likaleica Posted February 14, 2015 Report Share Posted February 14, 2015 Hi fellas - once again I'm throwing myself on your charity for some urgent advice please on my '39 Plymouth P7. After winter storage in my dry garage, I find I can't disengage the clutch to put the car into gear. There is plenty of action on the clutch pedal. I have the floor out of the car to overhaul the brake master cylinder. A few weeks ago when the car was moved briefly I did notice that the gears graunched when I depressed the clutch pedal - but found I was pressing the pedal too far down as the floor was out. This puzzled me though - should it be possible for the clutch to disengage at one point in the pedal travel, then engage again ? Is this a clue to what the problem is ? As background, the car was in long term storage before I bought it last year and I have used it only to move in and out of my garage these past 6 months. Lack of use is a car's biggest enemy - has something seized up? All advice gratefully received as I am supposed to be showing the car at a fair on March 1 ! Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted February 14, 2015 Report Share Posted February 14, 2015 It is possible for the disk to become stuck to the flywheel. You should have an inspection cover to remove and verify its not stuck. Also at least in my pickup if the floor is removed its possible for the pedals to come too far forward and have stuff fall apart. Get a helper to push the pedal while you watch what it does. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soth122003 Posted February 14, 2015 Report Share Posted February 14, 2015 It's been almost 20 years, but I had a 66 vette that had the clutch stick. I don't know if the driven plate was stuck to the flywheel or the pressure plate. What I did was put the car in gear and depress the clutch pedal, start the car and pop the clutch a few times. I heard a clunk and the plates freed up and the clutch worked like a champ. That being said, and now that I am older and a little wiser, if I had that problem on my P-15 I would drop the drive shaft and pull the tranny and inspect the discs if I couldn't see any thing through the inspection access plates/panels. It sounds like you have a slight corrosion problem and the disc is stuck. You said it was in a dry garage for storage, but you will still have humidity issues unless you garage is climate controlled. This will cause some light to moderate rust formation on parts. You might be able to free it up by working the clutch in neutral with the engine running. Just go slow and take you time and don't force it. As far as pushing the clutch pedal to far and re-engaging the gears, I don't think that is possible. I just had my tranny out last weekend to replace the throw out bearing and it only took me a couple of hours to do it. The hardest part was me getting up and down to crawl under the car. Getting old sucks. Joe Joe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
likaleica Posted February 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2015 Thanks Fellas - a few good ideas here well worth a try. You've jogged my memory - my old timer car enthusiast father (sadly no longer with us) used to talk about clutch pressure plate springs becoming "coil bound" in storage - he always said a laid-up car ought to have a block of wood wedged between the frame/chassis and the clutch operating lever to compress the clutch pressure plate, keeping the springs compressed. Anyway I'll have a go with the techniques you suggest, see what happens and report back ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plymouthcranbrook Posted February 15, 2015 Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 I make a point of going into the garage and pumping the clutch pedal and brake pedal on mine a couple of times a month. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution likaleica Posted February 17, 2015 Author Solution Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 Update: I've tried most of the advice on freeing the clutch without stripping it down - without success. The car has no brakes until I manage to re-fit the brake master cylinder and I daren't do any more moving back and forth in gear until I've done that.........and what I thought was a simple job to re-fit that cylinder has also turned into a nightmare which I've had to make a separate posting about ! Well if these cars were easy, everyone would have them and it would be no fun I suppose ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
likaleica Posted July 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2015 On advice from an old school mechanic I got the clutch freed. His advice was to run the engine stationary for at least half an hour and then pump the clutch pedal. If that didn't work go in and have a cup of tea and leave her running....then try again. After about an hour of this - hey presto, the clutch freed itself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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