Finally pulled my 49 F1 out to give it a try. When I installed my clutch actuater rod I had to move the butterfly at the tranny with a crescent wrench to get the rod on. I suspected it was putting my throwout bearing against my pressure plate. I also noticed there was no freeplay in my pedal. It won't go in any gear and when I cranked it in gear (with plenty of room around me) it lunged. My clutch is in correctly, but I did move the adjusting srews on the pressure plate thinking it may make installing easier. Could they be causing my problems? What should they be set at? Thanks for any input!

 

The bolts on the PP fingers are to be set to a specific height with the disc in place and the PP bolted up. So you'll have to take your trans back out, and adjust them to about where they were, but most importantly all the same height. Or take the PP off and take it to a clutch shop, have them adjust them.

 

Thanks Ross I was hoping to hear from you! O.K. I did not do anything to the bolts at the end of the fingers, I did move the ones on the outside of the pp (3) but I can get to those through the inspection cover. This clutch and pp and bearing were working fine when I drove it home to dismantle it. This is the truck you were so helpfull on when I changed it to a four speed toploader (and I did write down T9) LOL. I pulled the inspection cover and the throwout bearing is already against the pp as expected. When you push in the clutch the PP fingers move about 3/4" and the pp moves about a 1/4" but doesn't release the clutch. I know the bearing can't stay there but it looks like it should be releasing?

 

About the only other thing then is... did you get the disc in backwards? If it's backwards the center hub hits the flywheel and provides a direct connection to the trans.

 

Is this a new clutch? Sounds like the disk may be jammed or frozen to the flywheel. First does the tranny go into neutral? I have seen them where the shift arms were jammed in two gears. Put it in neutral and try moving the truck to verify. If the tranny goes in neutral, leave it there and go on to the next step: Looking thru the inspection cover while someone pushes in the clutch, can you see the pressure plate move away from the clutch disk? It won't move much, but should be noticeable. If it does, with the clutch in, tranny in neutral, use a screwdriver to push on the edge of the disk. You should be able to make it turn. If it won't turn try prying it back away from the flywheel with a putty knife to see if it can be freed.
This completes the diagnostics. I'd expect you have found where the problem lies by this point.
Next is what needs to be done to fix it.
First if the tranny doesn't shift into neutral, you need to unjam it. If it is a side shift tranny, remove the shift linkages from the shift arms and move the arms to their center detent position. This should put it in neutral (check). Put the shift linkage back on with the shifter in neutral. The linkage should drop into the shifter arms without moving the arms or the linkage out of the neutral position.

If the tranny goes into neutral but the pressure plate does not move away from the disk when the pedal is depressed: If the throwout bearing is moving and pressing the fingers on the pressure plate, then something is wrong with the pressure plate. (we can save dealing with the throwout bearing being tight and no pedal freeplay after figuring out what is wrong with the clutch operation) I have never worked with an externally adjustable pressure plate plate, but I'd guess you messed something up when you "adjusted" it. Maybe someone more familiar with this type pressure plate can tell you what the adjusters do, and how to get it back into it's proper configuration, or you may need to take it out to get it reset. If you are talking about the 3 nuts that are in the face of the cover over the fingers, You messed up big time. Those are set with spring tension gauge when the pressure plate is (re)built. You cannot reset them yourself. You need to take the pressure plate out and take it to a rebuilder or buy another one.

If the pressure plate is moving away from the disk but the disk does not turn, and is not rusted to the flywheel (this sometimes happens with clutches that have set for quite some time in wet conditions) The disk is jammed. This sometimes happens when the disk does not line up with the trans input shaft splines when installing, or the disk is installed backwards. Either condition requires removal of the tranny and clutch, inspection of the disk and input shaft splines for damage and verification that the disk is the right way around when installed.

While the tranny is out (I'm pretty sure you'll need to take it out unless the tranny is jammed in gear) verify that you have the correct throwout bearing installed. If it is then you will need to change or adjust the clutch linkage to allow freeplay at the pedal Typically about 1/2" of freeplay before the bearing starts pressing on the pressure plate fingers when pressing the pedal with your hand but check the manufacturer's spec.. Make sure there is a return spring on the throwout arm.

 

Clutch is in correct. Guess I messed up "big time" because those are the bolts I loosened to get the pp to bolt up easier. The tranny shifts fine and I'll check the other tests but I'm pretty sure that's gonna be the problem. I can see the pp coming away from the clutch. Good thing is they are accessable if I can figure out what to do for them. If not, I'll take it out and go from there. Thanks ya'll. I'll let you know how it turns out when I get back to it.

