steev

So I just drove up to a client in Scarsdale (30 miles away from home) and as I turned into his road, I heard a pop under my foot and my clutch pedal stayed on the floor.

I found two halves of a plastic connector on my floormat. He had some good adhesive to get it back into one piece (he has a TR6 in his garage, so obviously knows the joys of breaking cars) but what else could've broken? I cant tell what other part it was attached to, if anyone can let me know quickly, I will be forever indebted to thou...

steev

So, WTF FORD?! Little piece of plastic snaps and I need to get an entire new Master Cylinder? OK. So as I'm setting up a client's new home server for my pittance* (yet the company I work for is getting $250/hour), I'll be paying however much it costs to replace the master cylinder, as I am pretty much stranded later if not

*far from a pittance, just sad/angry...

Boneman

Is that what they said... you have to replace the master cylinder because of what sounds like a "linkage" issue? Yeah... that's very strange.

Starkey Products

Steev,

This happened to me once with a 2006 V6 I had that was at about 100,000 miles. The little plastic piece that broke off is called a trunnion. It is molded onto the rod that protrudes from the master cylinder. As you found out the only way to fix it is replacing the master cylinder. I think they run around $115 or so.

The good news is you can do the swap in a driveway with a few basic hand tools. I'm sure there is a guide floating around online somewhere, and if not email me and I'll save and email the Ford installer support instructions (what the dealership tech's use) for removal.

Jason

Boneman

Eeesh... that IS disturbing. And what... they made that critical link out of plastic... WHY? Probably to save weight? Who knows. Sometimes Ford gets me really scratching my head. First time was when the cam gear on my 52 P'up ASSPLODED.... why? It was a phenolic POS.

Anything one can do to PREVENT such a failure?

steev

I think just replace the Clutch Master Cylinder and Thermostat housing if they haven't been replaced yet would be the best preventative maintenance.

I wish I knew about the Master Cylinder beforehand... Mine seemed to last 87,000 miles, so I guess it got a good innings. I hear a couple of other parts are made to less than optimal specs, the driveshaft and apparently the crankshaft dampener 'eventually fails'.

I was planning to buy an 8.8 rear end (had a $200 take off lined up) but that's been taken away by buying the master cylinder.

Boneman

I'm thinking I should consider myself immensely fortunate (runs around... touches wood repeatedly) that neither has been an issue.... and I'm at 141K miles.

I will keep a close eye on things though to be sure... especially now that most of my driving is "city" in nature.

imtryin67

Seems I am not the only one with the clutch and thermostat housing. Ford didn't get my money! I ground down and drilled a piece of steel for the clutch. I used part of an old brass light bulb laying around the garage as a bushing. Hold the master cylinder shaft in place with a channel locks to drill a 1/8" hole in the shaft to mount the replacement connector. The new metal connector is held in place with a cotter pin.

For the thermostat housing and the broken plastic weld when the thermostat went out I did the following. 1. separate the 2 parts. 2 . get a tube of Perma-seal thermostat silicone. 3. replace the 3 bolts with longer bolts and nuts to tighten everything up. 4. Assemble. 5. Take 3 or 4 small nails and cut the heads off. Bend them into a "C" shape. 6. In between the the bolts with your vice squeeze the nails together on the housing to help it stay together. Where the thermostat housing split apart mine warped, the nails help hold everything together.

Going on 2 years without a hitch. I think I saved $150 in parts.

steev

That's awesome! I'd love a company to CNC machine these parts for us, it's crazy that they attach the brake pedal properly but do the clutch pedal with such a flimsy part.

Bitter

They made the thermostat housing out of plastic. I'm not surprised other parts were as well.