connect on the hydraulic line, will it retain hydraulic pressure so that after the seal is replaced I can just reconnect the line and go? Or am I looking at having to remove the whole clutch hydraulics and re-bleed the whole thing again?

 

[wild horse]

Plan on rebleeding the whole system when your done bud.

 

[wildbill23c]

Of course, why wouldn't a job that requires half way tearing a vehicle apart end easily LOL. Thanks.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

How old is the clutch? You may consider replacing the clutch, disk, slave and input shaft seal on the tranny while you have it apart. A new flywheel wouldnt hurt either. You wont want to be going back there any time soon.

 

[RonD]

Just as a heads up about bleeding these.
The air trapped in the system is often in the Master not the slave.
The master sits at an angle with no bleeder at the top.

You can spend a lot of time bleeding the slave/line and still have a soft pedal.
If you can, seal the disconnect so fluid can't leak out, this will prevent air from getting into the master.
But if your reservoir gets empty the damage is done, air in the master.

Inside the truck...
Remove the Safety switch from the clutch pedal push rod, it spins around and there is a tab that slides up and out, then switch can be removed from the rod.
Remove push rod clip from top of pedal, and pull push rod out of the hole.
At the top of the master cylinder there is a c-clip that keeps the piston from coming out, remove this c-clip.
Have a bowl or towel under the master because fluid will come out, that is the goal.
Pull up on the push rod/piston until you see fluid coming out, it's just a gravity feed from the reservoir not under pressure, make sure reservoir is full before you start
Air is now out of the master.
Reassemble.
Getting the c-clip out and back in is a pain without c-clip pliers.

 

[Surrey]

Just as a heads up about bleeding these.
The air trapped in the system is often in the Master not the slave.
The master sits at an angle with no bleeder at the top.

You can spend a lot of time bleeding the slave/line and still have a soft pedal.
If you can, seal the disconnect so fluid can't leak out, this will prevent air from getting into the master.
But if your reservoir gets empty the damage is done, air in the master.

Inside the truck...
Remove the Safety switch from the clutch pedal push rod, it spins around and there is a tab that slides up and out, then switch can be removed from the rod.
Remove push rod clip from top of pedal, and pull push rod out of the hole.
At the top of the master cylinder there is a c-clip that keeps the piston from coming out, remove this c-clip.
Have a bowl or towel under the master because fluid will come out, that is the goal.
Pull up on the push rod/piston until you see fluid coming out, it's just a gravity feed from the reservoir not under pressure, make sure reservoir is full before you start
Air is now out of the master.
Reassemble.
Getting the c-clip out and back in is a pain without c-clip pliers.

If thats not already in the tech library, it should be.

 

[wildbill23c]

How old is the clutch? You may consider replacing the clutch, disk, slave and input shaft seal on the tranny while you have it apart. A new flywheel wouldnt hurt either. You wont want to be going back there any time soon.

Clutch kit, slave, and master are about 2 months old, replaced the shaft seal as well, wondering why the rear main on the engine failed like it did though, as before the clutch stuff and flywheel were done it wasn't leaking. Makes me wonder if the shop caused the seal to fail when they were putting the clutch kit and parts back in.

As for the safety switch mine doesn't have one, or at least it doesn't work or isn't hooked up as it will start in gear without pushing in the clutch which isn't a problem for me, I'd rather have it that way than some electric issue down the road. I've owned 3 trucks so far that the previous owners removed the clutch safety switch and never had a problem LOL.

As for bleeding the clutch system, thanks for the tip, I'm sure it will have to be done couldn't be as simple as hooking the lines back up and driving away LOL, it wouldn't be a ford then.

 

[wildbill23c]

Ok, so I'm looking online at the rear main seals, and there's 2 different ones. One is $31 and is teflon, the other one is $11 and is rubber. Should I spend the extra bucks and get teflon or does that matter?

 

[RonD]

How long did the stock rubber one last............29 years, ok only 28 years if it was made late in '84, lol.........your money

 

[wildbill23c]

How long did the stock rubber one last............29 years, ok only 28 years if it was made late in '84, lol.........your money

Haha, sounds like I may as well do the $12 one. From what I can figure out now is this isn't even the original engine given the pulleys on it aren't setup for the A/C that is somewhat existent in the vehicle, so I don't know it could have been an earlier engine or even an 85 model year engine. The door sticker on my B2 says March of 83 was the build date.

