Progress Thread 2004 Comp Orange GT

[ctandc]

Only had a few minutes to mess with the Gyraline - there's a learning curve, but first impression is I like it. A lot.

Got sidetracked from the alignment issue with a nagging throwout / release bearing noise. Replaced the clutch cable when I got the car a couple of years ago. Old cable was stretched. It already and aftermarket quandrant and firewall adjuster. It's been fine with an adjustment now and again. Recently the bearing started to make some noise.

Even after clutch adjustment - still noise - Only with clutch engaged (pedal up) - at idle I can hear a slight chirp from the bearing. Almost ANY amount of of pressure on the pedal, noise goes away. Adjustment checked / rechecked. At 117K miles (105K actual - last owner drove 48K miles with the speedo fast because of the 4.10 gears) I figure it's about time regardless.

22 years of service is pretty good.

So I started shopping around for a clutch. Many everyone has an opinion LOL.

4.6 2v, Bassani headers / exhaust, JLT air intake, C&L plenum, Accufab Throttle body, 4.10 gears. Stock clutch is still fine - just the bearing noise. No need for a monster twin disc setup so I went with OEM equivalent.

Ended up with the Perfection Clutch / Zoom clutch kit, Ford Performance clutch fork, release bearing, release bearing, pivot ball and a LUK OEM replacement flywheel. (Only place that could even GET to resurfacing the OEM flywheel within a week or two wanted $90. new flywheel was less than $150 with expedited shipping).

All in for @ $600 - all new parts including a new rear main seal, since I'll be in there anyway.

 

[squeak93]

Clutches for the most part are very subjective to user feel and preference. When comparing similar "power" handling for each model/line of course.

 

[ctandc]

Started the clutch job a few days ago. I can drive my wife's car if needed, so no need to thrash all night. Spent most of a day off simply cleaning and organizing my shop. I HATE looking for a certain tool and it's not where it's supposed to be, simply because I didn't put it up after or in the middle of a projects. It's part of the reason I have multiples of certain things - I get aggravated looking and order another.

Got the workbench cleared off and clutch parts waiting patiently.

Got the car up on jack stands and finally started tearing into it. The Bassani headers, X-pipe etc have been on this car since '05. I knew I'd be in for a battle getting this stuff off. Didn't want to just cut everything off and then weld it all back. After dealing with some stubborn band clamps, got the x / mid pipe out

Got wrapped up in some other stuff around the house, and was working on the car in spurts. Long story not so long, ended up buying a cheap cordless Amazon impact. I have a monster air impact, that I've had for years, and I'd been contemplating a Milwaukee 1/2" - since I've had a 1/4" impact driver forever (and use the hell out of it for just about everything) plus drill etc - so getting something that used the same M18 batteries / charger seemed to make the most sense. $250+ for the bare tool, then seeing reviews etc. Never made a decision. Ended up watching a random Youtube video where these guys test impacts (Big names) that's basically all they do. They were joking about this cheap Amazon tool and they tried it - and suddenly they weren't joking anymore.

Out of curiosity I checked it out on Amazon and somehow I had a $50 credit - so this thing cost less than $40 and it came overnight. Figured at worse, I'd try it and return it if it sucked.

Case, two batteries, charger. Batteries came charged. This thing rips. Lugs, chassis bolts etc - it's made be question if things were torqued correctly in the first place. So back at it.

The other morning decided to utilize my 6 ton stands in front and my big 12 ton truck stands on the rear axle tubes and got the GT up higher

So I'm humming along, unplugging harnesses, routing them out of my way, drained the trans (fluid change was recent so I saved it for reuse) dropped the trans mount, got all the hard bellhousing bolts out etc. I get the trans jack under the trans and realize it's not coming out with the RH / passenger header installed.

Bad pic - but these headers were originally installed as separate pipes. it routes around the bellhousing. NO WAY the bellhousing can back enough to clear the Pressure plate to drop down. After reconsidering my life choices - I decided to stop procrastinating and drop the K member - it's not like it takes a tong of time.

Tearing suspension out (control arms, balljoints, outer / inner tie rods, struts, springs, brakes all replaced back in '23 after I bought the car).

I should have taken the time to paint those parts when they were new. Three years of daily driving. Rinse repeat on the other side, got the rack out and zip tied it to the swaybar out of the way, supported the engine and out it came.

Here's what I'm dealing with - bad pic - as far as clearances to get headers bolts on the RH side

After figuring out the bolts were 5/16 12 point ???? - was able to get them out without too much drama. Mainly shorty / ratchet flex head wrenches and sneaking 1/4" sockets / extensions through certain spots. If I had a superpower, I might waste it on being able to make my arms super long and super skinny and triple jointed at will.

More room. With only the support bar supporting the engine now, with the K member out, I decided as an extra precaution to support the engine with a floor jack / 4x4 under the oil pan. Transmission on trans jack, trans mount dropped, last two BH bolts out, it started coming back. Then I realized the LH O2 sensor in the header collector was in the way. Turns out I already had a replacement on hand for that, so I cut the harness and mangled it enough on top (no room to get impact or even double wrench / O2 sensor socket on it now) to get the trans back and down to clear the tunnel.

