clutch slave

[Carlonator]

I need to change the clutch slave cylinder in my 88' Ranger 4WD. I was wondering if instead of removing the transmition and everything connected to it, I could just take out the engine and access the slave cylinder from there. any input?

BTW, this is the first time ill be changing the slave, so im kinda ignorant on the subject

 

[chrwilkins30]

just pull the trans its actually not that bad just more intimidating the first time around. You will spend a ton of time pulling the motor over the transmission.

 

[adsm08]

Yeah. From the perspective of someone who has replaced both transmissions and engines multiple times, the method that you suggest is neither easier, nor is it less work.

The catch comes because you line a trans up to an engine, not and engine to a trans.

Plus a transmission is about 1/3 the weight of an engine, even with a t-case on it.

 

[2813josh]

Sure you can, I did my clutch job when I pulled my engine. But I had other reasons for pulling the engine. You'd probably be better off dropping the trans.

 

[Carlonator]

Thanks for the response guys, the trans it is .

 

[purple93]

+1 on the tranny. I just did my slave cylinder last week with a friend. Had the tranny off, new slave in, and tranny bolted back up to the engine in just over 2 hours. its really not bad at all.

 

[macx]

I've done lots of wrenching over the years but this is my first Ranger. I had to pull my 5 speed a few weeks ago to fix a bad oil leak in the back of the engine (not the seal, either, strangely enuf) - ANYWAY

I bought a relatively inexpensive manual (use a 1/2" drive ratchet to operate it) light duty trans jack out of Harbor Freight (about $65 if I recall) and that was SO well worth it!

On that slave hose, just in case you hadn't been exposed to that before, there's a little white plastic ring or collar around the connection to the slave cyl just outside of the bellhousing. That needs to be pushed in to release the connection. There's a little tool that comes with new slave cyl's that's sort of like a miniature tuning fork, but it can be done with anything that pushes more or less evently on opposite sides of it. You have to push in fairly hard and then pull on the hose fairly hard with that collar pushed in.

There's only about 13 or so bolts to get the trans out (3 on ea side of the motor to the bellhousing, 3 on the starter, 2 for the trans mount, 2 for the mount crossmember), plus the 4 on the driveshaft (you need a good quality 12 point socket or wrench for those), and the engine pretty much balances by itself with the trans unhooked. Remove the shifter stick from the peg out of the top of the trans first, 1 bolt. The top bolts on the motor to bellhousing are hard to get to. I took the easy way out and cut a big enuf chunk out of the plastic inner fender at the top rear of the shock mount bracket to get my arm in there, then it was simple!

Take a good look at your pilot bearing in the end of the crank, best to replace it - mine was totally gone at only 80k miles - I had to get a cheap inside bearing puller (Harbor Freight again) to get it out, screwed around nearly 2 hours before I broke down and got that tool. Put the new bearing in the freezer overnite before you install it and it will tap right in real easy. Cold shrinks it a little.

Good luck! It isn't all that bad - get the truck up on jack stands so you have room to work. First time for me I had it out in under 2 hours, incl jacking the truck up. And I'm 65!

 

[Carlonator]

Thanks for the advice. And about the pilot bearing, my truck's got 237,000 miles on it and weve pulled the engine four times for cracked heads, but the bearing still looks surprisingly pristine!

 

[88SXT]

i've pulled the trans 3 times on my 88 4wd, its really not that hard at all, ive got it down to where i can drop it and put it back up in about 2hrs as long as i have someone to hand me tools and help me lift it initially.

 

[wrecking-crew]

Thanks for the advice. And about the pilot bearing, my truck's got 237,000 miles on it and weve pulled the engine four times for cracked heads, but the bearing still looks surprisingly pristine!

Replace it all.Flywheel (or resurface it), clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing and the pilot bearing. If you do it like that, you won't be back in it for a while. Luk sells the kit with the disk, pressure plate, throwout and pilot. I recommend that.

Or better yet, if you have the money, do a 4.0 clutch swap.

 

[88SXT]

Replace it all.Flywheel (or resurface it), clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing and the pilot bearing. If you do it like that, you won't be back in it for a while..

i wish i would have done that the first time, but i didnt so i was up under there 3 times in 6 months

 

[Carlonator]

well the first time we rebuilt the engine about 15-20,000 miles ago, we replaced the clutch, pressure plate, and throwout bearing. so they should still be good right?

 

[Mark_88]

A good clutch "should" outlive the rusty frame...my Tempo had 400,000 on the original clutch...my Skoda required a new clutch after 30,000...

Probably why there aren't too many Skodas around...

 

[Andy D]

Hey Macx , I'm in the same boat. Fair wrench , but a noob on Rangers. I gotta R+R the clutch on my 94 4.0 . I am heartened to see your post. I'm a young feller of 60. Somebody called me that the other day and I returned with Sonny! Happy New Year!

 

[Carlonator]

Well, I've decided I might as well replace the clutch hydraulic line as well since I'm down there, but ran into a frustrating dilemma. I got off the quick-connect fitting that attaches to the slave cylinder, but cannot reach the other end that connects to the master cylinder. The only way I see to get the other end off is to take off the master cylinder. Does anyone know how to separate the master cylinder pushrod from the master cylinder? The little #%@&ing spring clip is starting to make me angry.