7.3IDIDSL
Full Access Member
As some of you might remember the clutch in my truck started making noises and started engaging very high on the pedal a couple months ago. Well i ordered a Southbend clutch a week and started installing it today. I started by removing the driveshaft and tcase and tranny shifter from cab. At that point i removed my tcase which was very easy to remove. I then wrestled with the tranny x member for a couple hours since its almost inpossible to get to a few of the bolts. I finally convinced it out of there and got the tranny removed. After hearing some people say how heavy this tranny is suppose to be i was expecting the worst since i dont have a tranny jack...just a floor jack. But me and my brother got that tranny out of there no problem. I was actually very suprised it slide right out.
As soon as we had the tranny on the ground i looked inside the bell housing and i could see a lump of something in the bellhousing in the area where the starter sticks in. I assumed it was mud since the whole underside of my truck has mud clumped everywhere but i started thinking how would a ball of mud get in my tranny. So i grabbed it and sort of squuezed it thinking it would crumble like all the dry mud under the truck...and to my suprise the lump didnt crumble...it was kinda hard and soft...haha. So i took a closer look at it appeared to have a hairy tail. So i then was like what the hell and threw the thing and well it turns out it was a dead mouse in my bell housing. I assume it climbed in there sometime and then had quite the suprise when the truck fired up.
After that laugh i started removing the actual clutch. I pulled off the pressure plate and clutch disc and to my suprise the clutch disc had quite a bit of lining on it still but it was a bit discoulered and it had some heat cracks. I then removed the DMF to find that all of the springs on the flywheel were worn flat on one side. With 4 that were very loose and could actually be pushed out by hand...then i found 2 springs that were actually snapped into 2 pieces.
Thats all i got done today but im hoping to finish it tomorrow. Ive got a few questions for you guys though. Ive read a few places that say the pilot bearing is suppose to be pressed into the end of the crank. And my clutch came with a kevlar pilot bushing that is pressed into the flywheel. and i was just wondering if our trucks arent suppose to have a pilot bearing in the end of the crank but one in the flywheel instead?
As soon as we had the tranny on the ground i looked inside the bell housing and i could see a lump of something in the bellhousing in the area where the starter sticks in. I assumed it was mud since the whole underside of my truck has mud clumped everywhere but i started thinking how would a ball of mud get in my tranny. So i grabbed it and sort of squuezed it thinking it would crumble like all the dry mud under the truck...and to my suprise the lump didnt crumble...it was kinda hard and soft...haha. So i took a closer look at it appeared to have a hairy tail. So i then was like what the hell and threw the thing and well it turns out it was a dead mouse in my bell housing. I assume it climbed in there sometime and then had quite the suprise when the truck fired up.
After that laugh i started removing the actual clutch. I pulled off the pressure plate and clutch disc and to my suprise the clutch disc had quite a bit of lining on it still but it was a bit discoulered and it had some heat cracks. I then removed the DMF to find that all of the springs on the flywheel were worn flat on one side. With 4 that were very loose and could actually be pushed out by hand...then i found 2 springs that were actually snapped into 2 pieces.
Thats all i got done today but im hoping to finish it tomorrow. Ive got a few questions for you guys though. Ive read a few places that say the pilot bearing is suppose to be pressed into the end of the crank. And my clutch came with a kevlar pilot bushing that is pressed into the flywheel. and i was just wondering if our trucks arent suppose to have a pilot bearing in the end of the crank but one in the flywheel instead?
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That was mighty nice of them to include that installed 