Trans it out. Not quite enough room to get the trans out while on the trans jack - and don't think I really care. I can move it out of my way and it only needs the fork / pivot ball / release bearing installed.

The clutch is ALL original. 22 + years old. Lived with 400HP (Vortec) for 40k+ miles back in the day. Currently at a tick over 100K. Still in great shape. The release bearing? It was SHOT. I got to this thing just in time, I don't know how it didn't blow apart.

Some wear on pivot ball. But pressure plate, clutch (OEM Ford pt# intact + Valeo stamping) and flywheel in good shape to be honest. The pilot bearing? Not so much.

They put the wrong flywheel on my car - my car is orange.

Rear main seal is actually dry - but around the plate? No so much. I already planned on new RMS, so I'll clean it all up and install new.

Went to get my pilot bearing puller - and the narrow teeth - one of them is broke off. Wondering if I lent it to someone. Didn't want to borrow a tool from the neighbor, it was late, I wanted to get it out before I knocked off, so grabbed a hot dog bun, cut the handle off an extra alignment tool I had and a few minutes later it was out.

Inside of that bearing was rough, even before the addition of bread LOL.

Did get the K member cleaned up and any bare metal / primer or surface rust spots, I hit it with some rust converter paint I had laying around. Might rattle can it black if I feel like it.

Hopefully get back it tonight........

 

[gkomo]

Holy hell thats a lot of work!

 

[ctandc]

Holy hell thats a lot of work!

Wasn't as bad as most make it out to be. I was taking my time. I get aggravated when I have to hurry. BUT if I HAD TO - if I was JUST dropping the K member out in probably an hour or so? It's honestly not hard if fasteners cooperate.

- wheels
- hang calipers
- rotors
- outer tie rods
- sway bar bushing
- struts
- ABS sensor
- Springs
- Rack and pinion (hung from swaybar with zip ties)
- Motor mount nuts
- (8) K frame bolts

Don't think I missed anything.

Honestly? After doing this - when I yank the engine in this thing? I'm dropping the entire drivetrain out the bottom. Remove K Member, disconnect wiring harness / hoses, drain cooling system, rig something up on the ground, lower car, remove engine support bar.

 

[squeak93]

Dropping out the bottom is great as long as you can get the car high enough to get it out. Can always be like the f body guys and stand it up on rear end with a ghetto winch setup. I prefer stabbing engine, trans, headers all in one shot through the top. Takes a few hands but is done in 5 minutes.

 

[ctandc]

So let me catch this thread up. I was able to get out to the shop hit or miss - with work and other stuff. With the K Member out there is so much room. I was fighting the urge to make a big list of "Might as well since I've got the K member off". Not now.

Got the K member dropped, cleaned up, treated any posts of surface rust / seams etc. Now onto the RH header.

This is what access is like - with the K member out

Keep in mind, the Bassini were built as separate primary pipes that could be bolted in place one at a time, for ease of installation, then a slip on collector (with a recommended application of high heat RTV on the ends of the pipes themselves) then collector is held in place by the pictured bolt that goes through a tab on the collector itself and a tab welded on one of the primaries. Nothing wrong with any of that - but they've been in place for 20 years.

The idea of trying to get those primaries loose from that collector - much less with the header installed on the car - then expecting them all to go back together without a fight? LMAO.

So even with the K member out, access was a bit tight, but doable after figuring out which way to attack each bolt. These were 5/16 head 12pt bolts. Someone was nice enough to install anti-seize way back when, so once I was able to use a combination of drill attachment wire brushes / flex heads etc to clean the bolt heads up, I was able to get to most bolts with a stubby ratcheting 5/16, a flex head ratcheting 5/16 wrench or a long skinny 5/16 ratcheting wrench w/o a lot of drama.

Last bolt - top side rear most cylinder was the last to come out - once I figured out the angle it wasn't horrible.

And it's out

Corrosion was all just surface. I debated replacing them while I had everything apart....and the choices of headers for the 4.6 in this platform isn't great. $1600+ for BBK + midpipe, Kooks and American Racing make them too. Right under $2K for those setups. I even briefly considered just buying replacement exhaust manifolds. This is a daily driver after all. Turns out - good luck finding a new LH exhaust manifold for the round port 4.6 2v w/ EGR. I couldn't find one. Found part #'s - not stocked anywhere. Had a friend check to see if he could order it direct from the supposed supplier - their response was backordered w/ no known date of resupply. So I figured I'd clearance the header enough so the trans could clear in the future.

Anyway, back to the reason this all started in the first place. The noisy throwout bearing. With the engine supported by the support bar, and I also added a floor jack with a 4x4 on the oil pan - just to stabilize it a bit more, the trans came out without a lot of fight.

Honestly not in bad shape at all. 100k / 20 years.

Flywheel wasn't in horrible shape either. No real hot spots, no cracks etc.

Even the OEM clutch looked good. Marked / stamped Valeo.
Makes sense - it wasn't slipping or anything of the sort. Just a throwout / release bearing getting louder and louder regardless of clutch cable adjustment.

