That is major fubar! How did that happen?

 

No idea... It had to be some force to have bent/cracked the weld. Unfortunately this isn't my first clutch. The OEM clutch was repalced about 2 years ago, took it to someone that "works on euro cars" that owed a favor to a friend. Trusting the friend didn't think anything of it. Got my car back drove for a little bit, put away for the winter... Drove again in the spring... what i thought was the clutch was the bearing that had destroyed the pressure plate. Told him that he needed to replace it that it hadn't even been a year, let alone 10K miles, he did... he had the car forever, no exaggeration almost 8 months with the excuse of can't get the right parts.. get it back last may-ish... not even a year... dies again... this time same thing bearing messed up the pressure plate. They tried telling me the first time that it was "user errror" which is complete BS since i've driven everything from big rigs, tractors, cars, trucks, and more that have clutches and have never had 3 of them die in 3 years. Actually i've never had a clutch die on me till 3 years ago.

The fork isn't easy to bend, it needs alot of force. after i got the new one i thought i would see just how easy it is to bend, so i pushed down on the arm and couldn't get it to budge with all my 165lbs on it. there isn't even a wobble when trying to force it, and that bearing is just plastic and thin metal. Something tells me that the guy that did my clutch the last two times messed up the fork, and just tried to patch it back together, there are some small signs of heating on the fork, and some chunks taken out of the arm that may indicate him trying to bend it back, or could have been pressure plate teeth that hit it.

either way i wouldn't put it past this guy that he did something since he obviously screwed up the shift cables and re-attached them with silicon. (pictures to come with that as well) the dealership also wanted me to bring them down so they could see them.

 

Well, i'm glad you found the issue. that bent fork would be tough to spot if you did not have a new one to compare against. Possibly, the previous mechanic did not see it either and it probably was the main cause of all the failures.
Anyway, at least now you can look forward to finishing the job and enjoy the car as spring is comming.
By the way, I am curious to know how hard did you find it to remove the fork lever because mine was a PITA?

 

Patience. That was the biggest thing for pull the arm off of the fork. Used a punch to pop the pin out, and blasted it with some PB Blaster (no pun intended) and as you know you can pull the fork up about a half of an inch off the housing, placed a wrench between the arm and the the housing and used a 2 lb mallet not in a tapping fashion, but not in a full force fashion to ease it out. once it was almost flush i placed another wrench on top of the primary, and used a wrench extension to finish tapping it out. It took me about 30-45 min to pop the arm out, no cracks or breaks, thank god. I think the easiest part of this was actually removing the fork.

 

i haven't completely abandoned all hope on this thread yet. i have been MIA due to waiting on my last and final part from the dealership (bearing) and they just called to let me know it's in.

Tomorrow comes the task of putting everything back together.

Since i started this job i have come up with other ideas to do to my car utilizing the onboard equipment. And since i have half of the front end apart i figured now is the best time to go about those projects.

after i get the transmission in tomorrow (fingers crossed) i will see if i can start a new thread with some more projects and step by step for other people.

 

i must warn ya BM if you are doing it by your self wrestling the tranny back into place lining up the shaft with the clutch plate teeth is a daunting task. i ended up abandoning the jack because on the strange angle and just bench pressed it up into place..... not the safest approach perhaps but it worked.

btw turns out the ignition wire is transmitting 12 volts so its clear that the solenoid is fubar.... picked a used starter locally and will put it in tonight, i'll let you know how it turns out.... thanks again for all the help.

 

Alright got the transmission in place (that was a pain in the A$$) got the subframe on, and almost all the parts needed. Only thing left is to put wheels on, front bumper support, and bumper. Since i have the bumper off, I'm also putting some new driving lights on the front and hooking them up to the fog light switch. Also installing an ipod connection on the stereo. Thats all tomorrow's job since i have to fabricate the bracket for the driving lights.

One other thing i need to do is to fill the trani with fluid. instead of doing it the conventional manner of popping the plug and filling it with a small drip line hose; does anyone have any thoughts on popping the breather on the top and just doing a direct pour that way?

Oh and i would like to mention that the new fork, bushings, and bearing went on without a problem. No broken bearing this time. To prevent the fork from moving while installing i did use two zip ties to pull it back in the rest position so i wouldn't hit it on accident, and have to remove the whole thing to re-install the bearing.

 

you have to use the fill plug to guage the oil level so you dont overfill/ Its easy so dont even bother to look for another way. Fill it from the top before you put the battery tray back in for easy access.

 

I ended up just filling it from the proper location. Took FOREVER to fill since the bottles were cold and the oil just dripped in like an IV...

