[Believer45]

About 8 hours working total (including instruction time for my son) plus tool runs and such. I got to spend some quality time with my 15 year old son as well. It is pretty cool to have a son who is MAN help instead of boy help (6'2, 185# but then Dad is 6'6 and 295 or so). I have been nursing my transmission for four years (pedal box has a little play, rebuild will be done soon). Anyone waiting or hesitating about a LUK (or similar) conversion one word of advice - go ahead and do it. Pedal effort is cut to less than half, engagement is a couple inches off the floor instead of 1/2" into the floor mat. My only problem now is I have no excuse for Lovely Wife not to drive the truck. She tried it out this evening (she is one of the best drivers of any gender I have ever met) and was impressed. First time in 100,000 miles anyone but me has driven the truck even an inch.

Nobody outside the family drives her still though. I am more than happy to lend a truck and a driver, just like I am more than happy to lend tools along with the mechanic.

Dave / Believer45

 

[fromoo]

great to hear that it all went well let us know how it hold up i know that when i put my luk in it was a night and day differnce in cluth pedal effort /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rickygasser]

Does anyone have a write-up? I would like to see how much effort is involved before buying a new clutch. If it is too hard, I'll have to budget professional installation

 

[MarkEkberg]

It is not hard at all. You just need a tany jack and a extra set of hands for the heavy moving. When I did mine it took me over 10 hrs, but I was by myself, didn't have a good jack, and had never done something that large before

 

[Dr.Evil]

If Your familiar with clutch installations at all a LUK into a manual trans PSD is no different.....the parts are bigger & HEAVIER. The OEM flywheel is something like 85# and the LUK is 55 or 60#. Rent a good transmission jack and have a helper around. Son & I did Mine about 3 yrs ago in a day including straight piping the exhaust. We kept the transmission & T-case together and supported the back of the engine with a 2X4 & bottle jack. We used my floor jack under the T-case, the transmission jack under the ZF.. We pulled the top cover with the shifter off the top of the ZF and just removed the T-case lever from the shift mechanism and left the lever in the shift boot. We installed a new master & slave cylinder & clutch fork at the same time. Took a while to bleed the system but wasn't a bad job. The LUK kit is complete with T/O bearing, pilot bearing, flywheel, clutch plate and all new bolts for pressure plate & flywheel and alignment tool. Even has grease for the input shaft and clutch fork. My rear main seal was dry as a bone so I didn't R&R the rear seal but it's a perfect time for the job if Yours has any signs of leakage.

 

[Believer45]

It really wasn't bad at all. I had an inexpensive transmission jack I bought at Harbor Freight, had I rented one with the adjustments available to line it up on a good one things would have gone better but there were none available. I have done transmissions, clutches and such before. All the lifting was by hand with the exception of the transmission itself and was pretty easy. I would suggest a pair of fingerless mechanics gloves for handling the flywheel, those gear teeth are machined to a pretty sharp edge, as the nicks on my hands will testify. Local discount stores sell them for $5 a pair (and I have LARGE hands).

If you are somewhat mechanically inclined it is a rewarding job. Ford wanted $2300 five years ago, I did it for half that, upgraded the clutch; got to keep a transmission jack, a torque wrench and a bolt extractor set plus I paid for a used tranny to boot.

Dave / Believer45

 

[93turbo'd_animal]

I've done 3 so far its fairly straight forward just like any other clutch install except heavier took about 4 hours on each one 2 hours out and 2 hours back in

 

[arizonaonion]

Pedal effort is cut to less than half...

Not trying to be rude, but has anyone put a scale on their pedal after the install? With a spacer to clear the brake pedal, my pedal effort on a stock clutch is in the neighborhood of 60~65 lb.

Bill

 

[Patrick Feeley]

I can't say that I've measured it, but the difference is truly night and day. The SBC Con-O pedal effort feels like the one in my stock 1970 VW Bug! Cheers!

 

[Believer45]

Not trying to be rude, but has anyone put a scale on their pedal after the install? With a spacer to clear the brake pedal, my pedal effort on a stock clutch is in the neighborhood of 60~65 lb.

I am just going by my foot-o-meter. I seriously thought I had forgotten to reinstall the slave cylinder on the transmission the first time I went to start it. I can sit in traffic with the weight of my foot (granted a size 14 with a 300 lb driver behind it) holding the clutch in. Lovely Wife was amazed as well. I do not have a way to get actual force required.

BTW, I got my "foot-o-meter" off the shelf right next to the "butt-o-meter" many folks use to judge performance, accuracy can be taken with a grain of salt.

Dave / Believer45