96 F-150 4x4 302 Slave Cylinder Questions

I have no experience with Ford trucks other than driving my boss's PowerStroke around.

My uncle recently bought a 1996 F-150 302 4x4 with a manual trans. It doesn't get around well. The master cylinder is not leaking so he thinks the slave cylinder is bad.

I am confused about which trucks have internal slave cylinder and which ones have external slave cylinder.

It seems that there are two different kinds of manual transmissions on these trucks and different transmissions have different slave cylinder locations.

I am trying to help him get this figured out over the phone before I start thinking about a long car ride to fix it if the slave is external or drive home after getting nothing done if the slave cylinder is internal.

So how can I help someone who only knows how to drive cars figure out if this is a driveway project or something that will require a tow to a shop.

Low cost is a very important priority here btw.

"It doesn't get around well" doesn't say much.

we did one at the shop a few months ago... the one we did was internal and had to pull the tranny IIRC... it would kinda be a pain in a driveway but overall it wasn't too bad.... if your comfy with pulling a RWD tranny (which is much easier than a FWD) then I say try it.

It will have the internal slave. Just to confirm, ask him to crawl under and look at the ribs on the side of the tranny. If they are horizontal and vertical, it's an M5OD-R2 (Mazda with internal slave). If for some unknown reason the ribs are diagonal, then it's a ZF which should have an external slave. I don't believe the ZF was available in F-150 in 1996.

I've dropped my M5OD-R2 twice now. There's nothing really special to it, just a typical PITA like any 4x4. The quick-disconnect (ha) line can be entertaining. If it gives you much issue, disconnect it at the master and take it down with the tranny, to be dealt with on the floor. And the nuts that hold the cross-member to the frame are a self-locking pinched type, takes forever to unscrew them all with only hand tools.

If you are replacing the slave, replace the master at the same time. Mine had some gunky stuff in the bottom of the reservoir that I would have never known about if I hadn't removed it. That probably led to the failure of my slave.

Overall if you aren't getting well paid to do the job, you're better off advising him to bring it to a shop.

A more mechanically gifted friend of mine has offered to take care of the slave cylinder for a good price. Since the tranny is going to be out of the way it seems a good time to evaluate replacing the clutch.

I am looking around at clutch kits and some mention a pressure plate, others a "cover assembly". Are these two names for the same thing?

All the clutch kits include a clutch disc, a pilot bearing, and various hydraulic and/or alignment tools.

If replacing a clutch do we really need all that extra stuff or can we just replace the disc? It doesn't slip.

I'll chime in here... If by "doesn't get around very well" you mean it won't go into gear easily, then it is probably the slave cylinder/throwout bearing assembly. It's an annular-type cylinder with bearing around the input shaft. It's made of plastic and the smallest piece of crap that falls into or forms (i.e. corrosion crud) in the clutch hydraulics finds its way to the very bottom of the system (cylinder bottom) where it scratches the bore up where a leak develops. The hardest part of the job may be getting the "quick connect" line to release from the slave cylinder. Take your time and don't tear it up. The rest is basic stuff.

OK so my friend (with some help from me) replaced the clutch slave, clutch master, clutch disc & pressure plate, throwout and pilot bearings, and rear main seal.

The old disc was worn down pretty close to the rivets, the rear main seal was clearly leaking and the throwout bearing was shot. All this was good stuff to repair.

After normal bleeding procedures the truck still grinded going into reverse. My uncle said the truck started grinding going from gear to gear on the 25 mile drive home.

THIS WEBSITE has some pretty wild suggestions for bleeding this clutch. Does all that seem necessary?

God I hope the parts store slave cylinder doesn't have to come right back out.

ohioboy, your suggestion about the "quick release" was spot on. Thank you.

You may have some air in the system yet. I never had trouble getting them bled and never had to take the cylinder off the firewall, but since you've replaced all of the hydraulics you probably do have some air in it at the master. I'd try disconnecting the line at the master cylinder and bleed that alone first (probably should have bench bled it before install). Make a short brake line/hose to a container with some fluid in it and obviously don't let it suck air back in. Then reconnect to clutch line and bleed the entire deal. Good luck.

We bled the system again and everything seems to be working just fine now.

The clutch pedal went dead again. We went to bleed it and no fluid would come out.

The master cylinder rod had come detached from the clutch pedal. We hooked it back up and the clutch was fine. This was over two weeks ago and everything is still A-OK.