assist me before I get in over my head on a clutch job!

From: dye@chicagonet.net
Date: Tue Nov 09 1999 - 15:05:50 EST

A friend who knows little about cars has told me of his '92 Dakota 3.9
V6 2WD. It seemed to be having clutch problems, and the dealer wanted
something like $750 to fix it. I have located and joined this list in
hopes of "looking before I leap" and try to fix it for him myself.

I was able to drive it by starting it in first and reverse gears, and
got it up onto my flatbed trailer for the trip to my garage. The truck
starts and runs fine in neutral, but when the clutch is depressed
a buzzing sound lets me know that at least there is a major problem
with the throwout bearing. Fully depressing the clutch just generates
this noise; no dis-engagement of the clutch is evident. The "AP" slave
cylinder that is external seems to tighten up when the pedal is depressed
and there is fluid in the master, so I don't think that is the problem.

My real question is this: is pulling the 5 speed on this truck a 1 person
operation? Can I do it without disconnecting the exhaust Y-pipe from
the manifolds (it crosses over directly behind the bellhousing hump;
is there room to take the bellhousing back and up a tad to clear the pipe?)?
It looks like all the hardware on the manifold is rusted pretty tight and
will break if I try to remove it. The trans itself looks pretty big as
well (although it looks very similar in design to one I took off of a
'81 Datsun truck for my datsun 510, with the bellhousing being part
of the transmission case)...can one person handle the job? Any hints
on getting the driveshaft/carrier bearing off?

Any special tools required? Should I go out and get a Haynes or Chilton's
manual before attempting this? Any other "gotcha's"?

Thanks for your time; It is up on jackstands in my garage all ready to go,
just waiting for the list's wisdom before I dig in! I'm in the Chicago
O'hare area if anyone wants to give a hand...

--Ken 

-- 
Ken R. Dye                             '67 Bonneville ragtop   "Juan": suncar
UNIX geek kicking around for a job...  '98 1LE Z28              "???": junkcar
www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Track/8746 '82 Chevy Z28            "Jay": racecar
dye@chicagonet.net or dye@stg.com      '78 454 ¾ ton Suburban "Brian": towtruck

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