A second (and THIRD!) time for everything

Hoss 350

My GSP, Dutch
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As you may recall, in my previous post about batteries, my truck had just given me the first reason to curse it since I bought it. Since bad things come in threes, the second two bad things happened to me Saturday.

I left my house Saturday morning at about 10 am, being lazy and all, headed towards our local Sportsmans Warehouse to get an offset (front mount reversible) set of scope mounts for my .30-06 getting ready for deer season. (Opener this coming weekend). Figured that Sunday i could go punch paper and make sure it was on sight, and be ready. I was WRONG.....

About two miles from the house, the clutch system started making a strange growling noise when I pushed it in to the floor. Anything less than on the floor, no noise. It sounded and felt like water hammer, and I figured I had just sucked a little air into the system, and resolved to fill er up when I got where I was going. Should have turned around right then and gone home. I would have made it at that point. I did NOT.....

On Indiana Avenue, right behind the Spokane Valley Mall, the pedal just stopped going in all together. I pushed hard and it wouldn't budge. So, I float shifted down Indiana, hazards on, until I got to a place where i could swing into the lot for Sportsmans Warehouse, turn around, and hopefully continue on my way home WITHOUT STOPPING. A lady in the left turn lane was checking her makeup instead of going. I figured my horn and hazards would et her attention and she would get out of the way. Again, I was WRONG.....

She GOT OUT OF HER CAR and proceeded to walk towards me to read me the riot act about how rude I was, without giving me the benfit of the doubt, without noticing the hazard flashers, or the fact that when i stopped to keep from hitting her, I STOOD on the brakes until the engine died and the truck stopped. (BTW, it is HARD to ovecome the idle governor, I though the truck was going to surge forward against the brakes and cream the back of her car. I told her that she needed to pull her head out of her .... and recognize the fact that it was not rudeness but urgency, and that she now had me stranded in the middle of one of the busiest streets in the Spokane Valley during one of th busiest times of the week. Did she try to help? Did she apologize? Nope, she told me I was some various body part and left me stranded. So, I thought I would just push my truck into the parking lot. Again, I was WRONG....

Truck wouldn't budge. I was on a slight incline, and could not get it rolling. After busting both balls, and even a couple more I didn't even know I had, I managed to get some momentum, only for it to go away when I hit the parking lot approach. So, I am sitting in the oncoming lanes, in the middle of the road. I figured someone would come help me. I was WRONG.....

They all just honked and flipped me off, (they all had plates from the coast :D ) until a couple North Idaho boys jumped out to help me push it the rest of the way into the lot. Thanks to you guys, whoever you are. I called everybody i knew, nobody home. Called a cab, waited for 1.5 hours for it to arrive, paid 20 bucks for a 7 mile ride to the office. Got a truck (chevy :oops: ) and trailer, went back out to the lot. Got my dogs out of my truck, who had (at this point) been in there for 4.5 hours. Took them home. Got my straps, chain binders, come-along. Went back to the truck. Loaded it up 3 ft at a time with the come-along. Brought it home. Drove in the driveway at 6 PM. 8 friggin hours! Thought my trials were over. I was WRONG....

The master cylinder is connected to the line to the slave by a brass fitting that is held in place by a tiny clam-pin. It would not come out. If it would have, the change-out would have been simple (and remarkably tool-less, since the cylinder just spins out) but it wouldn't. 4 hours later, I hack-sawed it out, got the cylinder free, put the new one in, and bled the system. As soon as I got pressure, the line burst. In my efforts to get the old cylinder off (which included cussing at it a lot) I had pulled the hose up against a sharp piece of sheet metal, and fatally weakened it. So now, I am stuck with a non-functioning truck again. I thought, no big deal, I'll just go get the line from Napa. I was WRONG....

