Surfaces in the clutch and bellhousing areas: dry or oily?

[robroy]

Good evening!

Tomorrow I'm going to try to put my transmission together with the engine, including everything in between.

The shop manual mentions a few places that should receive some lithium grease during assembly, such as the splines in the clutch disk and some parts of the pressure plate. It also mentions that other areas should be bone dry, like the pressure plate disc and flywheel.

My question is: what about all the other surfaces inside that assembly? Should they be slightly oily, bone dry, greasy or what?

My concern with making them bone dry is that rust could begin working away at the metal. Yet making them oily, even in a minor way, could lead to clutch disc contamination.

What's some sound, general advice on this question?

Here are some of the surfaces I'm not sure about:

1. The machined surfaces between the transmission and the bell housing
2. The back of the engine block
3. The end of the crank shaft
4. The spline on the transmission input shaft
5. The inside of the bell housing

Thanks!
Robroy

[fordman]

1 dry
2 dry
3 dry
4 wet
5 dry
the clutch disc flywheel and pressure plate amting surfaces must eb dry. if its going to be awhil ebefore you drive it then wiat to assenble it until you are ready to install the engine /trans and drive the truck. rust can build up on those areas.

[thebannister8]

[robroy]

Thanks for the quick replies Fordman and Thebannister8!

Okay, I'll make those surfaces dry, which to me means using brake cleaner on them to some degree to get all the oil residue off.

I hear your point about not putting it together and letting it sit for a long time. I'm optimistic about how long it would remain sitting before it gets driven for the first time, and I think that would be a maximum of two months.

The thing is, I think I'm more or less at the stage where that's the next step (dropping in the engine and transmission). So from then on out I'll just have to put in more effort to finish the job quickly.

Thanks again for your words of wisdom!
Robroy