Water in bellhousing

[Stomped]

I recently replaced my clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, slave cylinder, and pilot bearing. When putting it all back together I noticed several (cooling?) holes on the underside of the bell housing. If I shined a flashlight inside the holes I could literally see the clutch and p pressure plate. When driving through mud and pond sludge, couldn’t this get inside of the bellhousing and destroy my flywheel and clutch? Since replacing my clutch I’ve been so scared to drive through mud because I don’t wanna do that monumental nightmare of a job again.


05 xlt 4.0 4x4 manual trans

 

[sgtsandman]

Water intrusion into the bell housing is a concern with manual transmissions. The holes are a necessary evil and all vehicles with a manual transmission have them from what I've seen.

That being said, they are apparently not a huge problem. Otherwise, off roaders and overlanders would stop using them and would steer people away from them.

 

[adsm08]

Keep the D-shaped inspection plug in place and you won't have major issues. The rest of the holes are vents and drains, and you need them or the clutch can over-heat.

Think about this like your brakes. You get mud and water on your rotors, but that doesn't ruin them, they clean themselves up as soon as you use them again. If you don't run through the puddle and then park it right away it will all get cleaned off when you slip the clutch again.

 

[pjtoledo]

the spinning clutch will throw off anything ('cept dust) that is in there.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

the spinning clutch will throw off anything ('cept dust) that is in there.

*if the drains are not plugged.

I have seen a few tractor bellhousings where mouse nests plugged the drains... filling the clutch area with water doesn't really do anything any good.