Clutch replacement tips and tricks

SO I have never done a clutch before. I am very confident that I will be able to do this but, I wanted to get everything right the first time. So for any of you out there that have done this before any sugestions that you have will be greatly appriciated. I.E. Special tools, supplies, fluids, technique. As of right now I am not looking forward to doing this. I just don't know what is involved. Please help and instill a little confidence in myself.
Thanks a ton,
Jeff

All I can say is..............GOOD LUCK!!!

Your more brave then I am.

Let me see if I can help you out, as I just did mine not too long ago.

Special tools:
Hydraulic Line removal tool (aka Line coupling tool)

Disconnect the battery; as you have to pull the starter.
Lift the vehicle to give you ample room underneath to work and slide a tranny around.
Disconnect the starter wiring, the transfer case harness (if electronic), Speedo Cable. reverse lights harness, and just about any other wire you see going to the tranny and transfer case.

Unbolt and remove starter, exhaust cross over( from manifolds) tranny crossmember (support the tranny with a jack at the back end) Driveshafts, Transfer case (some say remove it, I didn't) Shifter (inside the truck)

Next (unless I forgot something) you're rdy to start unbolting the tranny from the engine. (Make sure you have a tranny jack (or a really dumb friend) under the tranny to support it.

Once everything is unbolted, the tranny should slide apart from the engine with a little finess. (just make sure you have it supported!!) Once the tranny is on the ground, you can remove the pressure plate and clutch from the flywheel.

Install the new pressure plate and clutch, aligning the clutch using the clutch alignment tool (comes with the clutch kit). Slide your tranny back up in there (Making sure NOT to misalign the clutch!) and work it around until its flush up against the block. Basically reverse steps the rest of the way out for reassembly. Don't forget to put the new throw out bearing on the slave cylinder prior to reassembly.

Couple of things to check/do while you have the tranny out:

1) if shifting into gear at a dead stop was difficult, suspect a slave cylinder gone bad. Replace if this is the case. Also note, the clutch kit comes with a new throw out bearing, so does the new slave cylinder. ( I now have a back up throw out bearing )

2) inspect the flywheel!! Some say have it resurfaced every clutch change, some don't. I myself will get it resurfaced.

Goto the tips & tricks section and look up bleeding the clutch as that is your final step

I may have missed something, but that covers most of it.... oh and like Derrick said "GOOD LUCK"

Your flywheel bolts are most likely E-torx bolts. I highly recommend you invest in some E-torx sockets. It is possible to use a normal socket to get them off but you risk the chance of stripping them. These bolts are hard to come by, and pretty much only from Ford. I also recommend you replace everything - pilot bearing, clutch disk, pressure plate, throwout bearing, slave cylinder, and have the flywheel resurfaced. When I did my clutch I bought the LUK Pro Gold series clutch and this came with everything, including the alignment tool.

The kit that I am looking into is from SPEC. It's a kevlar disc and provides a little extra grab than stock. I'm going to need it with the supercharger going on and all. I am seriously considering having it done at a shop though. There is a lot of work. I saw that I was going to have to undo my Y pipe on my headers and almost died. I thought th Y pipe was hard. Now I have to take it off and work around it. I dont' know.

Do not let your reservoir run dry while bleeding the line! This is very easy to let happen, since it does not have a large capacity. If you let it run dry you are going to have to bench bleed the slave cylinder.