84 C10 Clutch woes

[yellomalibu]

Last week, after driving about an hour or so, I pushed in the clutch in my truck, and I felt something give - and the clutch went to the floor. Look under the truck, and I found a broken piece laying on the ground and the Z-bar not connected to the motor... I ordered the parts at my local Chevrolet dealership (I had to buy 2).


Fortunately, I was able to back the broken threaded portion out with my fingers and a pair of pliers.

When I put the new piece in, along with plenty of grease, my clutch pedal squeak went away (yay!) and I thought I was done with this whole clutch problem for a while.

No.

After driving it for a day or so, the pedal started getting really stiff again, like something is binding up, and the squeak came back. *note* this is a purely mechanical clutch - no hydraulics.
Talking to a friend of mine who knows more about manual transmissions than I do (which wouldn't be hard), he said it's probably the pressure plate fingers or something binding up...

I just got back from a 200 mile round trip to visit a friend in need, and the pedal is super tight/ binding, AND the clutch (or throwout bearing) is making all kinds of loud noise. It is DONE.

There is oil leaking from the bell housing and the rear of the engine... I'm thinking that the rear main seal leaking didn't help any. Agree?

Here's the rub. I don't have the money to pay someone to fix this, and I am more than a bit intimidated by the thought of pulling a 175 lb cast iron transmission in my gravel driveway. Also, I don't think I can drop the oil pan to fix the rear main seal while the engine is in the truck (on the gravel driveway).

Would it be easiest to pull the engine and transmission out as a unit into my garage? The truck won't fit in the garage, but the cherry picker will, and I can put a sheet of plywood down at the edge of the concrete/gravel to help the cherry picker roll.

I'm sort of exited to tackle this issue myself, and a bit intimidated at the same time... but when one has no money to pay a professional, one does the best he can.

How do I get the shifter boot off the tunnel floor? Just pry the metal part?

[yellomalibu]

... and to top it off, the parts runner (the Chevelle) has a soaking wet passenger side carpet because the heater core decided to spring a leak this week while the truck was down - AND the power steering gear box decided to start leaking out the front of it. Grrr.

[TC]

What's probably going on is your throw out bearing is taking a crap and starting to seize to the input shaft.......

[yellomalibu]

Ok, that makes sense.

I've only helped do a clutch/ tranny install twice - so now that you say it, that sounds totally probable... with my lack of familiarity, I couldn't picture it - now I can. I'm probably chewing up that sleeve over the input shaft pretty hard about now.

The clutch has always chattered, so if I'm going into it far enough to do a throwout bearing, I'll go ahead and do a new clutch and have the flywheel turned... and seal the rear main.

I'll post a pic as soon as it uploads to see if that helps, because I don't want to just start yanking on the metal ring around the shifter boot... I'd like to tear up as little stuff as possible. Once I've done it once (or even seen it done) I can jump right in, but having never done one of these...

[squirrel]

The trans probably won't come out of the truck if it's still attached to the motor....

Did you adjust the pedal free play after you fixed the broken linkage? just curious.

I made a gizmo that fits on my floor jack, it's a 12" square plate of 1/4" steel with a pipe welded to the bottom, it replaces the small saddle. I made another gizmo to fit the bottom of my 4 speed truck trans, it supports the trans level, and fits on top of the square plate (held on with vise grips). Makes it pretty easy to pull the trans by myself. A piece of plywood on the gravel should do the trick.

There are a lot of places for oil to leak out the back of a chevy engine, the rear seal is one of the more likely, but check valve covers, rear intake seal, oil pressure sender, etc too.

[Loren]

That metal ring around the boot is probably held down with screws that you can't see until you pull the edges of the boot up a bit.

I would leave the motor in...at least in that truck, there's some room around and under it to work. Pulling the heavy trans back without winding up having it hang off the input will be the trick. Lay down a sheet of plywood and a furniture dolly and build up a support with wood laid this way and that, so you can add and remove pieces with the trans on it. Or rent a trans jack. Of course the motor has to be supported somehow, you can lay a wood 4x4 across the fenders (w/ cushioning) and chain to it.

