Went to push in the clutch today on a turnaround and felt a pretty good "snap" through my foot on the pedal. Loud snap too, sounded like it came from the pedalbox. Wont shift into gears no more and it seemed to have more play at the top than it did before although still felt connected.
Looking at the pedal box (new) and clutch master arm, all looks normal and connected. Un hook the clutch arm and it's still connected into the slave (I thought if it broke it would pull out of the master, but it's still hooked in there).
Working the pedal, I'm getting seems like a decent throw at the tranny arm through the slave ( 3/4" or better ), but still no shifty. It's the 96 250, still has the DMF (no symptoms on it yet , but it has the rotational play problem). So question is, what snapped?? Peeking through the flywheel I can see the clutch arm pushing the tongs on the flex plate, and no sound when running like squeal or drag. Anybody had similar trouble? Any thoughts are appreciated. Jay

 

Sounds like you may have stripped the splines on the swing arm where it splines onto the pedal shaft. With the arm attached to the master shaft, lay on the floor and push the clutch down by hand while watching the top of the swing arm. If your pushing the clutch down and the arm doesn't move at first(shaft spins inside the arm), the splines stripped. If that happened, that means you either didn't get it tightened all the way down or it's been off a couple times and you didn't get the splines lined back in(made another set of splines and there wasn't enough metal between splines to hold). I've done the 2nd example before.... What happens is the pedal shaft will slip inside the arm and the arm will barely push down. It's enough to move the slave and everything, but not enough to fully release the clutch and allow you to shift.

 

Wow yeah good idea. I saw that it was all still together and moving through the master cyl. when you work the pedal, so I went looking on down the line. I hope you're right! I put a new pedal box recently, and had to reset that swing arm once right quick, I didn't leave any slack on the top, it made me think I might be pressing on the throwout so I backed it off a tad. Dang I hate that connection, it sure ought to have some full splines.
I always wonder when to stop tightening the whole deal, looks like too far and you'll be pinching the swingarm against the box and adding to a hard pedal. I should probably just pry it off in the a.m. and reseat it good, that'd be a sure way to tell you think? Thanks for your reply, Jay

 

That would also explain why it was such a loud pop from the inside of the fwall. If it was the TOB or flexplate/clutch arm it woulda been more of a pop feel thru the pedal, not so loud like it was in the cab. I sure bet you're right, beats droppin the tranny by far! Jay

 

I would look at it before you start pulling it apart to make sure that is the problem. If it did strip the splines, you need to look at it to figure out whether you need a new one or not. Look at how far it was splined onto the shaft. If it wasn't splined on all the way, try resetting it. If it was fully splined, you'll probably need a new arm. There is also a chance that the pedal box itself could have broken right by that swing arm where the bracket goes around the pedal shaft, but since you got a new pedal box, I'd like to think it's probably fine. Wouldn't hurt to grab a flashlight and a mirror while your under there and look for cracks in that bracket.

 

Good ideas, I went ahead and pryed it off a while ago, I was sure that was it after you thought of it. It was a brand new arm and I only had about 1/3 to 1/2 of a bite into the splines, not near as deep as the old original ones I've pulled, so I am going to try to just reset it.
I remember putting in on after the new box and tightening it down thinking it was hooked pretty good and I should stop there or I'd pinch the whole box and get stiff you know? Looks like they can take quite a bit more threads than I had for sure.
When it skipped I guess that was the big snap I heard, but then it seemed to catch itself again a couple splines back cause it was all still together good, but the throw was way off(slacked). I'll post back how it goes back together and thanks again, Jay

 

Alright, I got that arm (same one ) tightened back on the pedal shaft and it shifts like butter. I noticed a couple things that may help someone else that's fixing to rebuild one for the first time.
1 - My arm off the pedal shaft was actually a little crooked from the first install. Splines weren't same depth all the way around, this poor fit I'm sure contributed to the failure.
2 - Close inspection shows a shoulder on the shaft right where it exits the pedal box toward the master cylinder arm, this allows you to tighten the outside nut down as far as you can and it will bottom on that shoulder, pulling the whole shaft to the pass. side, without pinching the assembly. Just keep torkin till it bottoms, that's where you want it.
3 - Check the top nut on the clutch master cylinder, I snugged several threads up there and it helped on the throw also. Seems a new pedal box to an old firewall is not a sure fit out of the box. The pedal box bracket/housing and the firewall will end up shaping to one another after a bit, and can put some slack onto those master cylinder studs, just check em. ( should recheck the brake booster nuts from the inside after some miles as well, it's shaping together as well.
That's just some observations on this little job, thanks again for your help, Jay

 

Glad you got it fixed!!