Opinions please on my clutch and some other questions.

[Metalmacguyver]

My starter died so when replacing it I took some pics of my clutch.

I had some cardboard infront of my radiator to help it run warmer in these winter months. I first did it on a trip to upstate NY. It was so cold the truck couldnt warm up at all. Temps were below zero. I was suffering aswell. I put some cardboard in and that helped it warm up very quickly. On the drive home, to MA, the clutch started slipping. The temp gauge got as high as the center of the gauge. It was not slipping to bad. There was a definite correlation between lower break away threshold and higher engine temps.

Yesterday I got roped into doing some towing. 3 boats, 3500lbs, 4500lbs and 6000lbs. I removed the cardboard and had no clutch slipping what-so-ever.

I read about an overload protection feature in the dualmass flywheel. I suspect that this may be what is slipping, not my friction disk. Any thoughts on this? Can anyone elaborate on this overload protection?

I suspect the root cause of my starter failure/hard starts lately may be a bad glow plug controller. I noticed that when going to start the truck, the voltage gauge wasnt going down like it usually does. I had to turn the key 5-6 times before I saw it loaded with the glow plugs. What do you think?

Here are the pics. How does the clutch look to you guys? I dont see excessive dust so I dont think that is has been the friction disk slipping.

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I swear my truck has arthritis. So many different aches and pains.........

 

[punkmechanic]

I have heard about the overload in the dual mass too, i cant verify or nullify that. your clutch looks like it is in good shape though. From the photo it looks like you have a good deal of friction material left. Is your flywheel blued or "heat checked", that usually causes slipping all the time but maybe in the early stages it shows more in heat.

My best guess (take it with a grain of salt) is that the additional heat is causeing the springs in the dual mass to lose elasticity, and that is allowing them to compress easier and that combine with the added weight of towing and it may feel a lot like slippage.

Just a thought.

punk

 

[Metalmacguyver]

It was definitely slipping. There was a sudden increase of several hundred RPMs with no change in speed. Thanks for the thought though.

As far as I could see, the flywheel wasnt blued at all but I was only looking throught the inspection cover so that is a guess at best.

 

[Redneck]

I think I've run across this overload protection, towing a way bigger than stock suzuki samurai on a trailer up a mountain, hammer down in fourth at about 5lbs boost and suddenly it just seemed to kinda spin past the clutch and rev like hell, there was no clutch stink though, and after clutching in and downshifting, there were no problems...I still pulled over at the next available spot and gave it a rest though.

 

[RLDSL]

I know on mine, it happened after trying to back my 32ft enclosed car hauler up hill onto the road. I had got the thing just a bit too straight in the yard and was having a heck of a time getting the tail end to point uphill without whacking the nose of it into my 5er and was rowing back and forth quite a bit before I finally gave up and went to plan B and wriggled around and got the tail to point downhill to get backed out. By then there was quite a bit of heat built up ( mind you no heavy clutch slipping, I idle as I let the peddle out, but that's a heavy trailer ) As I got out on the highway, I went to grabbing gears and wen I went for about 3rd it felt like clutch slipping central Engine wound up but not going anywhere. Had to back out of it and stay down in the gears once it cooled down It made the trip fine and once it cooled down, it was fine. I made a run the next day to drop the car in the trailer and it didn't slip

It's was enough to wake me up. I've got a used single mass flywheel at the machine shop getting cleaned up right now ( Thanks Rob that's going in the thing. With the kind of weight I tow around I don't need that noise

 

[Devilish]

I've noticed the overload protection on my tow truck. I suspect it's to prevent us from shearing something when at peak torque range. I know that I've got a bad dm flywheel but I think it's strange that it only rattles in 5th gear

 

[Agnem]

I certainly wouldn't call it a "feature". More like a defect. Here's the parts that are burnt up on your DMF's.

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Let's face it, in stock trim your making less than 200HP. What kind of clutch and flywheel can't handle that?

 

[RLDSL]

I certainly wouldn't call it a "feature". More like a defect. Here's the parts that are burnt up on your DMF's.

Let's face it, in stock trim your making less than 200HP. What kind of clutch and flywheel can't handle that?

I'm with you in the defect camp
That's just nuts. A DMF is a decent design, they use the things on PERFORMANCE engines in Europe on BMWs etc that handle some serious power, Why ford would choose to dumb one down to that kind ow weakness is beyond me. So what if they're trying to protect people from themselves if they're out trying to pull stumps or what have you, when people got out to pull stumps, they generally know what they;'re doing, and they don't need a $1200 flywheel folding on them in the process.