confused about my clutch

JavaG66 · Post by **JavaG66** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:08 pm

It has been getting progressively harder to put the car in reverse and other gears occasionally grind when going into position. My engagement point on the petal was way low, so I tightened up the cable so that free play was about 1 1/2". Other gears seems to improve, but reverse was a definite no go. Tightened the cable a second time maybe 2 turns to bring the petal up some more. Now the transmission is constantly engaged. I can crank the engine while in first and the car starts moving with the clutch petal all the way to the floor. This all seems backwards; I expected to see some possible slippage, but not a situation where the clutch would not disengage. My bowden tube has about 1-3/4" of sag; there are no washers on it. What am I looking at here?

Thanks for your help!

fatalifeaten · Post by **fatalifeaten** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:43 pm

You need to loosen it up a bit, if it's not releasing when you put the clutch in, it's too tight. 1.5" of free play is in the right ballpark, when was the last time you serviced clutch components? May be time to R/R the pressure plate, clutch disk, throw out bearing, maybe even the cross shaft.

JavaG66 · Post by **JavaG66** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:39 pm

[quote="fatalifeaten"]... May be time to R/R the pressure plate, ....[/quote]

Yup. that's what it was. I pulled the engine and the ring that the throw out bearing contacts was at about a 15 degree angle from the plane of the pressure plate assembly. There was also a popped off rivet rolling around inside.

fatalifeaten · Post by **fatalifeaten** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:57 am

So it's happy again? How'd the clutch disc look?

JavaG66 · Post by **JavaG66** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 5:52 pm

The clutch disk really didn't look that bad. It was slightly thicker than 5/16" and the spiral grooves were plainly visible. I can't say for sure, but I suspect the previous owner installed it when the new motor was put in- about 20k miles ago. The pressure plate looked like a hammer was used for installation. It was a Brazillian Armotex 200mm clutch and the disk was rigid.
I plan on going back with a sprung disk; the clutch parts and some other upgrades should be here next week. While the engine is out I am adding a doghouse oil cooler and replacing an intake manifold that developed a hole in the small heat riser tube when I wasn't looking.

I think it will be happier then.