Time for a new clutch?

[Skugga]

I think its time to put a new clutch in my Explorer. When I was driving back to school after being home for a long weekend I noticed the tach was 200-300 rpm higher than it should have been for my speed. The only reason I can think of for that is the clutch slipping. I'm not sure that's the problem because when I was driving and stopped I couldn't notice any smell. I would have thought that with the clutch slipping even a little bit I would smell it burning after a couple hours. My gas mileage for the trip was 3 mpg lower than usual. Around town it seems to drive normal but I notice the clutch doesn't engage until the pedal is almost all the way out.

If it is the clutch will it be safe for me to drive home wednesday? I want to fix it at home because my cousin should have time to do it over my Thanksgiving break but I don't want to cause any more damage by driving it. I go to school in Rochester so its about a 300 mile drive.

 

[dogfriend]

Highway driving is probably a lot easier on it than stop and go. You will probably be okay to get it home if you take it easy.

One easy test for the clutch is to let the engine idle, then with the brake on, let the clutch out. If it doesn't kill the engine, then the clutch is slipping.

You have a hydraulically actuated clutch, so I don't think that there is much that you can do to adjust the engagement point.

 

[Skugga]

The clutch is still strong enough to stall the engine when I let it out with the brakes on so it think it should last to get me home. It says in the owners manual there isn't any way to adjust when the clutch engages. I didn't think this was my problem but I checked the clutch fluid today. It looks darker than it should but I don't know if thats something old or if it just happened because I never check it.

 

[dogfriend]

The fluid gets darker as it absorbs moisture from the air. You should bleed it to flush out the old stuff every so often, but I don't know if it is practical with the Ford clutch because the clutch slave cylinder is inside the clutch housing.

I never bled the one on my 89 Ford Ranger, and I got 125k out of the original clutch before I sold it.

 

[Skugga]

Whatever was wrong somehow got back to normal before I had to drive home. My cousin drove it to work one day and he couldn't get the clutch to slip. He didn't replace anything and its still running fine.

 

[dogfriend]

The best kind of car problem - the one that cures itself

Is the tach still reading higher than normal? I don't have any explanation for this other than a problem with the tach.

 

[Skugga]

The tachs reading is where it should be. As long as everything keeps working I'm not trying too hard to find out what was wrong.