asymsynap
New Member
- Joined
- June 23, 2008
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 1
- City, State
- Vancouver, BC
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 91 XLT
I thought that I might share my experiences with anyone who is considering doing their own clutch replacement on a 91 Explorer 4x4. I will just share some general observations and let you know the difficulties that cost me the most time. Be warned, I would not do this job again even with the knowledge I gained.
First off, I am a casual mechanic at best. I have always done my own brakes, tune ups, and general repairs. So I knew enough that I shouldn't really try doing a clutch replacement, but after some guilt tripping by my wife for buying a boat, decided that I wouldn't let very solid judgment get in the way of my stupid attempts at replacing the clutch.
My reservations were chiefly that my aging tail pipes and muffler would have to be cut away or destroyed in some manner; that I would crush myself extracting the transmission, as I once again ignored conventional wisdom by skipping the rental of a transmission jack in favour of my 3 ton regular jack; that I would find some nut or bolt that couldn't be extracted (again, old and rusty); and that I would get it all back together and find something hopelessly awry, or worse even, working just poorly enough that the whole job had to be repeated. At the start of the job I was hopeful that it would take my two day weekend. In the end, it took three full days and three partial days.
General steps (refer to your service manual)
disconnect gear shifter
drain transmission fluid
remove underside protector plate
set a jack under transmission
remove transmission support rail
remove front and rear driveshafts
disconnect front crossover exhaust pipes
disconnect various clutch valves and connectors
remove starter motor
remove transfer case from transmission
remove bolts securing transmission to engine
extract transmission
remove and replace clutch kit parts
reassemble
replace transmission fluid
(possibly) bleed clutch hydraulics
the last step should not be necessary, as there is a quick disconnect valve on the hydraulic fluid line which should prevent any air entering the system. In my case, it was not necessary.
Here is what I found. The biggest waste of time that I had was discovering that there were eight bolts connecting the transmission to the engine. The two topmost bolts cannot be seen, either from underneath or above. My Haynes service manual, of course, did not specify how many bolts there were. I finally discovered the bolts after a couple of fruitless hours of trying to budge the transmission from the engine after extracting only six bolts. Two of those six are high on the engine so it was a reasonable assumption that all the bolts were off. The only way I discovered the top bolts (and it was the passenger side bolt I discovered first) was by sliding underneath from drivers side, across to the passenger side so that my head was against the right front tire, and squeezing my arm all the way up the transmission to the top. I have long arms and could only just reach the bolt with the tip of my finger. Extracting it was not pleasant. The two topmost bolts easily took an hour apiece to extract. Fastening them took slightly less time because by then I had jacked the front of the Explorer up higher (so that the bottom of the two front tires were about 2 feet off the ground, i am guessing the front was up about 40 degrees from the ground). Then by saving the topmost bolts for last and lowering the back of the transmission low to the ground, I could actually see one of the two bolt holes and had a little more access to them. It still took over half an hour apiece to fasten them as multiple elbows are required on your ratchet.
The next biggest waste of time was in the setting of the jack stands. I had to move them at least six times to do various jobs. In the end, I found the best place to set the jacks was under each of the support rails under the front axles, and set quite high.
The next biggest problem was removing the exhaust crossover pipe from the exhaust manifold. My pipes were old. I broke one socket trying to turn the bolts. In the end, three days of soaking them down with liquid wrench and then taking a propane torch to the brackets they were bolted to, and heating them for expansion, did the trick. At first sight, I thought that there was likely no way the bolts were ever coming off, but fruitless attempts at moving the disconnected transmission away from the engine with the crossover pipe in place and in the way, made me examine all possibilities.
Thankfully the Internet proved to be useful, giving me hope that the bolts could be extracted using the above-mentioned methods. I never did fully extract that pipe, as the rear connector was corroded to the point that a socket wouldn't fit. I read some advice that suggested that you turn them anyway, which should break them off, but if I had done so there would have been substantial exhaust repairs required. The pipe did move off the support rails but not clear of them and made for some extremely difficult extraction and replacement maneuvers. A transmission jack would have helped eased that extreme pain. It was figuratively and literally a pain, for when it finally did come loose, one end of the transmission landed on my hand, which is still bruised nearly a week later. The sensible thing to do would have been cutting the pipe and replacing the exhaust, but that was out of the budget.
