Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Diminished_To_Be
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2011
- Messages
- 3
- Vehicle Year
- 1990
- Transmission
- Manual
Sorry in advance for the long post, but the details may help. TL;DR at the end.
So a while back I started having issues with my clutch. The pedal wasn't fully disengaging the clutch, and eventually the pedal did nothing. I still drove the truck, like an idiot, for a month or two. To get it rolling I had to press the shifter towards first gear with some serious force. As long as I didn't have any uphill or traffic to fight, it would eventually 'fall' into first gear and would shift by rev matching and surprisingly had very few grinds or clunks. My limited knowledge of transmissions leads me to believe that I was relying on the synchro to provide the initial movement. I just had to make sure the revs were either rising or falling when I shifted, I don't remember which because its been quite some time.
Fast forward a few months, I changed the slave cylinder, installed a new clutch pack, new pilot bearing, new hydraulic line, and a few other things I can't think of at the moment. Took me forever because I doubted my ability, but I got it done and it drove fine for the first test drive around the block a couple times.
The next day I decided to go on a longer drive around town to get everything moving and see how the beast handled. Everything was fine for the first few miles. Shifted like butter, the clutch pedal felt like new...then 5th gear started to give off a noticeable whine. The whine moved to all gears except 4th, which in my research points to the pocket bearing going bad. I'm going to replace the fluid today after work, but I doubt that will fix the issue.
This likely means I have to drop the trans again and pop it open. I have very limited experience with working on vehicles, but have a new found confidence after successfully getting the m5od back into the cramped quarters of a 90 ranger. I would like to get a full rebuild kit and just go to town replacing everything inside...
TL;DR
My main question is this: Is the m5od rebuild something that should be attempted by a relative amateur, and is it (as I assume) a better option than finding a rebuilt unit for a much higher price?
So a while back I started having issues with my clutch. The pedal wasn't fully disengaging the clutch, and eventually the pedal did nothing. I still drove the truck, like an idiot, for a month or two. To get it rolling I had to press the shifter towards first gear with some serious force. As long as I didn't have any uphill or traffic to fight, it would eventually 'fall' into first gear and would shift by rev matching and surprisingly had very few grinds or clunks. My limited knowledge of transmissions leads me to believe that I was relying on the synchro to provide the initial movement. I just had to make sure the revs were either rising or falling when I shifted, I don't remember which because its been quite some time.
Fast forward a few months, I changed the slave cylinder, installed a new clutch pack, new pilot bearing, new hydraulic line, and a few other things I can't think of at the moment. Took me forever because I doubted my ability, but I got it done and it drove fine for the first test drive around the block a couple times.
The next day I decided to go on a longer drive around town to get everything moving and see how the beast handled. Everything was fine for the first few miles. Shifted like butter, the clutch pedal felt like new...then 5th gear started to give off a noticeable whine. The whine moved to all gears except 4th, which in my research points to the pocket bearing going bad. I'm going to replace the fluid today after work, but I doubt that will fix the issue.
This likely means I have to drop the trans again and pop it open. I have very limited experience with working on vehicles, but have a new found confidence after successfully getting the m5od back into the cramped quarters of a 90 ranger. I would like to get a full rebuild kit and just go to town replacing everything inside...
TL;DR
My main question is this: Is the m5od rebuild something that should be attempted by a relative amateur, and is it (as I assume) a better option than finding a rebuilt unit for a much higher price?