It is a dealership only part. So now, I am waiting for them to open this morning to find out how hard they plan on raping me for the line. Unless I can go to House of Hose and have one made, but I am not holding my breath. Anybody ever changed this line out? Any hints or tips?
 

kenh

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That is enough trouble to last a few years.
Washintonians seem to be worse than Californians.
Different world up here in the Panhandle.
 

roosterdiesel

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Wow, quite a weekend there Hoss 350! No help here either, sorry. Maybe "House of Hose" :roflmao can get ya fixed up, like you said don't hold your breath. Hope you get her up and running again!
 

Hoss 350

My GSP, Dutch
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roosterdiesel said:
Maybe "House of Hose" :roflmao can get ya fixed up,

Laugh all you want, I kid you not, that is what it is called. The Spokane House of Hose. You don't know how many times I've chortled as i drive by :roflmao .

Anyway, House of Hose has just become option numero UNO, because Ford will not sell the hose without a slave cylinder AND a master cylinder attached as a complete unit. $175. :eek: :cussing:

Oh, just a little tip for those of you changing a clutch master... The master cylinder actually just turns clockwise off it's mount, no screws, nuts, or bolts to take off. Just spin it a quarter turn and pull it out. THat said, there is this STUPID little roll-pin that holds the slave-line fitting in the master. You will need a perfectly sized punch, tiny hands, and a HUGE amount of patience to get it off. Don't try it with anything else.

I will update on what House of Hose tells me tomorrow when I drop the old hose off. This may be a new mod for those of us dumb enough to chafe the hose and cause it to burst. Called the "Impatient Dumba__" mod, it signifies your inability to be even remotely patient with the stupid little roll pin holding the slave line onto the master, causing you to tug and pull on it until the line gets fatally weakened by the various sharp pieces of metal that some fiend located in all the wrong spots under the hood. -popcorn Getting good yet?

Oh, and one more thing, to properly bleed the clutch system, you have to detach the reservoir from it's tenuous hold on the plastic molding under the hood, and run it down under the brake master so you can hold it high directly above the clutch master. Without that, air gets trapped in the high points of the reservoir to master line, and also will not bleed out of the master. Just a tip...
 

roosterdiesel

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I believe you about the name! It's just funny. :roflmao


Figures about Ford and the hose :rolleyes: . Hopefully you'll find a cheaper alternative. I ran into that roll pin on 300 I-6 half ton that belonged to my cousin, thanks for the tips on the replacement. Hopefully I won't be using them anytime soon!(knocks on wood) I'm sure there are alot of other mods that should carry that name too, I think I've got a couple but I'll keep those to myself. :D
 

Hoss 350

My GSP, Dutch
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You know, as i get older, I find that I am more and more like my Dad every day. I sit here thinking, you know, if the master went TU, the slave can't be that far behind. Maybe I just bite the bullet and buy the hose/slave unit and do it all, and do it right. I find myself in all sorts of remote places on a regular basis in this truck. Maybe it will give me some piece of mind if I just replace the entire clutch hydraulic system and be done with it... It is what Dad would have done...
 

kenh

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Yo are probaly right, better to replace the whole thing.
If dirt, etc, caused the master to fail, will probably get the slave too.
 

Hoss 350

My GSP, Dutch
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Aaargh!

Well, guys, update time. Got the part from Ford, put it in, and bled the system, and the pedal won't go in now. So I pulled the slave. It was fully extended. :eek: Which means to me that the fork or release arm is not there for it to push on anymore for some reason. Called my friend the Ford tech, and he said dollars to donuts, that my pressure plate had come apart, and that the Master cylinder going bad was a function of me pushing really hard on the pedal to get it to go in, causing it to blow. (See my earlier post)

ARRRGGGGH! :cussing:

So, I guess I get to drop the ZF out of it and replace my clutch.

Any advice from those that have been there? I plan on getting a new release arm and pivot block, new kevlar pilot, throwout, pressure plate, disc, and have the flywheel resurfaced. Figure I'll rent a tranny jack from a rental outfit.

Oh, and while I have it out, I plan to do new up-pipe gaskets, since the ones in there are leaking a little. Anything else I should do while it is out, just for the sake of it being easier witht he tranny out than in?
 

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