Transmission Clutch Kit for Ford Explorer & Mazda B4000 V6 4.0L (1998-2001)

Ford Explorer & Mazda B4000 Clutch Kit – V6 4.0L Manual Transmission

This is a complete clutch kit for the Ford Explorer and Mazda B4000, built for the V6 4.0L manual transmission versions of these trucks. If you're feeling the clutch slip under load, catching high, or grinding into gear, this kit has everything you need to do the job right in one go instead of pulling the transmission twice because you only replaced the disc.

Signs Your Clutch Is on Its Way Out

A worn clutch on an Explorer or B4000 usually gives you some warning before it fails completely. The most common sign is slipping under load — you press the gas and the engine revs up faster than the truck actually accelerates, especially going up a hill or towing anything. A clutch that's starting to catch higher and higher off the floor is another tell, since that's the friction material wearing thin and the pressure plate running out of adjustment. Grinding when you shift, especially into first or reverse, often points to a worn release bearing or a pilot bearing that's no longer letting the input shaft spin freely when the pedal's pressed. Any of these on their own is worth investigating, and if you're seeing more than one at once, the clutch is usually close to the end of its life.

Why Replace the Whole Kit Instead of Just the Disc

Getting to the clutch on an Explorer or B4000 means dropping the transmission, and that's most of the labor right there — the parts themselves are a smaller part of the job. Because of that, it almost never makes sense to replace just the worn clutch disc and leave the pressure plate and release bearing in place. If the pressure plate has weakened springs or the release bearing is getting noisy, you'll be back under the truck again within a year or two doing the same labor over for a part that would have cost very little to swap while everything was already apart. A full kit like this one means you do the job once.

What's in the Box

This kit is a complete set, brand new, not remanufactured: a pressure plate, a clutch disc with an organic friction material, an alignment tool to center the disc during installation, disc lubricant grease for the input shaft splines, and a release bearing. Nothing extra to source separately — what's in the box is what you need to complete the swap.

Specifications

• Item Type: Transmission Clutch Kit (Manual)
• Condition: 100% brand new
• Disc Material: Organic
• Clutch Diameter: 11.50 in
• Clutch Disc Diameter: 9.84 in
• Input Shaft Diameter: 1.03 in
• Clutch Disc Spline Count: 23
• Clutch Disc Springs: 4
• Package Includes: pressure plate, clutch disc, release bearing, alignment tool, disc lubricant grease (one each)
• OEM / Cross-Reference Numbers: 07-139, 07-096, 07139, 07096, 1107139, 52592001, 6263037770, K70251-01, MU1993-1, K7025101, MU19931

Fitment

This kit fits the Ford Explorer 1998-2001 with the V6 4.0L manual transmission, and the Mazda B4000 1998-2000 with the same V6 4.0L manual setup — the B4000 being Mazda's badge-engineered version of the Ranger platform that shared this drivetrain with Ford during these years. If you're not fully sure your specific Explorer or B4000 has the manual transmission this kit is built for, or you want to double-check against your VIN before ordering, our request a part page is the fastest way to get that confirmed before it ships.

Installation

This is a transmission-out job, so plan for a full day if you're doing it in a home garage, longer if it's your first time pulling a transmission on this platform. Once the old clutch is out, take the time to inspect the flywheel surface for scoring or heat spotting before bolting the new kit in — a warped or heavily grooved flywheel will chew through even a brand-new clutch disc in short order, so it's worth resurfacing or replacing if it looks rough. Use the included alignment tool to center the clutch disc against the pilot bearing before you torque the pressure plate down; skipping that step is the single most common reason a freshly installed clutch is hard to get into gear afterward. The disc lubricant grease that comes with the kit goes on the input shaft splines only, sparingly — too much can end up flung onto the new friction surface and cause slipping right out of the gate.

Warranty

This kit is backed by a one-year, 50,000-mile guarantee, which covers manufacturing defects in the pressure plate, disc, and release bearing. Our warranty information page has the full details on what's covered, and our FAQ page answers the fitment and installation questions we get asked most often about clutch kits like this one.

Ordering, Shipping & Support

Once you've placed your order, our track your order page lets you follow its progress, and our shipping information page covers current processing times — we ship to customers worldwide. If anything about fitment or the kit contents doesn't look right when it arrives, our contact page gets you to a real person who can sort it out.

Related Parts

This kit is filed under our Manual Transmissions collection and our broader Transmission & Drivetrain collection, where we stock the other clutch, transmission, and driveline components we carry for a range of vehicles. If you want to understand the mechanics behind how a clutch kit like this one transfers power from the engine to the transmission, this overview of clutch design covers the fundamentals well.

If your Explorer or B4000 is due for a clutch, replacing the full kit while the transmission is already out is the difference between doing this job once and doing it twice. Everything you need is in the box, matched to the OEM specs for this exact V6 4.0L manual application.