adjusting clutch

fink · Veteran Member

adjusting clutch

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

Does the clutch engage? any noise?

I could never get any play, on my Strato Chief (there was no feel)

it was either in or out Moving or not

fink · Veteran Member

yeah the clutch works and the car drives but it feels like sometimes its not fully disengaging when the pedal is in. its weird

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Can you give us more details?

What car?

What clutch?

Just a clutch change, new engine, changed from an automatic?

The more detail the better.

BNP · Member

If you can't get less than 2 in. of free play it probably isn't disengaging fully. Is it possible that you installed the release bearing backwards?

beaucarlo · Guru

BNP wrote:
If you can't get less than 2 in. of free play it probably isn't disengaging fully. Is it possible that you installed the release bearing backwards?

or the wrong bearing.......has to match with type of pressure-plate(finger-type or diaphram-type)

fink · Veteran Member

It's a 1954 Pontiac pathfinder and it's three speed with the 239. The release bearing that lordco sold me is the one with the split pin in the fork finger groove to stop it from spinning. It has a flatter contact area. It's like the new bearing and old bearing are just too short like they should be another inch long but the numbers give me what I got

fink · Veteran Member

Everything is set up right including all the other linkage parts and the way they hold on to each other. The release bearing is facing the right way. It makes me wonder if the fork arm could have a bend in it, because other than that there is only four moving parts and a bearing to work with and only one adjustment being the threaded rod which is currently backed all the way out. The car had this problem before I changed out the clutch and pressure plate so that's why I suspect the fork may be bent but it sure seems tough

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

fink wrote:
Everything is set up right including all the other linkage parts and the way they hold on to each other. The release bearing is facing the right way. It makes me wonder if the fork arm could have a bend in it, because other than that there is only four moving parts and a bearing to work with and only one adjustment being
*the threaded rod which is currently backed all the way out.
The car had this problem before I changed out the clutch and pressure plate so that's why I suspect the fork may be bent but it sure seems tough

* can you "make" a longer threaded rod

fink · Veteran Member

yes i could, but it weirds me out that i'd have to. when i changed the pressure plate it was just fingers. when i bought an unused NOS one it was different with a large hub riveted onto the fingers with steel rivets. it was listed for my car. it said it also fit oldsmobile. another pressure plate i pulled out of a donor car had just the fingers as well but the three holes were drilled in for the rivets for the steel hub, the hub wasnt used in that application so i drilled the rivets off of the hub and pulled the steel hub off the new pressure plate. unfortunately theres not much information in the manuals and not a lot online either.

i guess as long as the pedal doesnt let the throw out bearing idle on the pressure plate fingers all is well. the other problem of course is whether or not the clutch is fully disengaging. that might be why the clutch disc was so badly glazed like a mirror. i'll ask around a little more and if nothing comes forward i guess i'll fabricate my way out of it.

fink · Veteran Member

It's never what you imagine at first. I compared the threaded rod with another one and realized that the other one was an inch longer. The previous owner had used a threaded rod from another kind of gm vehicle all together. Now the clutch adjustment is perfect

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Glad you found it! When you posted up what vehicle it was for, I was out of the advice part of it. The 50's cars stump me VERY easily, sorry.

fink · Veteran Member

I totally understand. When I first got it it was like working on a UFO. Everything is slightly different