x2 on what Dan said. My LUK was great for about 10k miles. Now it bunny hops bad enough to make your kidneys bleed. If I had cash laying around it would have been replaced long ago.

 

Not to highjack this thread but do you guys have a big hefty clutch spring on your pedal?

I fought with the dealer for a half hour. He says the hydrolics pull it back in and that there is NO spring so my squeaking is caused by "something else". And if i have a spring some "idiot" put it on aftermarket...

 

I removed that "helper spring" years ago on mine and put in a very light spring with just enough strength to return the pedal to the top position and no more.
Yes it increased pedal effort somewhat, but not to the point that I feel that I need logger boots just to operate the clutch.
I drive barefoot in the summer because I cannot operate the pedals at all while wearing flip-flops.
Not trouble pushing the pedal down at all.
.
The reason that I did that was to increase the amount of travel that the clutch master cylinder has, which in turn increases the amount of travel that the clutch slave cylinder has.
That has translated into much easier to engage the gears, shift, etc because the clutch is completely and I mean COMPLETELY disengaged.

 

I gotta chime in only to tell my experience with my LUK. I put it in shortly after 100k when I had fuel run down the back of the block and ruin the stock throw out bearing. I've got 150k on the LUK now and these are not always easy miles, but little towing. It still works perfectly with excellent ability to feather it when required. Never any weird feel to it. It firmed up a bit after the initial "honda" feel and my helper spring... uh.. just broke off and landed on my feet one day. The casting where it connects to the firewall is poorly designed and just broke. Not an easy work around there, not also not needed so it just sits on "the shelf."

When I put a new trans in, hopefully in the next 6 months, I'm keeping that LUK and putting in a new throw out bearing and a new kevlar pilot bushing.

I know Dan had problems with his and I have all the respect in the world for Dan's opinion, but I just can't see putting that factory roller pilot bearing back in. I'd like to see some more data or heck even some opinions on that one. For years it was automatically going kevlar, but now it's not so cut and dry. I'll measure my kevlar bushing after 160k or so and compare it to my new one when I get it and post the results.

Are there any other options besides the kevlar and factory? Seems like a great product if someone could take the factory design and take it to the next level to keep it from coming apart. There is no other lube than the initial greasing so maybe that's the limiting factor ultimately.

 

In 200k miles I've had my (300k mi) truck I've had (4) clutches. Stocker lasted 180k, but the pilot was FUBAR and that pedal pressure was a nightmare in traffic. I put about 100k miles on a LUK with no complaints and pulled trans to inspect pilot and change turbo up-pipes. (this clutch was a little 'jerky' at first, but gradually got better) Pilot was FUBAR and clutch disc worn out and springs falling out of the p-plate!! Since I was not planning to change clutch that day, I had to buy the only local clutch - autozone. I did have a kevlar bushing to install with it though! Unfortunately, the engine broke a few thousand miles later and thats when current clutch Southbend Con OFE went in. This clutch is ceramic on one side and semi-met on the other. Of the (4), this one is the 'grabbiest' - but its not uncomfortable.

I currently tow a 5ver and GCVW is about 22k lbs at least 50% of the miles I drive. My truck is not 'stock' and since my fuel of choice costs very little, my right foot is not connected to my wallet. I've always had manual trans and I consider myself to be very easy on clutches. I believe the loads I carry and the power I was making were at the limits of the LUK - leading to its 'early' demise (most consider 100k an 'acceptable' life )

I strongly recommend everyone with 100k on a stock pilot bearing at least pull and inspect it. I would NEVER EVER NEVER use that POS design stock pilot. The problem is the only failure mode is catastrophic failure. Like Dan said, there is little indication pilot has failed - but I did notice my truck really doesn't 'growl' idling in gear with kevlar bushing... IF your pilot bearing did fail, and the input shaft was damaged - the added play here will likely insure a short pilot bearing life.

