94 Explorer - Clutch job

[Kloque]

Im having to change the clutch in our 94 Explorer and I just have a couple questions:

Does anyone know how to get the y-pipe unbolted?

And how do I disconnect the "tranny line"(?) The gold fitting that goes into the tranny near the top on the drivers side.

Also, we live in a smaller town and I was thinking of leaving my cats off, I would't be questioned or have to do an inspection at any time. Would this have any "bad" effects on the Explorer's performance?

Im already halfway through taking the tranny down, so any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[AllanD]

A) Removing the cats is illegal
B) it has no benefit on performance

I can tell you from objective experience that performance will suffer.

The clutch line connection? you see the while plastic "band" on the coupling?

While pushing in on the coupling push that white band IN (towards the trans)
And the connector will release.

That plastic band pushed metal barbs outwards and if you pull on the connector
when you are trying to disenggae it it'll fight you.

as for getting the exhaust down, it's just plain ugly.

Unless it has been out before there is a strong chance that one of the four flange bolts will break off when you try to get the Y-pipe off the manifolds.

Generally you are suppsed to remove the Cat then the Y-pipe to get the trans out.

I'll tell you right off the bat it's often easier to remove the radius arm crossmember.
it is both riveted and bolted to the frame, but having it off is a golden opportunity
to replace the radius arm bushings.

With the radius arm removed it's a hell of a lot easier to get the trans in and out.

AD

 

[Will]

And be careful with the clutch hose--it's cheap plastic.

Buy a yellow MAPP torch. It gets hot enough to loosen bolts. Don't spare the heat.

 

[Kloque]

Sweet, thanks, I just cut the damn thing off, and bot some sleeves and some of that muffler repair putty.
I'll just put on the sleeves all stuffed with that crap and the clamp it really good and put some more putty and some muffler tape, I think it'll seal.

Wanna know something crazy? One of the exhaust flange bolts that I was torquing on and couldnt budge with a 1/2" socket wrench and a 15" pipe, fell out while I was sawzalling, lol. WTF is that?

Anyway, now.... I cant get the flywheel off. Tomarrow Im getting an electric impact wrench for it. Everyone says if I don't have it surfaced it will cause problems. My grandpa says hes done alot of clutches and never had one surfaced and they were all fine. But mine does have a groove worn into it...

My T-case is heavier than my tranny, I thought it would be heavy and had someone come help me to get it down, and I practically just grabbed that sucke by myself. lol, But the T-Case is pretty heavy.

Well, its getting there.... Woohoo for my first clutch job, lol.

 

[tx3nc]

I'd recommend against cobbing the exhaust back together like that. Either get the Y pipe properly welded or buy a new one.

 

[countryboy]

if u do resurface ur flywheel u need to shime it to give back the surface material that was lost. i ound this out the hardway. resurfacing the flywheel cost $30 here but i got a new flywheel for $60. if you do have ur flywheel surfaced be shure that the machine shop tells you how much material they removed frm the surface.

 

[tx3nc]

What do you have to shim?

I'm in the middle of a clutch replacement/trans overhaul now and when I found out the difference between surfacing the flywheel and a new one was 30 bucks, I said screw it and bought the new flywheel.

 

[countryboy]

you have to reshime the whole flywheel. u did the best decision to just but a new one.

 

[Kloque]

I cant get my clutch to release now!! I did get my flywheel resurfaced, and I never saw anything about shimming it, and napa didnt even tell me anything about that when they re-surfaced it. it, I was wondering if it should be flat or stepped, they made it flat.

Anyway's I bled that thing like crazy, I've done 2 bench bleeds, gravity bleeds, still no release.

Any ideas?

If it does need shimmed, should I shim the flywheel or the slave cylinder?
Also, they don't remember what they took off, and I'm too broke to buy another one, I've already spent all the money I had.

As for the exaust sleeves, it worked perfect, it looks clean, and has no leaks at all.

 

[fastpakr]

Old post, I know...

I've -never- seen credible evidence of having to reshim a flywheel on an RBV. We had a discussion here once before about it, and the poster claiming the need in that case was entirely unable to back the theory up.

What you're more likely experiencing is air in the clutch release system. Tons of documentation around here on sorting that out.