More clutch issues

[Arthur1947]

I'm able to run through the gears while the my car is not running but as soon as I start the car it grinds in any gear I try to go into. I've added a spacer to the clutch fork pivot a while back and that seemed to remedy the common clutch spring problems. Everything seems to be operational. I took someone's advice and lifted the rear end and started it up to get the gears unstuck about a month or so ago. Perhaps the pivot was not needed? Could my transmission gears have seized?

Best.

ARTHUR

[Arthur1947]

Don't think the gears are seized up. I think the problem is in the clutch. If the car has sat for awhile without moving you could have a build up of rust on the flywheel and clutch plate. I had a similar problem with mine after it sat while working on the floor and interior. Start the car and let it get up to operating temperature. Then slowly work the clutch in and out as if you were riding the clutch wth the car in neutral. You may even hear a scraping noise while doing this' date=' that's just the rust wearing off though, if you do hear it. It may take awhile before you can shift. Once you can shift, it will probably be very stiff. Just keep running through the gears though and it should free up to normal. If after running the car and doing this and it still doesn't shift, turn the car off. Then put the car in low gear and start it, of course with your foot on the clutch. Then slowly let out on the clutch as if you are going to take off. Do that for a few times and then try shifting into second gear. If you can get it in second, go to third and keep working between 2nd and 3rd until it feels free and normal. Then go back to low gear and work it between low and reverse, up and down until it frees up like normal. Just keep playing and working it like this and it should come back.

You can also work the gears as above with the engine off repeatedly until they feel loose, then start the engine and try it.[/quote']

Don't think its any rust, for I had the plate resurfaced along with a clutch housing rebuild and a new clutch disk. I'll give it a shot though. Thank you.

Best.

ARTHUR

[james curl]

Was the pilot bearing burnished after installation? My manual says that a special tool is required to install the pilot bearing which causes the bearing to extrude and reduce the inner diameter then the tool has a means of burnishing the inside of the bearing to the correct ID. I had to run a 3/4" diameter drill bit through mine to bring it back to the correct diameter, was still a little tight at first but loosened up after running with the clutch disengaged in gear a few minutes.

[greg g]

Could be your clutch is not completely disengaging. Try lengthinig the rod to the throw out fork. Mine would shorten itself throug vibration and after a while would cause a similar symptom. So adjusting the clutch rod to make it longer cured the problem. A little mechanics wire now leeps the adjustment from changing till I want to adjust it.

[Normspeed]

Arthur, whatever it is, I think it's in the flywheel/clutch assembly. The clutch is not disengaging or if it is, the input shaft is still being spun by the motor. Some ideas, possibly a very tight pilot bushing? Can a clutch disk that's reversed cause this? Or one that got bent during the tranny installation? Just throwing ideas out here. First I would try adjusting the clutch linkage even further, to get maximum push on the clutch fork, and see if that helps. If you chock the tires real well, put it in high gear with the motor off, push in the clutch and bump the starter, will the engine turn over or start, or does it refuse to spin over? Or better yet, try that with the distributor coil wire unhooked for safety's sake.

Norm I know what you mean about the rust. Especially if the fresh metal got handled with bare hands.

[bob westphal]

You mention jacking it up and starting it. Did anything happen when you did this? Did you start the engine with the tranny in high gear and rev it up to speed and then apply the brake? If this didn't work, then you very well may have installed something incorrectly, Disc, pilot bearing protruding and binding on inputshaft?

[Normspeed]

Bob, am I right that if you do that you would want to bring it up to speed, then push in the clutch and then hit the brakes? Without pushing in the clutch first it would stall the engine no matter what.

You mention jacking it up and starting it. Did anything happen when you did this? Did you start the engine with the tranny in high gear and rev it up to speed and then apply the brake? If this didn't work, then you very well may have installed something incorrectly, Disc, pilot bearing protruding and binding on inputshaft?

[1948Skip]

Are you positive you put the clutch disc in correctly. They do have a flywheel face. Just a thought.

Skip

[Arthur1947]

Are you positive you put the clutch disc in correctly. They do have a flywheel face. Just a thought.

Skip

Skip,

Someone told me this was wrong so I flipped it before assembly. I installed it in reverse of what is pictured.

Best.

ARTHUR

[1948Skip]

Arthur,

All the clutches I installed had the flywheel face marked as the spline fitting juted out some what. This is why I mentioned this. It is easy to get this mixed up. Your picture looks correct though. The next thing to look for is linkage throw, Is everything moving enough. This is a bummer when you put all that work in to something.

Skip

[Arthur1947]

I took the flywheel cover off and took this picture before I began to tear everything apart again. Does the clutch disk look like it is facing the right way? I cannot tell. It's not stuck to the flywheel thankfully.

Best.

ARTHUR

[1948Skip]

Arthur,

When I look at the latest picture it appears that the disc is note touching the flywheel or is this an optical illusion. Is the flywheel that shiney? If the flywheel is not against the flywheel surface then I would say the disc is in backwards and riding the flywheel with the spline protrusion.

Skip

[bob westphal]

You lucky you haven't ruined the disc and pressure plate. YOU HAVE THE DISC IN BACKWARDS!!

[Normspeed]

Arthur, at least it's usually easier to remove and replace the tranny the second time, if you need to do that. I did mine 2 weeks ago and it was not bad. Do you have a transmission jack? That can be a big help.

My clutch disk was marked on the flywheel side. You had to look for it, but it was marked flywheel.

If you pull the clutch, be sure to add a small amount of short fiber grease into the pilot bearing (not on the shaft) like they say in the manual. Unless you did that the first time.