Hi all,
Long story short, I need some advice as my truck is having issues shifting.
A couple years back I had the stock clutch replaced (by a shop) with Marlin's HD ceramic clutch (at the time it was spec'd with a 1600lb pressure plate) - unbeknownst to me at the time, the release bearing was not replaced. Everything seemed to work fine for a good period of time until the shifts started losing their smoothness. It eventually got so bad that I would fight to get it into gear, and if I was coming up to a stop, I would fight to get it out of gear. I then bled the clutch thinking that this may be the culprit - this seemed to help a bit but was still nothing close to normal. I then replaced the flex hose in the system as well as the master and slave cylinders while also making sure I was getting the full throw from the clutch pedal (I adjusted the pedal when I put the new master in while making sure there was no signs of metal fatigue). With everything seemingly up to par, things felt pretty peachy, still not perfect, but a far cry from what I had been wrestling with.
Upon heading out this past weekend, I was sitting in neutral at a red light and proceeded to put it into first. With it in first with the clutch pedal pressed, I could hear a worn bearing noise coming from what I figure to be the release/throwout bearing. The noise would go away once the clutch was engaged and I was moving. By the end of the day on my way home, things started to get rough again to the point where I was almost back to the point of grinding gears once again.
My question: Would a worn release bearing be enough to cause the problems stated above? I will be swapping it out regardless on one of the upcoming weekends but wonder if I should be replacing anything else while in there. I'm tempted to put a lower weight pressure plate back in but realize that really shouldn't be an issue here. The only other option I can think of would be to check the clutch release fork for fatigue....
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated!
