Well, I just had a local mechanic replace my clutch in my 90 22RE 4WD.
He replaced everything except the pilot bearing, he said it spun freely and without noise so it was fine. My truck is still kind of hard to shift into first from a stop and second just won't go in sometimes unless I give it gas. Downshifting to third will grind sometimes if I don't baby it. The truck only has 97K miles on it and I just put redline MT90 in the tranny. All the above grinding/won't go into gear issues are alleviated if I give the motor gas then it will slide right into gear no problem.

We replaced the slave cylinder but not the master he said that was fine as well. It will shift through all the gears no problem with the motor off or with the motor on and the truck not moving.

 

I dont think the pilot bearing will cause shifting problems. All you will hear is a noise when the clutch isnt pressed. lol.

When i tore my crap apart to replace my clutch, my pilot bearing was in pieces, the inner race was stuck on the tranny, all the ball bearings were like gone, and the outer race was stuck on the crank.

 

Yea, I saw the pilot bearing and it spun freely and didn't make any noise, Maybe I need to replace the master cylinder and bleed the system again? could the master be leaking internally thus, causing the system to lose pressure?

 

no ideas? could the synchros be going?

 

You could try bleeding it again, I dont know.

 

Check your clutch pedal bracket; it's probably cracked & not releasing the clutch totally.

 

how do i check that rabbit?

 

come to think of it I was hearing a creaking when i depressed the clutch a few weeks back but it stopped doing it.

 

I just went out and checked the bracket without disconnecting it from the firewall, I couldn't see any cracks, does it normally break where it bolts to the firewall?

 

anyways, I'll try to explain again what my truck is doing so hopefully maybe someone can shed some light on it for me.

1. hard to get into first (sometimes) goes right in if truck is slightly rolling
2. second is hard to get in, very notchy, it's like a three step shift if that makes sense

 

It sounds to me like your clutch might not be fully disengaging, so your best bet is to make sure the master and slave cylinders are fresh, and you have bled your fluid. Otherwise it could be your synchros.

 

or just bad syncros...thats what it sounds like to me, sounds like a tranny with no synchronizers, thats why you have to press the gas to get it to go in, the engine has to be going the same speed or so as the tranny for smooth shifting,

 

I'm hoping it's not the synchros, I'm gonna replace the master tomorrow and bleed it again, the truck only has 97K miles, does anyone have a good W56 for sale?

 

Double check you pedal freeplay too...

 

after driving it some today I'm leaning towards the 2nd gear synchro being bad, guess I'm gonna have to save up for a marlin tranny

 

Hey, keep this updated, i've been having a really hard time shifting into first the past week. Just the day before yesturday i started smelling that burning smell then yesturday my clutch died. Could'nt shift into any gear if truck was running, and reverse just grinded, no going into gear there.
i know what your talking about, the three step shift thing, Mine was 1st though. Is or was yours making that high pitched squeal, whining sound when you press the clutch in?

Are syncros exspensive?

I Got the new clutch set but want to check the master and slave for leaks before i tear into the truck.

Does the motor need pulled to drop the transmission?

 

Mine is making no squealing noises, it's just kind of hard to get into first and second, mine has a new clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing and a resurfaced flywheel. The only thing that the mechanic didn't replace was the pilot bearing as he said it was fine. That is why I suspect the pilot bearing is what is causing my issues. If the pilot bearing is sticking it will cause the input shaft of the transmission to drag thus causing the hard, notchy shifts. Was it easy for you to shift into first if the truck was slightly rolling?

You don't need to pull the motor. You just unbolt the rear driveshaft, front driveshaft and take the transmission out. A jack with blocks of wood supporting the transmission helps

if your synchros are bad you may as well just buy a new transmission, one can be had from marlin for around $1200.

 

Mine used to refuse to go into first at times. It went through spells, being fine in between. I replaced the shifter seat. The old one had completely disintegrated. Not only that, but one of the pins in the shifter housing was broken, so I replaced that. Shifting was then pretty good for a while.

Then, the first gear issue cropped up again, but now only the first few shifts of the day. It doesn't happen after everything is warmed up.

My slave cylinder leaks a little. I bled the line and checked my pedal bracket. Seemed ok. Same as the OP, I suspect the pilot bearing. If it doesn't spin freely the trans input shaft can be dragged around a bit. From what I understand, not much rotation is required to prevent shifting into first. I'm thinking maybe after the bearing warms up it spins better, so the problem only exists when cold. But, I could be wrong. I know the syncros aren't in the best shape. A tranny rebuild or swap will be required one of these days.

I'll put in a Marlin clutch kit and replace the master and slave cylinders during my engine rebuild. It'll be interesting to see how replacing all that affects the shifting issue.

 

If your pilot bearing was bad, I would think all your gears would be hard to get into, not just 1st and 2nd. Also, if your clutch is not disengaging due to either a cracked pedal bracket or freeplay adjustment, then again all the gears would be affected. Signs seem to point to your synchros...but re-reading your 1st post though, you say 3rd sometimes grinds so I'm not convinced that the clutch is fully disengaging. I guess take BBP's advice and adjust the freeplay first and see if that helps, it's free and pretty easy. Then bleed the heck out of the clutch and hopefully your problems go away.

 

how do I just adjust the freeplay, i.e. any tips on what to look for. It seems that I have to push the clutch pedal down really hard and it doesn't fully release even when on the floor...


what I meant to say is that it doesn't feel like it releases until pressed all the way to the floor