Either way i got it all put back together with only 3 small bolts left over, which for me is great. but i know where two of them go i just need to install them, and i need to get one clip for the wheel well lining.

I also found out that the person that did the clutch the last time "forgot" to install the shield on the transmission just below the starter, half circle 2 bolts. So i gotta get one of those. As well i need to replace the hose that goes from the PCV valve to the brake booster, there's a crack and it's really fragile right now.

I was kind of scared the first time i drove it, not going to lie. Since i've been driving my ol' truck around the clutch pedal didn't feel right to be, i thought it was too weak an bled the slave for about an hour. But i think i've realized driving a 77 F250 for a month and pushing that clutch all the time, this was like a feather to me, and there wasn't anything wrong with it.

 

haha i know the feeling, ive been driving a 5 speed '99 dakota sport, also went to drive the coop and realized that the vacuum line to the booster had cracked off !! crap gonna epoxy it back on tonight (if it isnt one thing its another)

glas to see yours is back operational

 

LOL yup thats the line that cracked on me too.. Didn't realize it till i had everything back together. I ended up just throwing some quick set glue on it to hold it till the new one comes in.

Did you get your immobilizer figured out?

 

yeah turns out it wasn't the immobilizer at all just the solenoid so i just changed out the starter and put it all back together ... started right up

 

Was it a pain to change the clutch without a transmission jack and motor lift?

 

no need for a motor lift... just a hydro floor jack and a piece of wood... as far as the tranny... yeah pain in the ***, but well worth it

 

we actually used two ladders with two 2x4's across the top of them. hooked up a heavy duty ratchet strap and used a chain on the transmission where the motor mount would go. Jacked it up that way so it was easier to move in to place.

Well my saga continues. just when i thought i was good and fixed... i'm not. I've driven about 40 miles and last night when i stopped to see my best friend, went to leave, and the clutch pedal went straight to the floor... no pressure what so ever. it was late so i didn't get a chance to do alot of trouble shooting on it, just left it there and i'm going back today. I'm thinking it might be the slave cylinder or a whole lot of air in the line.

 

Got the new cylinder for the slave, and i've been having a ***** of a time bleeding this sucker. Right now i'm taking a break because the car is sitting in a parking lot in Downtown Denver where it's hard enough to get my truck in there to work on it. but the lot is also full. So i'll wait till the shop closes in about an hour and fifteen minutes. in the mean time i'm going to sit and wait it out.

I talked to Way Motors for some advice since i've been working on it for so long and he told me to use the old fashion way of bleeding, instead of the power bleeder in which i've been doing. So i'll give that a try.

Worst case i'm going to try bleeding from the ground up like the you tube video says that someone else posted on another thread.

At this rate i'm thinking of starting my own blog on all the work i've been doing on my car in the some of the most unique places.

 

Alright got the slave in and did a reverse bleed, and got all the air out. looks like we're good now

 

very nice... that makes one of us

I just took mine to work.... ready to put some dynamite in the tailpipe... the clutch and brakes are definitely better... but the whole reason i undertook this whole project (ridiculous noise mostly in 4th and 5th)... really hoping i dont have to replace the entire tranny, way more money than i have right now

this car is really starting to **** me off >:(

 

Well like the legend tells us... Midlands Transmissions suck... Way motor works does have re-conditioned ones, otherwise i would almost say swap for a 6spd. the Getrags are alot better. But if you don't want to have to replace a bunch of parts and possibly rack up a pretty good bill on the swap, just go with the midland.

 

+1 on the original posters recommendation not to try to pound out the pin while the fork and lever assembly is still in the housing. If your fork is bent/broken cut the shaft where it sticks out of the bellhousing on top and then use a drill to drill out the pin. You've got nothing to lose as the fork is bent/broken anyway. In the middle of putting a second clutch in one of our R50's and the failure appears to be caused by a broken fork as seen in the picture. We also now have a bellhousing that is lightly cracked in two places due to trying to pound the pin out.

JB Weld should fix the cracks, but we ended up cutting the shaft with a cut off wheel and a sawzall; a hacksaw would work as well. The shaft is big and pretty hard but it can be cut. Save your bellhousing and cut it.

The pin then had to be drilled mostly out and then punched out when there was but a small fraction left. As seen, there are grooves on this soft pin, so that the harder you pound the harder it grips on the hole in the fork and lever.


Cracked Fork (the arm on the bottom)


Roll pin- note the grooves and the fact that it's solid

In closing, cut- don't pound!

Val