Day 5 of the clutch replacement. I'd call it successful. So far nothing broken, but I also hope that I won't encounter any further delays or surprises or additional costs.
It's been 12 years since the instructional thread was written, and today's replacement rear main seal calls for NO grease on the shaft, and my part also came with a guide sleeve which allowed the seal to slide onto the shaft and then be removed, leaving the seal in place. That worked in theory, but in practice there is a spring dowel rising up from the crank end, which forced me to withdraw the guide sleeve before the seal had been seated properly. I did add Lock-Tite to the outer surface of the seal, as per the tutorial thread's instructions, and gently hammered in the new seal into position using the old seal as a guide.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Removing the clutch was straight-forward after I finally located the timing hole and peg, as mentioned in the tutorial. I used a big screwdriver. Additionally, and prior to that, I had to figure out how to secure the clutch and later the flywheel to unbolt the bolts. See, this is where experience comes in, and next time I do it, it'll take less time.
And, also due to my lack of experience, I'd like to ask if anyone sees anything unusual in my pictures. Is the flywheel OK? I don't see any real "bluing" but your opinion may differ, and if so, please enlighten me. For sure I can see some kinds of discolored spots but the metal all seems fine. I'll go over it with some fine sandpaper I guess, but does it need to be professionally turned? The metal all seems undamaged. No cracking as far as I can make out. The teeth for the starter have a bit of gouging on one edge for about 10 splines or so. Doesn't seem too bad but I can debur those splines. What caused it? Starter problem, or clutch problem?
The clutch I removed is LUK brand, and dated 2006. So clearly it was replaced then, in Poland. Why would a clutch go out so quickly? Unless the odometer has many hundreds of thousands more kilometers than the indicated 236K? And, please tell me if this even looks bad. The pressure plate itself seems nearly new, undamaged. At least to me. The disc doesn't seem to be in bad shape. There are a few hairline cracks, but it's not even worn down to the rivets yet. What is going on? Did I waste all week removing a working, good clutch? Why won't it engage, then? Perhaps it's greasy from a leaky rear main seal? What is the official verdict? Is the oil visible around the seal coming from the seal itself? Is this what caused the clutch to fail? I will of course install the new Sachs clutch assembly, but I'd love to know if I will have solved the problem by doing so.
I used the method recommended in the tutorial to remove the rear seal: two screws. Unfortunately, one screw made contact with the crankshaft end, and gouged it a bit. I sanded it down with 400 and then 1500 paper and it all seems to be as smooth as a baby's bottom. But in checking, I noticed that it had been slightly damaged in the same way in another location, presumably the last time the clutch was replaced in 2006, and that might have contributed to early failure of the seal, right? It does appear to be letting in oil. So, having honed that surface, and the opposite surface on the cover plate (aluminum), which had been gouged a bit by a screwdriver in the past, I cleaned it out and installed the new seal. It seems to be just very happy there now. I hope that I will be able to locate that bearing at the end of the crank. I'll ask at Ford tomorrow. The one in there now is a replacement, made in Poland. Not sure if it's working well or not but I'll replace it if I can find the part.
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