Hello everyone from a noob to this forum. My truck is an '05 SLT QC with the V8 and six speed. Before getting to my issue, I just gotta say that I absolutely love this truck! I'm a sales rep and drive a lot, and after 94,000 miles, all I've done is maintenance and one clutch job due to a bad TO bearing. The clutch itself was fine. It's a hoot to drive with the stick, fast and powerful. I've towed up to 4500 lbs with it cross country with nary a blip and plenty of power. I'm VERY impressed with my first ever Dodge. Too bad the stick is no longer available or I'd go buy a new one. So on to my issue. I've searched here but can't find anything specific to my issue.

About 5000 miles ago I did a clutch job. Replacement parts were from Auto Zone but were the same brand as OE, LUK, and were identical. Upon reinstallation, the pedal free play was WAY too low, maybe 1" or so off the floor. Since there's no adjustment, I fabricated a longer slave pushrod and got it back to mostly where it was but it still just doesn't feel right. The original clutch was like butter but now it's really difficult to make a smooth start, feels grabby. The hydraulic system wasn't opened so I'm not inclined to think bleeding but I did find a thread here that outlines that so I may try it anyway. I've gone over this in my head for months and the only thing I can think of is maybe I put the release fork in backward? It looked symmetrical but now I'm thinking maybe it's not really. Does anyone know if the fork is indeed abidextrous? Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any help is most appreciated, my truck was a lot more fun to drive before.

Allen in Bakersfield

 

Welcome to DF Allen!

I can't help you out with the fork as mine's an automatic but that big of a change in pedal play is a definite warning sign in my mind that something was not as it should be after reinstall. If it's not too hard to get at I would try flipping the fork just to see and go from there.

 

Welcome to the site.

 

Pretty normal to have less free play after a new clutch since there is much more clutch material. As it wears the clutch will grab further from the floor.

 

I drive a 6'er, but I can't quite understand what you mean. What I call 'free play' is the 1/2" or so of pedal travel before you feel the resistance of the clutch spring.

Are you saying the clutch grabs only an inch off the floor now? That does seem a bit low, but I've never measured mine...it's all by feel.

Does the box still shift OK? Does it feel like the clutch is fully disengaging?

 

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it. For posterity, here's the resolution. I'm fairly certain that I sucked a tiny amount of air into the system when I pulled the slave and the piston extended. Installing a longer push rod was a bandaid but only went so far.The more I thought and read, the symptoms were pretty classic for air in the system. I found several procedures online for bleeding this system, pumping all day, manually pumping the slave, etc., but none really worked. I was trying this hard because I didn't want to give Dodge a couple hundred bucks for a new assembly. I did finally check the price though and turns out Kragen/O'Reilly has it for $65. Sheesh, if Ida known that I would have just done that in the first place. I think in the future when I do a clutch on a system like this I'll just replace the hydraulics at the same time and save a buncho hassle. Here's a few tips:

I'm thinking it may be a good idea to remove the reservoir cap before pulling a slave. MAY help reduce the chance of sucking air from the other end when the slave piston extends. This is just a maybe of course.

Pulling the fender liner makes the master cyl MUCH easier to get to. PITA replacing those plastic rivets though.

For my buck anyway, it is WELL worth $65 to avoid the god-awful mess of trying to bleed this system. Lesson learned!

Thanks again,
Allen in B-town