Hi guys, new member. Just bought this truck for work and Have been working on it and ran into a problem. The truck is an 84 f250 6.9IDI with a t-19 4 speed.

Deal is, I got the truck from a friend for work, knowing the throwout bearing was bad. So this week I dropped the tranny, replaced the bearing, and did the clutch, pilot bearing etc while I had it open. I put the tranny back in, now it won't shift at all. It was tough before, now it doesn't even sniff shifting while the truck is on. So today I bled the clutch hydraulic system, it's working fine, getting my full 1/2"+ travel at the tranny lever, still no shifting. I've checked the pedal linkages, firewall for flex, and cylinders/lines for leaks as a precautionary measure, but as the lever is travelling to spec, I believe the problem is forward of there. Tranny is full with fresh fluid also. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Note: when I pulled the trans, 3 of the 4 bolts connecting it to the bell housing were gone, as well as about half of the support member assembly ones. I replaced all missing ones, but thought I'd mention on the off chance it lends to a solution.

 

Welcome to FTE.

Do you have the shifter inserted correctly? I forget what the things are called but if you look down inside of that hole you can see some rectangular objects that get pushed forward & backward, the shifter needs to be properly oriented in the middle of those things.

Does it shift with the engine not running?

 

Maybe a dumb question but, are you sure you got the clutch disk in right?

 

@ctubutis: It does shift with the engine off. As far as the shifter goes, I didn't remove it when I dropped the trans, I just jacked the truck higher and rolled the tranny on its side to clear the frame.

@Ked- I thought about the disk. On my truck the
Flywheel center is shallow, and I don't think the disk could go on backwards (could be wrong). Its oriented with the flat side of the disk facing the flywheel now.

I'm baffled. I'm removing the clutch hydraulic system for a bench bleed now on the off chance there was air trapped somewhere in the system, I guess my next step will be jerking the trans again to double check everything unless anyone has another suggestion? *prays*

 

What if you start it in gear with the clutch pedal down, does it try to take off? If not, when you let up on the clutch does it engage? What height is it when it does?

 

I don't exactly understand what the problem is?

The tranny will not go into any gear? Will it go into gear if the engine is off? If it will go into gear with the engine off, what happens if you leave it in gear, push in on the clutch pedal, and try to crank it?

 

So starting it with the pedal down and the truck in gear, it will start but is bogged down. Like the clutch is partially disengaged. The truck goes into all gears no problem with the engine off. It's definitely something in the clutch or hydraulic system. I just can't figure out where. I've even tried moving the clutch lever on the tranny manually to see if I can make it shift, but can't get enough leverage to move it from there.

 

Sounds like air trapped in it somewhere. If you let the slave cyl hang loose and pump the pedal BY HAND until the slave fully extends the pedal should get hard. Dont push hard or you will blow something. If the pedal is spongy there is probably air in it. it should only travel an inch or so before stopping.

 

@bashby: You were right, it was air in the system. New air was getting introduced through the slave. I was trying to pull it, finally got pissed with the insane hydraulic line routing, and ended up cutting it out.

On a venting note I'll say: It would be REALLY F**KING EASY for these systems to be designed so that the air travels to the master cylinder, and put a release valve on it. It's completely insane to think this could be overlooked by any engineer worth his salt... But hey, with 100$ shop fees, maybe it wasn't overlooked after all...

 

Glad you got it figured out.

 

I am a little bit late, but this system IS designed for the air to travel to the clutch master cylinder, where it collects in the top under the lid.

The problem is it takes time and you have to drive it. The bleeder that you find on the slave(some of them are just a allen screw) is there to get the majority of the air out, hopefully enough to where you can drive it. As you drive it, the rest of the air will eventually make it's way up the line to the clutch master. I doubt you got all the air completely out unless you had the whole system off on a bench. It shoudl work better and better till all the air eventually makes it's way up the line.

The way I had to do mine, is get the engine started, push the clutch in, and somewhat force it into high gear(5th on mine). Now I had the tranny stopped, I quickly moved the shifter to 4th, then 3rd, then 2nd, and finally reverse, so i could back it out. As soon as I got it turned around and got going down the road, I could feel the clutch getting better. It took a coupe of miles before the clutch was working close to normal.

 

Ok I'm back with my head held down in shame. I got the new system in, the truck won't go into gear with the clutch pedal down while running. Is there anything I could have possibly installed wrong when I replaced the clutch parts that would cause it to not disengage? As far as I know, the disk and pressure plate can only go on one way. The throwout bearing sits in the fork with the thick side towards the fingers. I don't understand what the problem could be.

 

I take it the trans would go into gear before, just a noisy throwout bearing?

 

You are not getting enough stroke on the clutch, if the flywheel has been turned in the past, or its just worn down, you loose clutch distance. If you bought a rebuilt clutch set, the pressure plate was plained, loosing thickness. You need to lengthen the stroke on the master cyl, if you can't find an adjustable rod, yours will need to be made a little longer.

 

Worn bushings will lose a little travel also. The one on the end of the master cyl pushrod, right above the gas pedal goes bad a lot. You can get them at autozone in the HELP section, or just about any parts store. The ones on the right side of the pedal pivot go bad too, but I dont think they effect the travel as much.