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LUK clutch blew, stranded......

Spent a good chunk of the day in the garage. I'm about 82.7% done :laugh:. I would have finished but wife and baby needed me. Maybe on the road tomorrow.
 
Did a lot of misc odds and ends that I had been putting off. It will ride and feel like a different car.
 
Napa axle seal was perfect! It went in so nice. Set it on the transmission in the seal hole, put a block of wood on it, nice and easy. Few good taps and good to go :cool:.

Clutchnet went in with no issues. These discs are thick as hell compared to stock :eek:.


Clutchnet.jpg






Would have finished today until I had a brand new wheel bearing fall apart while installing the knuckle :nonono:. F'n junk parts these days and it's really testing my patience. I'm about to put a sledge hammer through the roof of my car...... :mad: :nonono:

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svttour said:
let me guess you bought them at your local parts store and they gave you automatic ones.... guess what they did that here too... you can only get mtx output seals online.
Click to expand...

NAPA can get them, they come in a green box. the part number starts with an f, let me check on it....

FWIW though, the ones I have now are motor craft and came with a bunch of other stuff from Minnesota...

[edit] never mind, looks like you got them from Napa in the end...

what brand was that wheel bearing so we can never buy one ever?
 
Just tinkering tonight and decided to throw the ps front wheel on because that corner is all done..... as I'm tightening the wheel studs I notice the wheel is flopping around like a fish out of water!?!? Wtf? I checked this hub more than twice for grinding or play and no signs until now :mad:. This too is a National brand from oreilys from 2 years ago, but only has 7k miles on it :nonono:........ this could add another day to getting this back together.
 
I would hope not. Then my rear hubs would be bad too, right :shrug:.


Actually, when I did the fronts, I had the flange (that holds the studs) pinched in the vice when I tapped the studs out with the hammer. There wasn't any direct blows that the bearing took the brunt of, but on the rears the bearings did.




Based on how my front tires are wore so bad on the inside and how the car was being yanked around on the highway, I'm sure both bearings were done already.
 
if ther bearings are failing that quickly it might be time for new hubs all together. iirc, they where available complete with bearing from Ford.
 
I have replaced both hub assemblies once already for sure. One hub came from beyondloaded's car and another came from a post98. Sure, they are both used hubs and maybe they were roasted once with bad bearings. They both lasted for at least 4 years before the bearings needed to be replaced. 2 years ago (7k miles only) the passenger front knuckle had a National bearing pressed in. I would say the last 2-3k miles is when I noticed the car drifting around on the highway so that National bearing really only lasted maybe 4k miles. :nonono:


I guess we will see what happens this round with 2 new Ford bearings.
 
Honestly, I would just suck it up and get two new complete Ford hubs and install those. Peace of mind in my book.
 
^ the parts are at the dealer, the work is being done, the National brand bearings are going back. I have over $200 tied up in this with parts and labor already until any refund comes back to me.

I'll start sourcing out new knuckles to have here as back ups. It's easier to tell people how to spend their money when it's not coming out of your pocket and with the holidays, this is the worst time to be pulling funds for this. Good suggestions and advice from you guys and I appreciate it. :cool:
 
blu_fuz said:
^ the parts are at the dealer, the work is being done, the National brand bearings are going back. I have over $200 tied up in this with parts and labor already until any refund comes back to me.

I'll start sourcing out new knuckles to have here as back ups. It's easier to tell people how to spend their money when it's not coming out of your pocket and with the holidays, this is the worst time to be pulling funds for this. Good suggestions and advice from you guys and I appreciate it. :cool:
Click to expand...

Oh trust me, I know how that is. I was in the same boat when the clutch blew up on me. I have found out though that sometimes it is just best to get the quality part once and be done with it for a long time vs getting something cheaper and dealing with issues down the line. You can always scrap the Escape for money. :)
 
I actually did buy the best quality part that was in stock in 3 different cities around where I live. Those National brand bearings are over $50 each with a 3yr warranty. I wasn't going cheap by any means because I hate doing things over. The only cheap part that I recently put on was the Dorman 4 bolt control arms, and the arm isn't junk yet, but the ball joints were and those are now replaced with lifetime replacement MOOG.


If these hubs are finally just bad, then these Ford bearings will be gone in no time, but at least then I know and I will buy new hubs and maybe they will warranty the bearing and labor for me at the dealer.


About clutches, that's a shot in the dark because they almost all fail because of manufacturing not because of wear. I had a brand new OEM Ford "luk" clutch kit in my car. So people say "buy OEM", "buy motorcraft", "buy Ford", it doesn't matter because if it's made like s••t, with s••t, then your stuck with s••t. Even the factory installed clutch I have sitting here pulled from a parts car, has all the spring windows stretched open and the springs are just barely hanging on in there waiting to fall out.
 
I don't know, it all seems to be a luck of the draw, I had a wheel bearing fail on my old Contour at around 90K roughly 2 years after I bought the car, got a new Motorcraft unit from Steve or Bill (it was a long time ago haha) and replaced rotors/pads with it and had my uncle Bob replace it with me (Ford mechanic for 41 years). A year and a half later, that bearing failed. I replaced it with a National, this time no brake work (was at college and had to drive the car for a while before I could replace the first one, second one got replaced within a week of its first troubling noise) and again with my uncle Bob because he had a press, that one lasted until the car was wrecked so probably about 4 years and 40K on the National.
 
Oh god our cars are getting "that old", where the only available parts are marketed specifically to the fry cook at Jack in the Box who could only afford a Ford Contour....

fun trivia, what celebrity drove a ford contour before they where famous?
 
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I wish this pic was bigger. I'm assuming the construction of an LUK disk is simliar to this, I had no idea there are so many parts that make up a sprung hub clutch disk. I wonder how much stronger they are making the interior parts of the disks when upgrading the friction material?
 
Cool picture! I didn't know about all those pieces either. Tons of stuff that could fail. Makes me think maybe the non-spring hub is the way to go :ponder:..... next time :laugh:.
 
I'm beginning to think that way too, fortunately I'm not in need of a clutch yet but I have a feeling it will be something needed in the next couple of years.

Yeah man, hopefully next time for you is in the distant future, the very distant future.

I think I have a sprung disk hanging around, I kind of want to dismantle it and see exactly what would need to fail in order to let the center break free.
 
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