Like Clockwork!
Well Hello There Fellow Technicians And Hivers!
It's been quite sometime since the last DCT250 clutch I've fitted and it's time for one of those again! Now we got this vehicle from a Ford dealership and they had absolutely no clue as to what is wrong with it, it's not a big Ford dealership it's one from a small town and I don't think they do a lot of them at all. If anything I think they focus more on pickups than cars, because of the dirt road world!
Well they asked us to check what might be the problem and as always we run the computers on the vehicle first to see what electrical errors we get and since the transmission is an electrically shifted manual, the electrics have to be on point.
What we got from the scanning was that the Clutch Fork B was stuck and not engaging or when it engages it doesn't want to disengage. So let's see what might be the cause of this failure!
As Always The First Thing We've Got To Do Is Remove The Transmission!
Right Off The Bat Looking Bad!
I don't even really need to dig further than this to look for probable causes, I already know the clutch is buggered up properly! It's got dirt and grime in every corner but we can't just wing it like that! No no we've learned quite a few lessons with these over the last few years! They are very easy to work with and to repair but boy oh boy make a mistake and you'll pay for it dearly!
So we do know the clutch to be buggered but that doesn't mean that nothing else is damaged, see if the TCM failed it could eventually break the clutch but it can also go vica versa. So checking everything is what we do!
Probably the best thing that Ford could have done! Make the loom of the transmission so that it can actually come out with the transmission! No struggling underneath the vehicle to get all the connectors out of place!
Besides this way you can avoid breaking any of the plugs!
The Actuators
Hmmm, now this doesn't look good at all, it can even be the actuators making a little bit of trouble here!
I mean look at them, notice how the one is dusty (Brown, the left one) and the other one has white marks on it (The Left) Now the one at the top gathers all of the dust as the vehicles drives and the dust settles down in the housing of the actuator and the one to the left is the lower actuator and that is the one working on the "B Clutch Fork" of the vehicle.
These are what engages and disengages the clutches.
Oh Dear That's A Mountain Of Sand!
Now I'll be damn honest with everyone, this has me a little worried to say the least! Why though?
Well I drive a Ford Focus with exactly the same transmission and I aswell drive dirt roads! But I've got a plan to fix this! At-least once a year I go on vacation and then I double check everything on my car including removing those! Now when I remove them this year which would be in a couple of weeks. I will then add a little grease on them just to trap in the dirt and the grime!
Notice how the clutch dust covers the entire bellhousing on the inside?
This means that the clutch has been worn real bad, I mean of-course there has to be clutch dust but it really shouldn't be sticking to the casings like that!
Okay but that is fine we know that the clutch is gone with, let's move onto the next phase and that is opening up the transmission to see if it might have gotten damage on the inside.
I do fancy giving the transmissions a proper washing before I open them up.
See we just want to check if the casing didn't break on the inside, if it didn't I'll be closing it back up right after, so there really isn't any need to get shit inside the transmission and having problems in the near future!
Always cover your own ass in this trade. 😂
Also worth mentioning is that we won't be tearing the whole transmission into pieces, no no.
This is actually a very fast process to open this one up, from this point though, from the start well then you have the clutch and actuators to deal with as well!
What we will be removing is the TCM and the back casing of the transmission!
Ah I'm In The Right Business For Saving My Own Pocket!
See sometimes I am so thankfull that I am in the business of being able to fix my own vehicle related problems, actually there isn't anything I wont dare to challenge!
It does make it easier to service and fix the stuff on your own vehicles, I mean look at this oil! The thing is that the dealerships all take such good care of the engines of the vehicles but never has anyone ever done a oil replacement on this transmission!
It's really mind blowing how the dealerships doesn't even have a service manual for the transmissions!
The Thing That Can Break Many A Brain!
See this little bumpstop in the transmission have caused so many heads to be scratched! I once was one of those head scratchers!
Of-course this makes sense! Because if the vehicle has a clutch issue and it's not driving, naturally one looks towards the clutch of the vehicle right? Well do yourself a favour and open the transmission while it is removed!
Fortunately this one is still in a very good condition!
Assembling!
Well I won't say this wasn't worth it! Because it was, can you imagine if I fitted it back and the casing was broken inside! Then I'd have to remove it all from the top again!
I don't like those!
I was nice today! Bossman said just close it up again and don't worry about cleaning it. Well I told him that isn't how I do things and it's not how we do things! But it wouldn't make a difference though because the dirty oil is still clogged up between the gears and all that!
Although it's a satisfying feeling to assemble it again with it being clean!
It does look beautifull right!
Now we've got a little bit of a problem! With the casing and everything still in good condition we now know that it needs a clutch so when the clutch is fitted we can only then test the TCM of the transmission!
See here's the thing, we phoned every spares shop in town and there isn't a single dual clutch for these transmissions in town! Here's the scary thing, we are in Central South Africa and we don't have anything here!
All thanks to the wars around the world! So yeah thanks to all those! I suppose we have to put this one on the back burner and wait!
Connecting the people of #HIVE across South Africa. #hive
First time I see a manual-electric transmission, here in Venezuela the vehicle fleet is very old, I was surprised in the first image where I saw a kind of sensor for neutral, I would like to know what function do the actuators do? I think they can replace is the linkage and the changes are with buttons?
It's still considered a automatic transmission.
But it is a manual transmission with gears, it also has a dual clutch. It shifts automatically while you drive, depending on how you drive. You can shift it manually with a button on the gear lever but it feels stupid 😂
The actuators works on the clutch forks, there are two of them since it's a dual clutch system.
Ok I understand thank you