New To Me 1996 F250. Clutch, Cruise, who knows what else

[dirtyb15]

Hi all, very new to the forums, looks like a ton of great info here! I just sold my old 2wd chevy 6.5 and ended up buying a 96 f250 7.3 4x4 ext cab. I just got it today so i am sure ill find some more things wrong with it but so far the list is adjust clutch (i hope), fix cruise control, and fix parking brake.

I have already been reading about the clutch and i am hoping it is just the bushing that went bad? The pedal literally has to be on the floor before the clutch will disengage, and it engages immediately once you lift the pedal. Pretty hard to drive as is. I also noticed when i press the clutch pedal, the brake pedal moves some too. Is this normal? (Ill get a better look tommorow).

No idea where to start with the cruise control, any common failure points on these?

Hoping the parking brake is just a broken cable.

Oh, also, is there supposed to be an indicator letting you know if you are in 2WD, 4WDhi, low, nuetral?

All for now, guess ill continue to read to figure out what all i should check on the truck.
Thanks!
Dave

[dieseltrucker]

Ill try to help as much as I can. First welcome to the 7.3L family. I sold a 95 2wd 2500 6.5L chevy back in '03 when I bought my stroker. A whole different ball park.

I would first rebush the pedal assembley and repair if needed. You can get a bushing kit for the pedals. I also had to weld a washer that had come loose making all the pedals move around.You will have to remove the assembley to do this.

As for the pivot arm for the clutch master cylinder pushrod....There are many options. you can research it on this forum. I cut the pin off and drilled it out and welded a bolt on it. then i found a plastic bushing to go around the bolt and allow the master cylinder pushrod to go over. Followed up with a fender washer and lock nut.

After these repairs then get under neath and watch the clutch slave cylinder movement while someone pushes the pedal down. If there is very little movement, you can replace the hydraulics(master cylinder-slave cylinder) with a prefilled system ( rock auto for about 120) and go from there. The last issue would be clutch...needs to be single mass conversion for cost and longativity.

I actually have a friend with this identical issue with a 95 truck he bought 6 months ago. He has been driving it like that...were going thought above steps when he has time.

[dieseltrucker]

Emergency brake. If its a northern climate inspect cable to see if there rusted. No real weird issues. Inspection should solve that. A must with a stick.

Cruise...could be switches on the wheel. I would check switch on brake master cylinder first. Make sure the brake lights work.

There is an indicator along the bottom of the instument cluster to indicate 4x4 but thats it. could be a bad bulb or the switch on the lever.

[dirtyb15]

Thanks for the advice.

Working on the clutch now. The bushing is definitely shot so ill try that first.

I noticed on the e-brake, the cable is intact and not rusted, it is just very very loose. Trying to figure out how to tighten it up now. EDIT: after reading looks like there is no adjustment so either cable is streched, or something going on in the drum.

Ill check brake switch/lights next.

Im sure ill be posting back quite a bit, thanks again for all the advice so far.

[Paul H]

The brake cable may not be attached in the rear drums if it is that loose. The cruse will not work if you have the third brake light out on the back of the cab or if the emergency brake peddle is not up to ativate the brake light switch. There is also a cruse disconnect switch on the front of the master cylinder as mentioned before. This tells the cruse to disconnect if you hit the brakes and that switch could be bad.

You want to make sure you replace the duel mass fly wheel if it still has one with a solid and the correct clutch. If the duel mass goes bad it can be devistating when going down the road.

[dirtyb15]

Well, the i replaced the bushing and did the drill stop mod and that really made the clutch much better. However, looks like it has been metal on metal for quite some time and the post the bushing goes on is warn pretty bad so there is still some play. Does anyone know where i can get that part?

I also noticed while i was under there that the brake switch wires have been hacked in order to install a brake controller. Looks like two wires are cut and I can't tell what they originally went to. Does anyone have a pinout of the brake switch wiring?

Finally got to drive the truck some today, i absolutely love it. I used to have to downshift in my 6.5 diesel going up hills in my neighbor and this truck accelerates up the hills even in a high gear . I did noticed the truck seemed to shake a little right around 2800-3000 rpm's. I usually shift much earlier than that but wondering what could be causing that?

Anyways, hopefully i can tackle the e-brake this weekend. Thanks again for all of the suggestions so far. Happy Turkey Day everyone!

[dieseltrucker]

You can just get thepiece with the pin from lmc truck.

Ya. Check all light bulbs including third brake light.

A good inspection of brakes will determine if cables are stretched. Your on the right track.

[badbart]

If you still have cruise control issues check the vacumm hose on the drivers side fenderwell down low, near the engine. There is a plastic manifold that the hose plugs in to. Mine had a broken fitting on the manifold but I was able to use Gorilla glue and fix it.