300-6 Tremec 3 speed apparent pressure plate failure at under 5K miles.

[Orkea6]

I'm bummed- I loaned my 84 F150 300-6 and Tremec T170 (IIRC) to a neighbor. It had a new clutch, pressure plate, and throwout bearing, as well as rebuilt engine, about 5K miles ago. It seems to have a damaged pressure plate now. Goes into gears but when you let out the clutch, banging and rattling like a million demons in a can... How the heck do you break a pressure plate? Due to drop the transmission today- but SMH at the carnage to view shortly. Any suggestions as to what I might have missed in the clutch replacement department? I replaced with the same size as original, scuffed the flywheel, torqued all the bolts and checked them twice. Just hard to believe the parts failed so soon- then again, I have no idea how the person was driving the truck... anyway, Wish me luck. I'll update the post with the carnage when I have it to hand.

[Gary Lewis]

Yikes!  That IS a bummer!

I don't know how you'd kill a pressure plate unless you badly over rev'd it, and that would be hard to do with the 300 six if it was in gear.  Maybe full throttle in neutral?

Anyway, good luck and let us know what you find.  

[ArdWrknTrk]

Orkea6 wrote

I'm bummed- I loaned my 84 F150 300-6 and Tremec T170 (IIRC) to a neighbor...
Any suggestions as to what I might have missed in the clutch replacement department?

 Does your neighbor drive a manual often?  🤔

Does it go forward, or is the clutch completely blown?

Were the PP locating dowels on the flywheel in good shape?

Seems weird that you wouldn't have noise in neutral or when the throwout bearing is engaged, but there is noise when the flywheel, disc and pressure plate should all be turning together.

[Orkea6]

Thanks for the input here- my lessons here are hard learned.

I found a used tranny on Facebook Marketplace (Ford TOD/Tremec 170) and got it installed in the 84 F150. This one goes into gear just fine, but I cannot get it into any other gear but 2nd... it seems to be stuck. I think I may have put the shifter cane in wrong but any other position I try other than pointing to 2nd leads to nothing but a floppy shifter.

Now when I let out the clutch I have no rumbling from the tranny- now the driveshaft rotates fine and sadly, the differential now grinds away indicating damaged pinion and ring gears- they were very badly worn when I got the truck- so bad I could not remove the pin to replace the axles seals. Bummed is the word.

Also, once I got the original tranny out, I tried to remove the top plate with tranny is 2nd per the Ford service manual, after removing the 6 bolts, the assembly hangs up on the large shift fork to the rear of the unit. That unit would no longer rotate once I pulled the top plate bolts loose- but the gears that I can see look normal- though  something is definitely jammed now.

Anyone have an ideas on what I might do with the installed unit to make it free up- or fit the shifter cane correctly? I appreciate any advice as I'm a newbie for this Ford TOD tranny.