 

Ugh! Not good to hear. I don't know what you can do with it yourself. If you don't get it just right, the clutch will drag and/or chatter on engagement.
Next time you put a pressure plate in, if you don't have a pilot tool (I never use one), find a couple long bolts that match the threads in the flywheel cut the heads off and cut a screwdriver slot across the shank. Put them in the flywheel @ 4 and 8 o'clock position. Now you can place the disk on the two bolts and slide the pressure plate on over them. start a bolt in at the 12 O'clock position. Start in the rest of the bolts. remove the two pilot bolts and replace with the proper bolts. Move the disk around until it is centered (flush with or slightly inside the pressure plate disk, depending on the size relationship, and keep adjusting it as necessary as you tighten the bolts snug all around. Torque the bolts to the spec torque using a star pattern similar to tightening a wheel. Install the throwout bearing, the clutch fork and the clutch linkage. adjust the linkage until the bearing is held in place. Put a lite coat of wheel bearing grease on the last inch of end of the splines and the end that goes into the pilot bearing on the tranny input shaft. Jack or lift the tranny up move one of the gear selectors into a gear, and slide it forwards thru the bearing and into the clutch disk. move the tranny forwards as far as it will easily go, keeping the tranny mounting surface parallel to the face of the bellhousing and the indexing ring (usually the outside of the input shaft bearing retainer) lined up with the hole in the bell housing. If the input shaft hangs up on the disk splines rotate the tranny about a 1/8 turn side to side while pushing forwards on it. If it still doesn't easily slide home, have a helper press the clutch pedal about 3/4 of the way down to barely release the disk Don't push it all the way in or the disk could drop onto the smaller pilot position of the input shaft (should that happen have your helper push the clutch all the way in and move the disk back up with a screwdriver, hold it there and release the clutch and try again). Now unless the tranny is going in at an angle it should slide home.
Alternate method: tie the clutch disk to the pressure plate disk with thin string like kite string in 3 or 4 places. install the assembly to the flywheel and install the tranny as above. after the tranny is bolted to the bellhousing, whie holding the clutch in cut and remove the strings. If need be turn the engine over with a breaker bar on the crankshaft nose bolt, or use a pry bar in the starter ring gear teeth against the bell housing to reach a string that ended up in the top of the bellhousing.

 

Thanks, The best lessons learned are the hard ones. The thing I don't understand is I can see the pp coming away from the clutch but it still isn't releasing. I realize there's something wrong and it needs to be corrected but when it's all said and done the pp should be releasing the clutch if I can see it moving.

 

The three bolts on the cover are screwed into the pivot blocks for the fingers, they are to be tightened to a specific torque so they never loosen. It does no good to loosen them. If you loosened them when the PP was installed all the way to the flywheel, with the disc in, I don't think it does any harm either, but you need to tighten them good.

Picture shows the back side of the PP and the arrow points to the pivot block.

If the disc isn't touching the PP with the clutch pedal pushed down, it's also possible your pilot bushing/bearing is seized up. Is it a ball bearing or bushing?

 

ALBQU F1..It's a bushing, I miked it before installation and it was fine. The clutch still had the writing on the friction disc and everything looked new. It was my understanding that the po had just installed everything new. Think I'll try adjusting those bolts one turn at a time and see if there's improvement. I still don't understand why the clutch doesn't disengage when the pp is obviously backing off of the clutch. I know the clutch isn't sticking to the flywheel because I had them apart. Think I'll pull the starter plate and see if the clutch will turn when the pressure is off the pp. Noticed you have an FX. Maybe if it ever gives you issues I can return the help you've given me. You can check us out @ indiancreekcycles.net and there's a link to indiancreekcycles on Facebook.As allways, THANK YOU!

Hubert

 

Was the clutch working fine before you pulled the tranny? Not clear what was what before you tried to drive it? There have been problems with the wrong clutch disc, see here: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ems-still.html

 

That's an interesting picture Ross. I've never seen a PP with adjustable fingers. What was their purpose? is there no other way of adjusting the clutch free play?

Tiredol, are you 100% certain the disk is in the right way around? The protruding side of the hub goes towards the tranny.

 

Actually that's where I read that the bolts were bottomed out. Yes, when I drove it home it worked just fine (other than 1st gear that was shot) . I did change the tranny to a four speed that you said was a T9 after I described it to you. I'm gonna try some of these suggestions tommorrow and I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again!
Hubert

 

AX, the bolts on the fingers were simply a way to ensure that all 3 fingers were at an identical height. Unlike a diaphragm clutch with many very flexible fingers, the Long-type clutch has only 3 very rigid fingers. It's essential they be hitting the release bearing all at once.

 

'biker, in that other thread the issue was ultimately that the 4-sp uses a disc with a shorter hub than the 3-sp. Skip to the last pages.