The replacement of the clutch parts was by far the simplest part of the job.
In the end, it worked out well enough. Though getting used to the highly responsive clutch is a bit of a trick.
First off, I am a casual mechanic at best. I have always done my own brakes, tune ups, and general repairs. So I knew enough that I shouldn't really try doing a clutch replacement, but after some guilt tripping by my wife for buying a boat, decided that I wouldn't let very solid judgment get in the way of my stupid attempts at replacing the clutch.
My reservations were chiefly that my aging tail pipes and muffler would have to be cut away or destroyed in some manner; that I would crush myself extracting the transmission, as I once again ignored conventional wisdom by skipping the rental of a transmission jack in favour of my 3 ton regular jack; that I would find some nut or bolt that couldn't be extracted (again, old and rusty); and that I would get it all back together and find something hopelessly awry, or worse even, working just poorly enough that the whole job had to be repeated. At the start of the job I was hopeful that it would take my two day weekend. In the end, it took three full days and three partial days.
General steps (refer to your service manual)
disconnect gear shifter
drain transmission fluid
remove underside protector plate
set a jack under transmission
remove transmission support rail
remove front and rear driveshafts
disconnect front crossover exhaust pipes
disconnect various clutch valves and connectors
remove starter motor
remove transfer case from transmission
remove bolts securing transmission to engine
extract transmission
remove and replace clutch kit parts
reassemble
replace transmission fluid
(possibly) bleed clutch hydraulics
the last step should not be necessary, as there is a quick disconnect valve on the hydraulic fluid line which should prevent any air entering the system. In my case, it was not necessary.
Here is what I found. The biggest waste of time that I had was discovering that there were eight bolts connecting the transmission to the engine. The two topmost bolts cannot be seen, either from underneath or above. My Haynes service manual, of course, did not specify how many bolts there were. I finally discovered the bolts after a couple of fruitless hours of trying to budge the transmission from the engine after extracting only six bolts. Two of those six are high on the engine so it was a reasonable assumption that all the bolts were off. The only way I discovered the top bolts (and it was the passenger side bolt I discovered first) was by sliding underneath from drivers side, across to the passenger side so that my head was against the right front tire, and squeezing my arm all the way up the transmission to the top. I have long arms and could only just reach the bolt with the tip of my finger. Extracting it was not pleasant. The two topmost bolts easily took an hour apiece to extract. Fastening them took slightly less time because by then I had jacked the front of the Explorer up higher (so that the bottom of the two front tires were about 2 feet off the ground, i am guessing the front was up about 40 degrees from the ground). Then by saving the topmost bolts for last and lowering the back of the transmission low to the ground, I could actually see one of the two bolt holes and had a little more access to them. It still took over half an hour apiece to fasten them as multiple elbows are required on your ratchet.
The next biggest waste of time was in the setting of the jack stands. I had to move them at least six times to do various jobs. In the end, I found the best place to set the jacks was under each of the support rails under the front axles, and set quite high.
The next biggest problem was removing the exhaust crossover pipe from the exhaust manifold. My pipes were old. I broke one socket trying to turn the bolts. In the end, three days of soaking them down with liquid wrench and then taking a propane torch to the brackets they were bolted to, and heating them for expansion, did the trick. At first sight, I thought that there was likely no way the bolts were ever coming off, but fruitless attempts at moving the disconnected transmission away from the engine with the crossover pipe in place and in the way, made me examine all possibilities.
Thankfully the Internet proved to be useful, giving me hope that the bolts could be extracted using the above-mentioned methods. I never did fully extract that pipe, as the rear connector was corroded to the point that a socket wouldn't fit. I read some advice that suggested that you turn them anyway, which should break them off, but if I had done so there would have been substantial exhaust repairs required. The pipe did move off the support rails but not clear of them and made for some extremely difficult extraction and replacement maneuvers. A transmission jack would have helped eased that extreme pain. It was figuratively and literally a pain, for when it finally did come loose, one end of the transmission landed on my hand, which is still bruised nearly a week later. The sensible thing to do would have been cutting the pipe and replacing the exhaust, but that was out of the budget.
The replacement of the clutch parts was by far the simplest part of the job.
In the end, it worked out well enough. Though getting used to the highly responsive clutch is a bit of a trick.
