ok guys I know I need to tear the truck apart to find out but wanted to see what you thought before that happens.

Yesterday I was driving home with about 5K pounds behind the truck. everything was fine up until about a 1/2 mile from my house. I stopped at a stop sign, went to take off and as soon as I let the clutch out the truck made a BANG sound and no movement . Immediately I shut it down and looked the truck over. Everything looked good to go. I restarted the truck and let the pedal out again, well this time I got all kinds off vibrations, horrible knocking/banging sounds. Before I shut it down again I noticed the clutch pedal was dead (no effort to put it on the floor).

I was under the impression that input shafts didn't break on almost stock trucks. This truck has only hauled a race car and trailer most of its life (5K #).

Local guy is telling me that the clutch disc or pressure plate has exploded. judging from hearing it run I think it has to be more. It is vibrating pretty bad.

If anyone has any thoughts at all throw them my way. I can't tear it apart for at least a few days, but will post some pics of the carnage when I do tear into it.

 

Anybody?

 

Does sound like the clutch disintegrated, vibrations, and all - the input shaft would just be broke, likely without the vibrations.

It's all just guessing, right now - obviously, you'll need to pull it for a real answer.

Good luck with it

 

I've been told and this is just hear say, that 5th gear is threaded and screws on, I know of one guy who had it back off and cause a ruckus. But I'm not too sure of this story I'm by far not a tranny guru! Tryn dropping the dust cover on the bell housing and see what falls out!

 

I hope it is just the clutch. I have a big ole' box from south bend sitting here ready to be used LOL. It is definetly something in front of the transmission. the hydraulic system is now no good.

But would just the clutch exploding cause massive vibrations? It shakes the whole truck 20 times worse than shutdown.

One good thing though after this go around the BOMBing can take another step. I was gonna use the stock clutch as long as possible.

Maybe i'll have it fixed in the near future though, as of right now the garage is full.

 

my money says you ripped the center out of the clutch. pretty common, but double check your pilot bering, that is what goes out and lets the input shaft start wobbling and then the center of the clutch gets ripped out. might be a good idea to double check the input bearing also

 

Boy if thats all it is I'll be happy. Would it be a good idea to go ahead and replace the input shaft bearings? While I have it out and after the massive vibrations.

 

if the pilot bearing is shot, i would suggest a new input bearing also. it is real easy on a 4500. 4 bolts and the input pops off. but if the pilot looks good i would not worry about it. but i will bet money the pilot bearing will be dust when you pull the tranny.