Clutch Problems

abremer · Post by **abremer** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 4:43 am

I have to put in a new clutch in my 1986 BII 4x4 2.9L because it was making all kinds of racket and sparks were even coming out the bottom right under the flywheel area. So I took the drive shafts off, followed the books, and removed the T-Case and Transmission. Then I removed the Clutch Plate and Clutch Disk.

The springs are all kinds of loose within there housings in the old clutch disk and you can see where the springs were grinding and scraping on something. I noticed that each of the facings on the new clutch disk are .150 thick and the old one is .100 thick with its facings down to what looks like metal. Also, the bearing in the middle of the old disk moves back and forth...I guess it's all worn-out!

The flywheel doesn't look scorched, groved, or warped so I would like to put it back in without resurfacing it, ya think that's cool?

I bought the clutch kit (Borg-Warner #90234) for $125.00 and I'm ready to put it all back together but I wanted all of your opinions and thoughts about what I should or am doing.

The clutch kit came with this pretty cool little manual called, 'Professional Installation Tips' and it stresses to find what originally caused the clutch to fail. Like detectives, maybe all of you can read this and put it all together and let me know if the clutch disk just was old and worn-out or other things led to its failure. Here are some of the problems I found while disassembling the transmission and removing the clutch:

1) When removing the starter for the clutch job, I found that the lower casted bolt hole broke right off of the starter body and you can see where there is almost 1/8 of an inch worn off of the tip of each gear. It didn't seem loose enought to move around but it didn't take much to loosen the upper bolt.

When I first got the BII I had to look at the starter because one time it made all kinds of grinding noise. I found that the starter was missing the lower bolt and the upper bolt was real loose and the starter was about to come right off! I guess that at that time the starter gear made contact with the flywheel as it turned and that's when the gear tips were grinded away by the flywheel. It always started normally after I reinstalled it the first time. The ring gear on the flywheel seems to show very little if any wear from the starter gear incident so I'm going to go with it.

2) When removing the transmission bell-housing from the engine I noticed that all bolts were totally loose! The thing could have been vibrating back and forth for all I know. I could unscrew all the bolts by hand! Maybe the dude who last did a clutch job forgot to tighten them.

3) This is the weirdest one, the old clutch disk is different than the new disk. Should they be the same dimensions or can different clutch disk manufacturers have different size springs and widths of clutch disk bodys? They both are 8 7/8's in diameter but the springs on the old disk are much bigger in diameter than the springs of the new disk. Also, you can see where the springs have been ground by rubbing against something and one of the old clutch disk spring housing is cracked and the bearing in the middle slides around all over the place...it's just all beat-up and worn-out.

4) I just got the BII a month or so ago and didn't check the transfer case or the transmission fluid levels right after purchase. When I removed the transfer case, there really wasn't much fluid that drained out the back end of the transmission while it was tilted. Could not enough fluid in the T-Case or Transmission ruin the clutch?

Well, that's it. What caused so much damage to the clutch disk? The loose bell-housing? The wrong clutch disk? Anyway, I'll let ya'll know how it runs when I get it back together. By the way, how much and what type of gear oil or trans. fluid do I put in the Transfer Case and Transmission?

Your replies would be greatly appreciated...
al

Post by **Nobody** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:15 am

First, make sure you resurface the flywheel. Might be better off buying a reman somewhere that already has a new ring gear pressed on.

Sounds like the springs in the clutch disc let go. This isn't uncommon with clutches, depending on how they are driven, or if they have any clutch chatter. Make sure you resurface the flywheel. The new clutch is probably a different manufactuer. Probably nothing to worry about.

Loose starter bolts is somewhat common. I remember stopping at a store one time after a long day of wheelin. When I went to leave, I was surprised to find my starter on top of my front axle

Never hurts to check for loose bolts once in awhile. That includes bellhousing and everything else.

Transmission takes gear oil, and the transfer case takes dexron. Check your manual. Low fluid shouldn't have affected your clutch in any way.

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:39 am

I'm with nobody, you need to have the flywheel resurfaced when installing a new clutch, no matter if it "looks good" or not. it is just cheap insurence. for some reason the BII's have had more problems with starter bolts and starter position then I would really care to see. my 85 would grind everytime you started it.....tried shiming it, different types of starters, everything I knew to do. what was even funnier was the flywheel never showed any evidence of wear???? I would say that if you resurface the flywheel and check the teeth and everything looks good you will be fine. on the differential fluid just fill untill the oil comes out the fill hole and you are done. I can't remember off the top of my head how much it takes. same for the transfercase but with tranny fliud.