Ok its christmas time here... i love the big brown truck!! My southbend OFE clutch came in today....yea baby.... so anyone changed a clutch out in the 98.5-2001? Just wanting to know if theres any little secrets i need to know before i dive into this project? Thanks for any info...

Capn!!

 

Use a port a power to remove the cross member for the tranny or beat it up and back to remove.

 

Have a friend, and a nice adjustable trans jack to get that trans started into the clutch disc and pilot bearing, otherwise it's pretty easy. I can't remember how I finally got mine in, but just try to align the bellhousing as close and uniformly as possible against the engine, and then it's just a matter of wiggling and shaking the trans forward until it finds the perfect alignment and goes in. And once u can bolt the bellhousing up, thats a great feeling because I spent a whole afternoon, almost 8 hours trying to get mine to align. Finally came back the next morning and it went in right away .... But i was doing it alone, and i don't recommend that to say the least, lol. Try puting the transmission on the jack under the truck because it won't slide under the truck with it on because I couldn't jack the truck up high enough, hahaha Wow i'm glad I got that done, lol.

 

Some times it is better to walk away and take a break, then go back to it and it will go easy . As far as the transmission cross member you can use a 4x4 and a bottle jack or a high lift jack to spread the frame a little and it will slide right back in.

 

The trans is big, dumb, and heavy some be careful. Spreading the frame would be the best way the get the cross out, but I didn't have the resources at the time so I just used a pry bar and pried up against the frame. Ever so often as the cross was coming out I would put a piece of wood between the frame and the pry bar. To get it back in we just angled it in then knocked the rest on the way with a rubber hammer. the line the bolt holes up just use a long punch, stick it through the holes and hit it with a hammer it will line the holes up. Good luck

Josh

 

Thanks for the info, is there anything to pulling the console out, or does it have to come out? I'm sure it does to get the shifter out?? Doesn't it? Thanks again....

Capn

 

russ, you gotta take the console out to access the shift tower boot and retaining bolts.

 

youve got a 5 speed seperate the trans from the bellhousing it makes for a mush easier job ive seen a lot of people not do this

 

how else could I guy do it? or maybe I am missunderstanding the statement

 

You can take the tranny out with the bellhousing still on, just alot tighter.

 

That's the way I did mine (bellhousing still attatched to the trans), and it wasn't bad at all. worst part was getting it to line back up on reassembly, and that wasn't too bad with a tranny jack.

 

i know the 6 spds are really a pia