 

[bobbywalter]

sometimes if the connector is boogered up....well often it is boogered up here due to weather/salt use....anyway you can disconnect the master and leave the whole system intact....its a bitch to remove it from the firewall and fish it around but its really easy compared to buying a new 80 dollar line. i have done this with rear main jobs and broken clutches. not burned out clutches...broken clutches.


but since all your shit is new, you will probably be ok with the quick connect.





as to the seal, its likely a ready sleeve for the more expensive one. if your surface area is grooved bad enough, a new seal wont last long, and thats why they make the redi-sleeve type seals.

i set the new seal deeper sometimes so i can run the cheaper seal, as its easy to fawk up the redi sleeve on install if you dont do them allot.


make sure your replacement seal dont have a steel seat on it, or you wont be able to overdrive it a bit to offset your existing groove if you have one.

the national version dont have the seat lip, and worked great for me...but i think it was only 7 or 8 bux last time i did one.

 

[wildbill23c]

I have an external slave cylinder and was looking at it and I can just take it lose and tie it up out of the way and not have to disconnect anything from what I can see.

Going to try and do it here in a few weeks, going to wait till oil change time so I'm not changing the oil and draining everything twice LOL.

 

[bobbywalter]

anything??


cool you have the early style


your really in a cake situation now

 

[wildbill23c]

Haven't had time to work on it, due to driving it to work 6 days a week, then Sunday's I'm doing yard work, so its like when am I supposed to get the time to do it. I know its going to take me a few days due to never doing this before, and the whole clutch/flywheel removal is what I'm mainly worried about as I've never taken one out before. I can't afford the $900 to take it to a shop and have it done, and I want to learn to do this stuff myself in the first place.

I was looking tonight though after work, it looks like my biggest problem is going to be dealing with taking the transmission/transfer case out as I don't have all the cool shop tools to do that type of work so its all going to be done by hand. I can leave the clutch slave cylinder connected and all I have to do is just get it out of the way of the transmission and work area. its an external slave so that's going to make it really nice.

 

[bobbywalter]

my good man...



take some more time every day for another week or so and get under there and have a good gawk all around.


my back is pretty much broken literally as i have limited function and directly ordered not to pick up more then ten pounds(20 or so for the rest of my life) and i just did this three times in the last two weeks and my big truck looks like its getting pulled apart again as well. and that is not thrilling in any light trust me. the ranger has some heavy shit compared to this rbv stuff in the b2.


in the past i would replace these in mudholes out in the woods or on mountains so you can do it at home when its all recently been apart in decent conditions.



no special tools at all besides some long extensions for the bell housing bolts. and the little disconnecty toolie dealio for the clutch line which does not apply here.

technically some consider additional special tools as there is a t27 bit on some of the front shafts and the 12 mm 12 point that goes on the rear of many d shaft flanges....i consider those normal tools.

on the front shaft yoke where it meets the pig i usually drill them out and go with normal u bolt style joint straps with 1/2 inch nuts for a jeep d30 as a upgrade. its worth it trust me. the rbv straps with the t27 are stupid to me and should be discarded asap.


outside of that pulling the t case off is easy. usually done in 9-15 bolts in manual applications not including dropping the k member.

theres 5 on the case to trans and 4 on the driveshaft flange and 4 on the front shaft. these are easily removed with a ratchet wrench set like the gear wrenches and the t27.

from there you have the shifter bolts, 1-4 generally depending on trans after you get the bezel crap and boots out of the way.


those can be trouble makers, and out here in saltville i have had to weld bolts a majority of the time on the three bolt fm146 units to remove them because the torx heads were rotted to shit, often from previous guys using the wrong tools and overtorqing them. but you should have a 4 bolt type shifter and those are usualy cake and dont give ya no shit. just like your handy little external slave.


pull the starter and wire it out of the way....hopefully you started it out with disconnecting the negative...battery cable

from there you have the exaust flange....not sure which one you have. i pull it apart at the converter when possible and replace it with a new gasket and bolts. not sure what your situation is there.

basically i drop the trans down slow and make sure i am not smashing anything.

when its hangin i take the jack slack up then load it a 1/2 inch or so.

undo the 6 bell bolts and wiggle it free. walk it back and down nice and easy.


1/4 turn the pressure plate bolts in a criss cross pattern till they free up...keep a hand on it so it stays on the pins while you take the last bolt or two out, and grap the clutch with a finger as you pull it away.


the fly is 6 bolts and can be a bastardhead with no impact for the unseasoned.

you can use a piece of angle and bolt it to the engine with a trans bolt and cock it so it catches the starter ring gear for example to hold it so its easy to bust the bolts free and retorque them later as an example.....i dont have to do that but it will make it easier to properly torque em later for a new guy.


the hard part is setting the seal in the right spot and knowing whether or not your crank is fawked and it needs to be set a bit deeper, and setting it deeper without fawking it up.


putting it back together can be a bit of a challenge if your alone...
i usually use my ratchet handle to line the clutch up...but i do have the tool for that as well somewhere.



and honestly. i dont think you will have any problems doing any of this.



but....
if you lived 100 miles from me and it was the original clutch i would tell you to sell it.

or bring it over on my days off.


i could be wrong.