There's no substitute for getting in there and having a look.

I busted one of those ball studs off in my BB El Camino, hitting a rut in the road. It was a bad rut. This was on a road trip so there is a whole story that goes with it, you know how those things can go.

[Scott Liggett]

A couple sheets of 3/4" plywood for the driveway work is cheaper than paying a shop for work. The cast iron trans is a problem. Definitely would need a second person for help. It's not complicated. Just heavy and awkward to do by yourself.

I'd guess the throwout bearing is seizing up too, or getting stuck on bearing cover shaft. Oil on the clutch disc will cause it to chatter a bit on release in slow speeds.

[kyhunter89]

Trucks is 2wd, be thankful, I helped on a torsion bar truck, was hell. Buddy has a 79 4x4, he just did it by himself. We pulled one in a pull-a-part, 4 of us, got 4 other transmissions in 2 hours, this one took 3 hours. It's not that bad, like a big apple shaped solid steel chunk of steel with nothing to pry against, we ended up pulling the motor, to get the trans out. Should have on the torsion bar truck to.

Is the driveway flat?

[yellomalibu]

The trans probably won't come out of the truck if it's still attached to the motor....

Did you adjust the pedal free play after you fixed the broken linkage? just curious.

I made a gizmo that fits on my floor jack, it's a 12" square plate of 1/4" steel with a pipe welded to the bottom, it replaces the small saddle. I made another gizmo to fit the bottom of my 4 speed truck trans, it supports the trans level, and fits on top of the square plate (held on with vise grips). Makes it pretty easy to pull the trans by myself. A piece of plywood on the gravel should do the trick.

There are a lot of places for oil to leak out the back of a chevy engine, the rear seal is one of the more likely, but check valve covers, rear intake seal, oil pressure sender, etc too.

Why do you not think the trans and engine will come out as one unit? The trans is very short length wise... but is it too tall?

I did not adjust the free play out of it... I'm guessing I should have?

The only jack I have is one if those miniature floor jacks...

Yes, my dirt/gravel driveway is level. That is definitely a good thing in this case.

Das Boot:


Das Oil:

[Lon_H]

I've had to do trans work on 2 different fullsize trucks, a 90 C1500, and an 84 GMC. I just yank the engine and trans together. It's the easiest way if you're working by yourself.

[squirrel]

kind of hard to see what trans that is, is it a SM465? or what?

normally the floor unbolts with the big trans

[Loren]

Looks like a big fat SM465...eighties trucks didn't neccesarily have the removable tunnel cover like '70s did. Getting that shift tower untangled from the floor hole will be a pain.

My '84 2500 w/ a 465 had 250,000 miles on it...at least...and no oil in the trans (when I bought it for $400). The case was cracked and it all had leaked out. The previous owner had never put any oil in it either, so who knows how long it ran, dry. I just added some and kept it filled and put another 30,000 miles on it w/ no problems. An amazing trans.

[Scott Liggett]

Looks like a big fat SM465...eighties trucks didn't neccesarily have the removable tunnel cover like '70s did. Getting that shift tower untangled from the floor hole will be a pain.

My '84 2500 w/ a 465 had 250,000 miles on it...at least...and no oil in the trans (when I bought it for $400). The case was cracked and it all had leaked out. The previous owner had never put any oil in it either, so who knows how long it ran, dry. I just added some and kept it filled and put another 30,000 miles on it w/ no problems. An amazing trans.

Its been my experience that everything around the sm465 trans wears out long before and many times before it does.

In the sixties trucks, the trans is bolt to the frame rails and the engine could be pulled to get to clutch and trans just sat there by itself connected at each side the the frame.

[yellomalibu]

Yes, it is the SM465.

From what I've gathered, it's 12" long and weighs 175lbs. Seems overkill for a half-ton with a little 305... but that's what I've got. The numbers say it came that way from the factory.

[kyhunter89]

Yank the motor alone