Transmission trouble - 2001 manual

[John Hart]

So I bought my Trac in 03 with 10k miles on it. We have treated her well thus far but she reared her first ugly head this last week. Transmission troubles. I took it in because it was having troubles letting us even shift into gears. The hydraulic fluid was basically gone and so I refilled it and it worked again but I called a towtruck anyways. The tranny place said there was nothing wrong with the master or slave cylinders. I thought it was odd since the hydraulic fluid went away. So I let them pull the tranny down and take a look at it. Looks like it will probably be the primary bearing (probably not the right name, i'm drunk right now). but anyways, we had 72k miles on it and I'll let y'all know how everything goes. Just wanting to help the greater good.

 

[Fred]

The hydraulic fluid was gone, but there was no problem with the master or slave cylinders?? That sounds a little strange. :unsure:



BTW, Welcome to MYST.com! I hope your repair goes well.

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

Sounds like your clutch needs to be replaced. Look into Spec Clutch (I purchased) or the new Duel-Friction one from Center Force made specifically for '01-'03 Explorers and Rangers. "Designed to work with the 4.0L engine, the clutch assenbly replaces the stock plate and will give you a higher holding capacity for longer life in high-torue street-driving or towing applications." quote from Ford Performance Trucks magazine



Also, check out the project on the Hurst Billet shifter.

 

[John Hart]

In a sober state of mind I now remember that it is the pilot bearing they are waiting to hear about. Fred, I had the same reaction as you did about the master and slave cylinders. My man Wayne told me that the master and slave cylinders could be good, but if the pilot bearing is bad then we can lose the hydraulic fluid. Does that sound kosher? I'm not real familiar with transmission repairs. What it comes down to is that while we've got it torn apart I'll probably have the tranny rebuilt and replace the clutch and slave cylinder so that hopefully everything will be good for the rest of this truck's years.

 

[Tom Schindler]

It doesn't make sense. The pilot bearing, aka throw out bearing, goes between the the pressure plate and clutch forks. The slave cylinder puts pressure to the clutch forks to release pressure from the clutch so you can shift gears.



How a bad bearing can cause the clutch fluid to go away is a mystery. It is a closed system. The only possible way it could be is that the slave cylinder has to extend to the point where the slave cylinder would be filled with fluid and the clutch master cylinder would be empty.



Failing slave cylinders is not uncommon on those tranny's.



Honestly, I would have a new clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, and slave cylinder replaced.



As for brands, I have heard some good and some bad feedback about Centerforce Dual Friction clutches. Most of those are from people that use their cars on the hard side. The complaints are enough for me to avoid Centerforce Dual Friction. LUK makes a nice OEM replacement clutch. I am sure there are some other brands that will work fine too, though I would not keep the old clutch while everything is apart.



Clutches are cheap, the labor to replace them is not.





Tom

 

[Todd Z]

The pilot bearing, aka throw out bearing, goes between the the pressure plate and clutch forks.

umm, the pilot bearing and throw out bearing are completely 2 different parts...



The pilot bearing is pressed into the crank shaft under the fly wheel...where the input shaft of the tranny rides in.



The throwout bearing is mounted to the slave cylinder on hydraulic vehicles OR attached to the clutch fork for non hydraulic cars... IT is the one that is mounted between the tranny and the pressure plate... it presses against the pressure plates release levers (fingers), not the clutch fork.



A clutch fork is for a non hydraulic clutch setup where a cable or outside slave moves it to move the throw out bearing...and the throwout bearing is mounted to it.



On a 4x2 the labor to replace the clutch is not that expensive at all....



I bought a Ford OEM and a center force, I returned the ford OEM because I opened the box and found out that the ford stuff and center force stuff was only BCA bearings re boxed....



I liked the center force clutch and pressure plate much better....



IF you lost fluid, it went somewhere, it just doesn't vanish to thin air on a sealed system...It would have to severely boiled off....





Todd Z



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[Tom Schindler]

umm, the pilot bearing and throw out bearing are completely 2 different parts...

Looks like there is a term that is interchanged between two different parts in my area. Go figure...



I stand corrected.





Tom

 

[blksn8k]

I hate to even suggest this especially if your shop has already started a tear down but I would suspect the master cylinder. It is a common problem on manual transmission Rangers and I have to believe ST's use the same parts. My 02 Ranger FX4 had the same problem two days after I sold it. There was no evidence of a leak anywhere. Period. But after bleeding the system within two days it would lose pressure again and these things are a major pain to bleed. The new owner was about to replace the slave cylinder which as you know is a major job due it being located on the transmission input shaft. Since there was no evidence of a fluid leak inside the bellhousing I suggested he replace the master cylinder first and that fixed the problem. I had the same problem on a 94 Ranger. You would think Ford would redesign a known bad part that has been an issue for several years!



I wonder if they still use the same parts on new Rangers?

 

[John Hart]

Well, we got it all back the other day. Ended up being the pilot bearing. Because I share the same feelings with most here, I pretty much had everything replaced while it was apart. Put in a new pilot bearing, clutch, and slave cylinder. Everything works like a charm now. The shop admited that they should have been able to diagnose the problem at the beginning with what we told them about the problem; so they didn't charge me for any of the labor to drop the tranny out and check everything out.



Overall, I am just happy its all fixed and working again!

 

[blksn8k]

John,

Glad to hear you got it fixed but are you sure the problem was the pilot bearing? I'm sorry but that still makes no sense to me. As others have stated the pilot bearing is in the end of the crankshaft and I see no way that part could have any affect on the fluid level in the hydraulic clutch. It might have been the throwout bearing/slave cylinder assembly but from my experience I doubt that as well. Are you sure they didn't charge you for dropping the trans because the real problem had nothing to do with any parts down there? I can understand replacing worn parts once it's all apart but I honestly don't think it should have been necessary to tear it apart in the first place. Did they replace the master cylinder?

 

[John Hart]

Well, the saga continues.



About two weeks after the initial problem was "fixed" we encountered a problem that reminded me of the initial problem: with the clutch fully engaged we were unable to shift the transmission at all, we checked the clutch fluid reservoir and it was OK, then about ten minutes later everything worked fine again. We took the ST in to the Aamco and of course the problem couldn't be duplicated. I spoke with the technician and basically he was trying to tell me that it was due to the temperature dropping... it had gotten down to the 40s the night before. I didn't buy that explanation but the clutch seemed to be working again...



Fast forward to yesterday. The wife and the MIL had taken the ST up to Ohio for the sister-in-law's college graduation. Up there the problem reared its head again. Lucky me [/sarcasm]. Well, the mechanics up in Ohio are apparently able to diagnose a bad slave cylinder. The slave cylinder, hydraulic line, and master cylinder are on the way from Ford. This will be another $600 bill towards actually fixing the ST.



Now going over the invoice from the last job I noticed that all that was listed was the clutch kit and pilot bearing. At the time the manager convinced me that the slave cylinder had been replaced (see my previous posts) but left off the invoice so that they wouldn't have to charge me for them (again tied to the fact that it had taken a couple of extra days due to the erroneous transmission inspection). Now they are pointing at the invoice and saying that they didn't do any of the work. I'm not really happy with how all this is working out, do I have any options?