 

Hello from Germany! Could you please elaborate on your fix a bit more? I have an ‘05 F-350 that was going through the same problem- clutch pedal HAD to be on the floor and would still drag when trying to get a gear from a stop. Put a South Bend master/slave cylinder and made no change. Put a South Bend dual disc in today as i thought the pressure plate was compromised. The clutch disc itself was done. So I’ve got new hydraulics and a brand new clutch kit including the fork and pivot, clutch still HAS to be pegged to the floor to get a gear.

 

I'll tag him for you to make sure he sees this. @Kwikkordead to the white courtesy phone please.

 

Only thing I can think of now is it's either air bubbles trapped in the master/slave assembly brake fluid or there is a lot of slop between the pedal and the master cylinder that would appear to be excessive free play at the top of the clutch pedal's range of motion or the clutch pedal isn't returning back up far enough to give enough pedal throw to disengage the clutch.

 

thanks so much for the response. Most of my experience is with Dodge trucks and Dentsides. Dents are all mechanical linkage, my Dodges had other issues but never a clutch. This thang is beating me! 😂 There does seem to be a fair amount of slop in the pedal travel, however I don’t have anything to compare with over here. Is there a fix to cure the pedal issues? I did read about the firewall brace from Liberator Performance, but they don’t have a website and annoyingly my job prevents me from using Facebook. I did order a heim for the rod.

 

It's late evening here right now, but I'll go out tomorrow and take a picture or two of my pedal assembly so you can have a point of reference. For now I can say that my clutch pedal comes to rest at a point that is higher up than the brake pedal does and has less than 10mm of free play before it starts to disengage the clutch. At a start from a dead stop the clutch will start to engage about halfway up. Currently running a single disc, basically stock, but rated as a Stage 2 clutch. I've had a lot of problems with the clutch on this truck, currently running clutch number 6 and this thing magaged to destroy a bronze bushing pilot bearing that everyone else has testified that it's nearly indestructable. Adding to that story, this is the only vehicle in my 50 years of driving experience that I have ever had to replace a clutch more than once. But I was running the drivetrain basically at the limits of it's rated design most of the time pulling a 5th wheel RV and then using a 25HP tow tune that enabled me to hardly ever have to shift down with the 4.88 gears. I think I was "within" the design limits, but just barely and the stock clutches I kept throwing at it just weren't up to the task.
Anyway, I don't think that is the problem that you are having. Get rid of that slop at the top of the pedal movement and I believe you will find a vast improvement.

 

Ok, here is what my pedal assembly looks like holding the phone camera next to the door jamb. Note the viewing angle is kind of line-of-sight from the door jamb to the accelorator pedal and the clutch pedal's resting position is higher up than the brake pedal.

And some YouTube videos of me operating the pedal to show the amount of free play at the top of the brake pedal's range of motion.

 

thanks again for the information and videos. I can easily deal with the pedal offset versus the wet sponge non disengaging pedal.😂 So all you’ve done to get that solid pedal is the heim joint and a lighter spring? Do you have the information for the replacement spring? I hope the input bearing supplied by SBC isn’t a failure point! After I got the transmission out (8 mos after I received it) I found out the input bearing isn’t the “standard” 6303 bearing, instead a 6205. Had ta get another clutch to get the right part as i don’t have a trusted machinist here to do the work. HOPEFULLY that won’t be a future issue!! The fact yours chopped a bronze unit is brutal!

 

I did the heim joint mod on mine year snack and it got rid of al the slop where slave cylinder connects to pedal. I also removed the helper spring all together in the pedal assembly years ago. With clutch I have in mine its a lighter pedal and with the spring in it would hold the pedal down and not come back up unless you pulled it back up. Took spring out and functions normal. Haven't had any other issues with it.

 

also worth a shot. Thanks for the reply BTW. The heim is on the way, I’m hopeful it is the answer.😂 I’m only asking this because I had a shattered disc done and crawling around under the dash requires me to remove the seat- does the pedal assembly need to come out to deal with the spring?

 

The spring just pops out without removing anything. To do the heim hoping you babe to drill a hole in the bedal for bolt around where the stock stud part is on it. Honestly it's been so long since I did it I can't rememebr if I was able to drill it with pedal in place of it I had to remove the clips on the pedal shaft and drop the pedal. It's been over 10 years since I did it.