Rear main seal appears dry - but since I'm in here, it will get done. Going with a Fel Pro PTFE. I've had good luck with them in the past. Once you get past the idea of using ANY lube on the crank / seal or outer side. I read an entire tech paper from an engineer talking about PTFE seals. Turns out it needs clean, DRY, crank surface. The PTFE also needs to sit around that crank after install for at least several hours - without being run. Apparently it conforms to the crank and on first start up, a bit of PTFE 'burns' into the surface of the crank and that's what seals it up. These are apparently hugely successful in high mile / high maintenance situations (semi trucks / heavy equipment etc where downtime means $ lost)

It did appear some oil is getting past the OEM RTV on the RMS plate. I'll pull the plate, install the new seal in the plate using the install tool, then work it over the crank when I go to install the plate.

Oh that throwout bearing?

Wish you could hear this picture. "Clack Clack Clack" - honestly surprised this thing didn't come apart.

That doesn't look good.

Yeah - I'm glad I decided to tear into this thing regardless.

 

[ctandc]

Time to get the pilot bearing out. This wasn't in the best shape either. No worries, I just spent a few days cleaning / organizing the shop so I could find all the tools / stuff I need without a lot of drama. Grabbed my bearing puller - went to flip the jaws around and turns out one of the narrow jaws (the size I need to fit in the pilot bearing) is broken off. I don't remember that. Lovely. Okay plan B. I ran across a spare clutch alignment tool, so I cut the loop end of it off, then went in the house and got a hot dog bun.

Pack the bearing cavity with bread, hammer the tool, pack it again, rinse repeat until

Got the RMS plate out, cleaned it up, installed the new seal, RTV - installed. Got the new flywheel installed and torqued.

I must be the only one who spends time cleaning up threads?

New clutch / pressure plate installed

New clutch fork, pivot ball, throwout bearing installed - everything greased up and trans is ready to go back in.

Here's where it got fun. Using an engine support bar to support the engine and drop the K Member is one thing. But doing that when the transmission is out adds another dimension. So lining everything back up for install involved using the floor jack / wood on the oil pan, engine support bar and trans jack. After a game of Jenga / Tetris - got it lined up - left the trans in 5th gear so I could move the output shaft to line the splines up if needed - one little turn and it slid together so easy I thought something broke LOL

Got a couple of bellhousing bolts in, got the trans in place and bolted up the trans mount so it would help support everything.

After some work with a torch and a long piece of pipe and a hammer - I tweaked the header just enough so it looks like the trans will clear coming out without too much drama. Then with new Ford OEM exhaust gaskets, new header bolts (flange bolts with hex heads so I can use an open end wrench if needed) started installing the header.

Ended up needing to rethread / clean up a few threads in the exhaust bolt holds in the head.

Turns out metal has a memory. So it was trial and error to see which bolts needed to be installed first to hang the header to it would all line up. When I got frustrated, walked away, did something else, and started again. One of those things was getting the old crusty exhaust bolts out of the bolt on collectors. Impact and heat got all but one.

The Bassani setup is that there are welded nuts on the header collector and their bolt on collector extensions use a sort of stud arrangement to bolt to this. Got new bolts / washers, but the one stud that broke? Even after welding a nut onto it - it wouldn't come off and ended up breaking off inside the nut. This was on the LH header that was still installed -so not a lot of room. Ended up using a combo of a Dremel metal cut off wheel, grinding wheel and a chisel to get that nut loose from the header, grinded the welded smooth and I'll use a new bolt / nuts / washers.

Finally got the header installed

Got the starter installed, motor mount bolted back up and started the K member install.

I don't recommend anyone doing this by themselves - especially if the trans was out too. Got the K member lined up with the trans jack, and it bottomed out on the motor mount studs. Ended up realizing the entire engine needed to come up. So using the engine support bar to bring the engine up slowly, then check clearance, back and forth, got it all lined up and bolted in.

Then it was just cleaning up hardware / old loctite etc and getting the front suspension back together. Forgot again to order the MM spring install tool. Prybar and dead blow to the rescue.

Got that all wrapped up, retaped routed some of the O2 harness. Dropped the trans off the mount to get the top two bellhousing bolts - and surprisingly they went in and even lined up with the metal O2 harness bracket. But I did sacrifice a wobbly socket to the cause. I used a piece of paper shop towel to hold the bolt so I could get it started, since I can't get my hand up there, and it worked great. Too great. The fit was so tight when I tried to work the socket off the bolt, the extensions came out but the socket stayed.

Oh well. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will fall out in the shop. Got the driveshaft in, got the exhaust bolts up with new hardware, fluid back in the trans / shifter etc. Got the clutch cable installed, adjusted the firewall adjuster all the way in, adjust the cable itself at the fork...Did a once over and fired it up.

Starter made a weird noise NOT a grinding - and it started immediately. But I'm guessing the OEM starter didn't like being disturbed after 20 years. Replacement on the way. Exhaust appears good to. Clutch engages good etc. No fluid leaks so far.

Took a quick test drive - holy crap - the clutch has never been this easy and smooth. I almost feel like I installed a hydraulic setup LOL.