Clutch Replacment?

[ati190]

700$ for clutch? that's "highway robbery" as some like to call it.... The job isn't really that bad. Definitely not worth paying someone 500$ in labor for.... (considering a clutch kit is ~200).

 

[fastpakr]

Sure, for those of us who can find the time, have a place to do it, and are comfortable doing the work. If any of those three aren't true, then $700 is a perfectly reasonable price to have a shop do the work. It's not out of the norm at all.

 

[ati190]

While it's not out of the normal, it's still highway robbery. You have no idea what the mechanic is doing, or how he is doing it. I like to be assured everything is done right, and most mechanics are on a production basis. Truck in, Truck out.. Not a chance I'm willing to take. You are essentially gambling with your money.

 

[fastpakr]

You're paying a shop to do a specific job. They have their own shop expenses, and the mechanic has to pay his own bills at home. If you want to do it yourself it's your choice, but there is no basis for calling it highway robbery. It's a simple shop rate for the amount of time it takes to do it properly.

All this coming from the guy who refuses to change his oil.

 

[shadetree]

Cost on a clutch pack here is a little over $300. Clutch disc, pressure plate, t/o bearing and alignment tool. Less without the pressure plate, but still same labor involved.

I do not do anything to the flywheel if it isn't damaged.

It always amazes me how the customer knows more about what to charge for services than I do. $700 too high, give the dealer a shot at it and see how much your wallet deflates.shady

 

[ati190]

While you guys can recommend paying the 700$ shop charge, more at a dealer. I simply won't. I'd rather encourage someone to get out and wrench their own vehicle. 700$ is highway robbery when you can do it for less than half that. I'm aware of shop expenses etc. I could care less about the shops expenses or the mechanics bills at his house. My only concern is the money leaving my pocket, for me to pay my bills.

B.T.W, fastpakr, I change my oil. I just quoted my uncle (who never changes his oil), nor fixes problems until they hinder the vehicles usage. Never mentioned anything about it in the thread. Why? Because I was just joking around and laughing at guys like you who seem to take everyone so seriously. A lot of sarcasm was employed in my thread about the oil. Quite frankly he is pretty lucky considering he rarely has engine troubles. But that's a little off topic from a clutch replacement. Thanks for throwing that out there though.

 

[JayGeePee]

I wern't trying to start an argument, I just simply said I cant afford $700. I'm a Plumber so I dont have room to talk on our hourly rate. $69 for the first 1/2 hour, than $49 each additional 1/2 hour. And then we mark our parts up 10-20%. I see were everyones coming from, but with the economy the way it is I have to keep as much cash in my pocket as possible. I still havnt got a straight forward answer on what I should do next... Do u have to have a tool to disconnect the slave cylinder? Etc?

 

[ati190]

No, you push the little white plastic clip in on the connect line, and it will pop out hopefully. It might take a couple tries. I used a straight-head screwdriver, and it worked for me. Once the trans is out, two bolts hold the slave in.

 

[Bottoms Up]

In my neck of the woods, the mechanics around this town price gouge, and $700 sounds good to me.

 

[JayGeePee]

Yep, I can see why its a 700.00 job now... I tore into her, and its a son of a bitch. The exhaust was actually the hardest part for me so far. I torched the nuts to get them nice and hot, and still couldnt get them off. So I dropped the headers down, and finally got to where I could get the tranny out. I'm pulling the clutch and flywheel off tommorow and replacing the rear main seal. I'm also replacing the seal on the tranny. I'm going to bench feed the slave cylinder before I put it in, and I'm hoping for the best... I noticed my yolk has got a ridge burn't in to it, but no one, but ford had 'em. Can I sand it down with fine sandpaper, with out any problems?

 

[coffee]

I hope I'm not too late, but are you going to change the pilot bearing?

 

[JayGeePee]

I finally got things rolling today... I went to go put my new slave cylinder in today and found out it was no good. I had to run back to autozone 3 times today. I had to go purchase an electric impact gun from Sears to get my flywheel off so I could replace my rear seal which was leaking. I put a new tailshaft seal on my tranny, and put the new clutch kit in. I had a hell of a time getting my pilot bearing out, because nobody had a puller small enough. I chiseled it out... The tranny's back in now, but I still have to bolt the exhaust up, put the shifter back in. I'm saving the clutch for last. I bench filled it. I want to make sure I have this right... Gravity feed the slave cylinder until fluid comes out of the bleeder screw. While someone is keeping the master cylinder topped so no air gets in.... Well I need some pointers on this one.

 

[fastpakr]

Unnecessarily complicated.

Clear bleed hose from slave to master reservoir.
Open bleed valve.
Fill master reservoir and begin cycling pedal until you see fluid moving through the bleed line back to the reservoir and no more air is visible. When the air is purged, close the valve and you're done.

The issue here is that sometimes air gets trapped in the master cylinder in a raised portion at the base of the cylinder. When this happens, the only solution is to unbolt it from the firewall and invert it so the air naturally escapes into the hydraulic line to the slave, then bleed as above (using the master piston instead of the clutch pedal).

 

[JayGeePee]

Why does everyone keep making it sound like pumping your clutch up is so difficult. To me this was easier than a the clutch on my Mustang - Because I didnt have to adjust anything. I was freaking out because everybody made it sound difficult, but It wernt. I took fastpakr's advice and it was a breeze...Thanks The Beast will be on the road tommorow!