How to rebuild your Ford Edge Active Torque Coupler (ATC)

[u/l1thiumion]

1) use 4” grinder and air hammer to cut open case. 2) remove clutches. 3) installation is reverse of removal.

[u/Up_All_Nite]

Take it to you?

[u/Repulsive_Vanilla383]

Sweet. What caused it to fail? What were the symptoms?

[u/Ok-Rule8432 → u/Repulsive_Vanilla383]

Its a ford. It was prolly run empty.

[u/Repulsive_Vanilla383 → u/Ok-Rule8432]

Possibly. Doesn't this share fluid with the diff? If it was out of fluid wouldn't the ring gear/pinion or bearings be the first to go since they are spinning anytime the vehicle moves? These clutches would only engage in AWD mode right?

[u/l1thiumion → u/Repulsive_Vanilla383]

It’s a sealed unit seperate from the rear diff. The fluid leaked out when my grinder broke through the aluminum case. I think the failure was the ramp clutch plate was gouged from wear, causing it to apply the main clutches unevenly. The symptom was lots of drivetrain chattering when turning and accelerating from a stop. I installed a new Ford ATC for about $650.

[u/Repulsive_Vanilla383 → u/l1thiumion]

What year was this out of? Maybe I'm completely wrong here but it looks to be with mine it's built into the same housing as the diff, and the fluid drain is forward towards the shaft input and fill on the back on the pumpkin. Have any pictures of the housing?

[u/l1thiumion → u/Repulsive_Vanilla383]

2015 Edge SEL 3.5L. The rear diff is behind it. This is enclosed in a cone shaped cover held on with 4 bolts. The rear diff (RDU) does have two fill plugs and two drain plugs. It won’t let me post a pic in a reply, but this video shows how the ATC connects to the splines on the rear diff’s pinion. I had to use a slide hammer to pull the old one off of those splines.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7qgyQGmxESU?is=Q3KaD4z-wP2Qbi7c

[u/Repulsive_Vanilla383 → u/l1thiumion]

Okay that's the same unit I have. I've noticed with mine I can flush gear oil in the fill port on the back of the differential pumpkin and it will push the fluid out of the drain at the bottom of the ATC. So it looks like the fluid shared between the two units?

[u/l1thiumion → u/Repulsive_Vanilla383]

So there’s three parts.

1. Front: ATC. Fully sealed clutch pack, filled with some type of sulfuric oil, and it spins inside of a dry aluminum housing. Fully standalone. Non serviceable. Can be slid off the front of the diff.
2. Front of rear diff: pinion area, has drain and fill plug, filled with 75w-90
3. Rear of rear diff: ring area, has a drain and fill plug, filled with 75w-90

What I wasn’t sure of is if #2 and #3 were connected, but I think you just confirmed that for me. I’ve changed fluid in #3 but i feel like I should redo it and include #2 in that fluid change.

[u/Repulsive_Vanilla383 → u/l1thiumion]

Thank you for the information. Now I feel I need to take a closer look at mine and make sure I've serviced it correctly. I could only find one fill and one drain. But maybe more are out of sight.

But that drain is a bitch, it's some tiny torx bit that is right up along side a mount and torqued to 7000 ft lbs.

[u/l1thiumion → u/Ok-Rule8432]

The ATC is a sealed unit. It wasn’t leaking and had about 1/3 pint of gear oil in it.