Earlier today, I installed the clutch and brake pedals in my 49 Ford F1 and discovered the clutch pedal is significantly out of position. I adjusted the clevis until it reached the end of the threads and it looks like I still need an extra inch. I installed a new clutch, throw-out bearing and pressure plate that was supposed to be appropriate for my 49 F1 flathead 6 but neglected to compare them with the old ones.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on? I can make a new clevis but if there is something funky going on, I'd like to understand it before I try to accommodate the difference.

Thanks
Ron

 

I would make a new setup and go for it, at this point with the new stuff installed, might as well do new linkage also. Can you post a pic? No mods to the stock pedal assembly right?

 

To be that far from stock, something is for sure not right with the clutch. Did you replace the release bearing? It's possible it isn't seated all the way on the hub. Look thru the inspection plate to make sure.

Is this a 10" clutch or 11"?

 

I made the mistake of buying from a well know Ford parts catalog. They indicated that the this clutch pressure plate was the replacement.
Wrong. What was provided with a diaphragm (multi-finger pressure plate) and not the 3 finger type that was originally used on the F1's.
Went thru the same process, could not understand why it would not adjust.
Make sure you have a 3 finger.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on? I can make a new clevis but if there is something funky going on, I'd like to understand it before I try to accommodate the difference.

Thanks
Ron[/QUOTE]

 

Thanks for the quick responses. It is a 10” clutch 52A-7550 with a three finger pressure plate 19A-7563


Here is a picture of the pedal position



picture through the inspection port of the bearing position up against the fingers with the pedal resting as shown above



image showing the release bearing with the clutch pedal pulled even with the brake pedal. About an inch of clearance between bearing face and fingers.



I just thought of something but can’t confirm so I’ll ask everyone- Is the cross hole for the fork on the clutch fork shaft perpendicular to the tab on the end or is it angled? If it is angled, I may have it installed 180 degrees out from where it should be and that could cause the difference. Is that possible?

 

I believe it's possible to do the 180 with that connection. You have nothing to lose by turning it and testing.

 

Thanks, the transmission is bolted up and the drive shaft installed. I was hoping someone has a clutch fork shaft to check to see whether the hole is 90 degrees to the tab or not before I tear everything apart again.

 

It looks to me like the hole is 45° +/- to the tab. I don't think that's your problem. Rotating the shaft 180 wouldn't change anything. There have been problems reported with new clutch discs being too thick, which can cause this kind of problem, but that's really extreme. the replacement PP's with the flat-faced fingers vs the levers with adjusting bolts are also sketchy.

Is there any chance the disc is in backwards?

 

Maybe it’s the brake pedal that is out of alignment? On the stock truck, the push rod should be on the same as the pedals, yours looks like it’s on the other side with a modified master cylinder placement? Hard to tell in that picture but I think I see the master cylinder dust boot where the master cylinder usually is?

JB

 

Good catch, JB!

 

JB & Ross,
Yup, the brake pedal is out of alignment as I haven't adjusted it yet for the brake booster upgrade I installed. I'm using my old disassembly images as a reference. The clutch pedal in these older mages is at about a 30 degree angle to the frame and the clutch rod arm as well as the short arm from the clutch pedal are roughly vertical. The clutch pedal is now angled at roughly 15-20 degrees to the frame (much lower) and with the clutch rod arm vertical, the short arm from the clutch is noticeably angled 15-20 degrees off of vertical as expected (this can be seen in my earlier pictures above). I do not have any more adjustment in the clevis to make up this deflection and bring the clutch pedal to the roughly 30 degree angle that it was before disassembly. I guess this poses the question: What angle should the clutch pedal normally be at since perhaps it was wrong before I disassembled it?

Here are some before images...




Could a thicker than normal clutch plate cause this difference? I confirmed the clutch plate is installed correctly with the raised spring area opposite the flywheel.

I'm half inclined to pull disconnect the drive shaft and pull the transmission again to see what is different and confirm there isn't anything out of whack on the pressure plate.

If that checks out, I'm not sure what else to look at.

 

Ross- One other thing- the PP is the one with the flat fingers rather than with adjusting bolts but I'm not sure I know what you mean about these being sketchy.

Does anyone even make the PP with adjusting bolts anymore?

Ron

 

The PP's with flat fingers are Korean as I recall, maybe also Chinese. I've read of various problems with them, but others use them without any issues. I don't know if anyone makes New PP's with the levers/adjustable screws, but they are available as rebuilt.

If you do pull the clutch apart, a stock new disc should be around 0.315 - 0.340 thick. The thicker the disc, the further forward the PP fingers will be.

I'll check my linkage tomorrow, but the pic of your "before" setup looks correct. I'm not sure you really have a problem, it's just as JB says, you brake pedal is way high.

 

I agree with Ross - comparing before and after pictures, the clutch pedal crosses just about the top of the lever in both. Did you change the clutch lever or is it the original? The after picture looks to be in the correct position. The reason I ask is Ford made several different clutch levers with the lever at different angles from the cross shaft that might affect the throw.... below is a sample.

I have loss of clutch adjustment over the years on my 48 F1 which I attribute to wear on the thrust bearing. I'm in the process of tearing that engine apart but have not taken the crank out yet.

 

Well, I spent a good part of Saturday pulling the transmission to understand what is going on with the deviation I'm seeing. I ended up taking a number of measurements of the new clutch installation, mounted the old clutch assembly and took measurements, and even mounted the new clutch disk with the old pressure plate and took measurements to see whether there are any dimensional difference between the old and new pressure plate.

What I found out is that the old and new pressure plate are dimensionally equivalent (new clutch pressure plate fingers are 0.017" lower than the old pressure plate with the new disk which isn't bad given the accuracy of my measurements). Looking at the difference between the complete old and new clutch installations shows a 0.330": deviation (almost 9 degrees of movement) at the end of the arm where the pedal clevis attaches due to old vs new clutch disk.

As a result, there's probably a little measurement error involved. but that translates to significant movement at the end of the clutch pedal that is assuredly due to clutch disk wear. I'm still not sure why I don't have enough thread on the clevis rod to accommodate this but at least I'm safe in modifying the linkage to make it work.

I'm posting some images and graphics of the analysis I did to come to this conclusion to help anyone else in the future who runs into this issue.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions!

Ron

Clutch pressure plate arm geometry...


Measuring old clutch installation..

Measuring old clutch...


New clutch installation



My analysis....