manual tranny weird problem. HELP!!

[bones66]

okay guys i have an interesting problem that i would like to solve quickly. i was driving down the interstate today doing fine and i feel a buck like i had hit the brakes, then my tranny seems like it just disengages. THIS IS A MANUAL! so we coasted to the side of the road popped the hood. had a bit of smoke and a mild plasticly smell. the truck starts just fine and the motor runs like a champ. the clutch has no pressure in it and seems to go right to the floor. im leaning towards a mc but curious as to how it went out in gear. any suggestions would be great. and if you need more info feel free to pick my brain.

 

[mr cribb]

It almost sounds like slave cylinder died. I have a current thread going on about parts stores slave vs ebay vs motorcraft replacement.

If this IS the issue get a factory new one from ford. There has been a serious discussion regarding factory is better than a local parts store one. Mostly because the parts stores sell off shore cheapies that fail within 30-50k miles.

Also since you have a 91 model the 91-92 slave fits these years only. In 93 there was a hydraulic upgrade. Most parts stores sell a "blanket replacement" but as I have learned on here that w/o doing a complete hydraulic upgrade the 93-97 slave won't work in the 91-92 models.

Napa sells 91-92 slaves. This is the only parts store I've seen that separates the years with different part #'s.

Anime has alot of knowledge on this, he is the one I've learned the most from regarding this.

And who knows maybe it is only the clutch master and you can get away with a cheap fix.

 

[bones66]

well the master cylinder has fluid still. but you dont think its the clutch or the pressure plate. any more advice would be much appriciated

 

[greasemanicure]

Could be clutch

Mine seemed to go into neutral at about 45mph. In that case it was something I'd never seen.... the pressure plate had fractured into at least three pieces. Same pedal symptoms as you describe. Could be other parts but odds are favoring the slave cylinder. Replaced that about three months before the clutch ate itself.

 

[Anime]

Hard to say without more info. You should be able to pull the big plastic plug on the bottom drivers side of the tranny, and use a flashlight to shine inside and get an idea of what might have happened. If you see large metal/plastic chunks of something in the bottom of the tranny, you know you're going to need to drop it and replace at least that one part.

Could be the slave blew apart, could be the flywheel broke up and destroyed the clutch, could be the pressure plate bolts came loose and spun off inside. No telling.

Maybe if you're lucky it's just the master cyl, and replacing that fixes everything. Might be worth a shot before dropping the tranny, since you'll probably be replacing it one way or the other. Be sure to bench bleed every single air bubble out before installing.

 

[Roadrunner777]

Can I restate something in the original post? This happened on the highway, not while he was shifting, is that right?

 

[bones66]

could be the flywheel broke up and destroyed the clutch.

well the motor cranks up just fine so im thinking its not the flywheel. and yes i was in gear at a constant speed when this happened. wasnt shifting. and if i turn the truck on now i can pump the pedal and build pressure back up but it still wont engage the transmission in any gear

 

[mr cribb]

well the motor cranks up just fine so im thinking its not the flywheel. and yes i was in gear at a constant speed when this happened. wasnt shifting. and if i turn the truck on now i can pump the pedal and build pressure back up but it still wont engage the transmission in any gear

maybe the pressure plate shattered? Or the clutch disc shattered?

I mean if you can still pump up pressure then we can probably rule out the slave cylinder blowing up.

Considering that there is only 3 main parts to the explorer manual trans (I say this because the TO bearing is attached to the slave) and you still have pressure, then what else does that leave?

I'm no clutch expert, so I'm just shooting ideas out there.

 

[Roadrunner777]

I'm going with mechanical failure. Pressure plate lost a bolt, or maybe the clutch threw a spring (if they have them on the Exp).

However... I also have a left field consolation guess: I think maybe the transmission got messed up somehow, and briefly locked up. Maybe a ball bearing got loose and got into a gear. That ultimately pushed the tran out of gear, but not before shredding the clutch. heck, it could even be something further down, something in the xfer case or diff. But something put the lock on your drivetrain and killed the clutch.