500 Miles on a Re-built A4LD Trany?

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500 Miles on a Re-built A4LD Trany?

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Ford Forum >> Ford Trucks, Ford Vans & Ford SUV's >> Ford Ranger >> 500 Miles on a Re-built A4LD Trany?

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500 Miles on a Re-built A4LD Trany? - 2/18/2005 8:02:44 PM

giczei

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Joined: 2/18/2005
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Here is what the re-build entailed: two friction plates within the forward clutch pack were worn to the metal. I replaced the 5 friction plates and steel plates with ones from an inexpensive re-build kit. At the time of the re-build the clearance between the pressure plate and retaining ring was less than 2 mm (about 1.8 or 1.9 mm) and although the ATSG book shows 5 or 6 friction plates and steel plates can be used I chose to use 5 like it had before. It was within the clearance range specified in the manual of 1.4 to 2.1 mm. And, I don't think another friction plate and steel plate would fit.

After 500 miles my son's 1990 Ford Ranger 4x2 2.9L stopped going forward. Reverse still worked. So, I pulled the transmission again. When I pulled out the forward clutch I heard "ding..ding" and knew I didn't put that in like that. Here, the clearance between the pressure plate and retaining ring is now 5.5 mm. That is well out of clearance and probably the reason there is no forward gear anymore. Right?

None of the new friction plates were worn down to the metal. But, the middle ones were well worn. Is there a quality concern when it comes to re-build friction plates? Should I have tried to buy quality friction plates instead?

Now, to get it back into tolerance: I could add the 6th friction plate and steel plate (FYI, a 7th would not fit). But, when adding the 6th plates there is still too much clearance. That reduces it to about 3.149 mm.

The ATSG manual indicates I could buy a thicker snap ring. The one I have is about 1.73 mm and a 2.44 mm is available. But, even if I bought the 2.44 mm snap ring that would still leave a 2.439 mm of clearance which is still over the maximum 2.1 mm clearance, and beyond the 1.5 mm clearance I would like to have.

What should I do about the clearance problem? What do pros do? Should I replace some of the more worn middle friction plates with newer ones to get a clutch pack with a combination of older and newer that gets me up to proper clearance?

And, do experienced transmission people re-pack the clutch to almost no clearance to compensate for this kind of wear?