When coasting up to a stop, my 81 SROD has a light, spinning dragging sound coming from the bellhousing. It sounds kind of like a brake pad that is dragging, and it does it every couple of rotations or so. I'm not a manual transmission expert, but i'm thinking the clutch is not fully disengadging. I had the transmission out a couple of weeks ago, and had it inspected by the best trans shop in my area. The pilot bearing was fine, so I just applied a little freash grease. The throwout bearing was replaced, along with the clutch fork because whoever was in there last installed it with the retaining tab on top of the pedestal instead of underneath it. I carefully inspected the clutch and decided to reuse it do to budget restrictions. The clutch seems like you have to push it in awfully far what do you guys think?

 

How do you know for sure it's coming from the bell housing?

 

Check your clutch fork adjustment. Make sure there is some small amount of travel before the throwout bearing touches the pressure plate fingers. What you could be hearing is the pressure plate fingers occasionally skimming the front surface of the throwout bearing. It may just need a little more gap. EDIT - easy way to tell this is, when it is making the noise, put a little pressure on the clutch. If the noise stops, you probably need a little more gap between the pressure plate fingers and the throwout bearing.

As for the clutch pedal travel, my '82 is the same way. My clutch engages with the pedal only about 2" above the floor. I think Ford tried to give as much mechanical advantage as they could, so it take a lot of pedal travel to get the throwout bearing travel needed.

 

OK i'll try that out once the river going down the streets clears. It wouldn't suprise me if the linkage was misadjusted since the clutch fork was installed incorrectly for years. I have tried to check the free play in the pedal a few times, but it is really difficult to judge when the TB first starts to contact the fingers.

 

If it's that hard to feel the free play then it likely doesn't have any.

Loosen it until you definitely can feel free play and tighten from there, to much free play is MUCH MUCH better for the clutch components then to tight. However to loose is hard on the trans if you can't get it in gear.

It basically boils down to, looser is better AS LONG AS you don't have issues getting it into gear.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~