I have a Dodge Ram 1500 and a strange thing began yesterday. This has happened about three times in two days.
I’m driving along and when I shift I feel and hear a loud ‘snapping’ sound coming from the clutch pedal. It sounds like something was stuck and finally got released and I do feel the pop in my foot. This doesn’t happen every time I shift, just occasionally.
The truck does not lurch, stall, or have any other noticeable performance decrease when this happens.
The clutch pedal does have a little bit of horizontal play but it’s not any more than the accelerator or brake have.
It sounds like your throwout bearing (clutch release bearing) is about to fail. A new one probably isn’t real expensive, but labor to install it may be. Are you mechanically inclined?
On an old Chevy Step-Van, I had to remove the driveshaft and transmission to get to the bearing. A two-pronged fork held and moved the throwout bearing via the clutch linkage. The bearing just slid out of the fork and is replaced by a new one. Then just reinstall the tranny and driveshaft.
If you decide to replace the disk and/or pressure plate as well, then you have to remove the bellhousing to get to the PP, which is bolted to the flywheel. The disk is inside the PP next to the flywheel and it’s under pressure by the PP so you have to loosen the bolts slowly and evenly.
You have to grease the TO bearing before you install it and will need a pilot shaft to line up the splines in the clutch disk with the tranny shaft to reinstall it. You need a tranny jack as well to support it. It’s not a hard job as long as you have a tranny jack and work on a hard flat surface.
All that being said, I have no idea what it would be like to replace the TO bearing/clutch on a Dodge Ram 1500 or the cost. Napa has some Dodge Ram 1500 bearings for about $60. I would think a shop would charge a couple hundred at least, maybe a lot more, to do the job.
While it well could be the T/O bearing, it could also be the pedal/return spring or cable (If equipped) binding and releasing.
Using Rick’s law of auto repair (If there are two possible causes of a fault, check the easy / cheap one first) I suggest that you get somebody to step down on the clutch pedal while you eyeball the movement from floor level (obviously with the door open, and the truck stopped ) You may have to remove an underdash cover to be able to see the movement.
The application of a lube to the pedal and return spring would also be a good idea. If then you still have the problem, pull the tranny to check out the clutch.
Yeah, the thing happens after driving about 20 minutes. I dropped it off at the shop yesterday and of course, it hasn’t happened to the mechanic all day. Well, I don’t hink he’s gonne be cruising around for 20 minutes either…
Thanks for the help, I’m going to ge the WD40, grease up the pedal and see if it continues to happen.
) You may have to remove an underdash cover to be able to see the movement.