Ford Ranger Clutch Problems

When your reversing are you riding the clutch pedal/slipping the clutch to get your momentum or maintain the slow speed you require..?

The van and your Ford are probabbly around 3-3.5 tonne combined..? Thats a fair load to get moving, even greater up an incline.

Have you tried doing the reversing in low range..?

Gday,
We have about 6 Ford Rangers at work and they all have dodgy clutches in them, even taking off on an incline basically empty, they shudder.
A couple clutches have been replaced by Ford and are no better.
The price sounded good at the time of purchase but when and if they get up to the maximun milage they will be traded replaced .....probably paying the extra and going back to Hilux's.
Try taking it to a clutch expert and see if they can upgrade it to something a bit heavier.....stay away from Ford......them upgrading the clutch would be admitting they are faulty, so I doubt they would replace it with anything but the original type.

Good luck
Cheers

We have an Mazda BT50 Manual high body 4x2 and suffered a burnt out clutch at about 30000Ks, see thread #70939.

As a follow on from that thread the new clutch Mazda put in at 30000 Ks burnt out at 40000K after only travelling 10000K!! Mazda again replaced it under warranty & said that that they had fitted the incorrect clutch first time around & that the second replacement was heavy duty & that we would have no further trouble.

The vehicle has only now done a total of about 55000K so the existing clutch has done very little work & very little towing/reversing.

My opinion (one of them anyway!!LOL) is that the reverse gear is to high a ratio & consequently there is a tendency to slip the clutch a bit when reversing the van & that this is the root of the problem. Being a 4x2 we unfortunately don't have the option of low range when reversing.

The Bt50 & the ranger equivalent in 2007 & 2008 models have a reputation for clutch failure from what I have been able to find out on this & other Forums.

If yours is a 4x4 do what Andrew said when reversing & use low ratio. Good luck & cheers

For what its worth a friend is currently stuck in Adelaide getting the clutch done @ 40,000kms on his Ranger. He has been towing a T Van so not anywhere near the 3t limit. Given the Courier and Bravo were well known for gearbox problems looks like the clutch is now taking the brunt of it. I gather they have a dual mass flywheel and these need to be changed if/when changing the clutch - or so all the "experts" have told me so if this isn't being done it may explain the rate of "new" clutch failures. There are conversions available that replace the dual mass flywheel and clutch but then it may invite the gearbox problems to reappear.
rgds

I remember that a few years ago I had a Ford Popular that shuddered when the clutch was let out. I tried every thing in the book. Ford tried everything in the book but the crown wheel and pinion finally sheered apart.
I put it down to a cheap sh++ car.

If it only shudders from take off, get the tail shaft centre bearing looked at.

All you need is to place some washers under the mounts and it normally stops the shudder.

Worked a treat on my BT50.

Low range of course if you can, and maybe a silly question but are the van breaks maybe engaging when reversing, I know mine does.

Cheers
Wayne

hi shazmc
if you read these threads you will discover a way of changing your system so you can have low range on the rear wheels only when reversing by installing a switch inline on the 4wd selector wiring under the bonnet near the brake booster is where you crack into the wiring on the vacumn plug connection this will help a lot when trying to reverse a heavy van etc
threads 80381
81247
82063
cheers barry