Clutch Adjustment Problems
 

While my post counter fails to reveal my “lurker” status I have been a member for a few years now. I post a little more often over on the “other forum” due to the pedigree of my car. Anyway here is my current problem that I hope one of you may have some advice on.

Car is a FFR with a 427w backed by a McCloud bell housing and Tremec 5speed. Car ran great but the clutch pedal stared to get hung up if fully pressed to the floor. Found that is was due to the adjusting nut at the clutch arm of the clutch cable getting hung up on the bell housing. This was easily fixed with a little die grinding of the housing to give the cable full travel with no interference.

Put everything back together and the car ran great. Too bad I did not tighten the nuts properly because upon a 25-mile drive the adjuster nuts completely loosened leaving my clutch pedal limp. Except for the cable being very loose everything looked fine. So I replaced the standard nut with a Nyloc one and put things back to the proper operating position (realized by the marks on the end of the cable).

The problem is the clutch is a mess now.. The clutch disengages almost as soon as I press the pedal. I have about ¼ inch of free play. Then I have a long pedal to the floor but the tranny is never fully released allowing me to shift. The clutch is engaged allowing the engine to turn freely but the input shaft of the tranny is still turning and will grind the gears if I try to force the shifter.

I have looked into the bell housing with a flashlight and mirror and the arm seems to be properly seated on the throughout bearing. The two fingers are through the lip of the bearing and the arm is positioned on the pivot properly. I have a firewall adjuster as well as the threaded rod at the clutch end of the cable. Any thoughts? As I said until this cable loosened everything was perfect for over 2,000 miles.. A simple thing has me sidelined…

Thanks

WW2

As long as you are in the shop, you can do the following:

1. Disconnect the connection to the pedal if you can ( if mechanical ). Remove any springs to the fork.
2. Undo the adjuster so the slave is basically free.
3. Clean everything and put the rod into the slave and run the sleeve to the fork.
4. Turn the sleeve or nut(s) until you can just rock the assembly between the slave and the fork.

The throw out bearing will be just a hair off the fingers of the pressure plate at this point.

5. If you push the sleeve/rod assembly back and forth between the fork and slave, it should move no more than about 1/32 of an inch.
6. Connect the the fork spring if you had one and connect the cable or rod if you had a mechanical actuation.
7. While you are under the car ( with lots of jacks ) ask someone to press the pedal down.
8. Measure the travel distance.
9. Adjust your stop so you have about 1/8" over the recommended travel for the pressure plate. Not much, but enough to allow you to get some driving in.

That should get you to the point where you can "tweek" your setup until it is just right for you.

Hope this helps.

:D

Thanks. It is a mechanical set-up with no slave and the tranny is still in the car.

I will dissassemble what I can and make sure the arm is moving freely then reassemble with attention to the freeplay.

just weird.. I would think that if I could activate the clutch at barely no pedal activation then at somepoint the darn thing would allow me to shift???

I have been amazed at some of the things I am running into with my car.

That TO bearing to pressure plate distance is important. try to keep it low to almost none.

Thanks for the help..

Took another stab at it last night:

fully removed the cable and sent a little lube throught it

made sure the clutch arm had free movement

put cable back on the adjuster at the pedal witht he adjuster loose

attached the cable to the arm at the clutch and adjusted it to the point eh throughout bearing just touched the clutch fingers then backed the adjuster nut off 1/4 turn.

Pedal was a tad lose but tried her out.. worked like a charm.. went for a cruise and slowy adjusted the firewall adjuster to pick up the slack of the pedal (about 2 full turns...)

At the present time all looks great..

thanks again for your help.....ww2