I need help guys and girls. I have a 1949 ford f1 truck I am restoring with a period correct flathead v8 and 3 speed manual floor shift.
The rebuild shop installed a 11" long style clutch and I though all was fine until I installed the transmission. all bolted together fine and I looked through the inspection opening and the three fingers on the clutch are a full 1" away from the throwout bearing. what gives here? any ideas? this sure will not work.

 

How was the 11" clutch determined to be appropriate? I believe that 10" was standard.

 

the motor is built as an 8rt so the 11" clutch would be a "truck" clutch

 

The Shop Manual only shows the 10" clutch for the 3 speed. The 4 speed used the larger version.

 

thanks for your help here. I also have a 4 speed trans that I bolted up just to see how it would fit and the same situation occurred. the fingers do not touch the throwout bearing - about 1/2" away.
Does the 10" clutch have the same bolt pattern as the 11" - three sets of two holes on the flywheel?

 

The 10 and 11 inch clutches use different holes, 1/2" further out for the 11 inch but still 3 x 2 pattern.

The 11" was used with the 3-sp HD trans and 4-sp spur gear (non-synchro) trans; the 10" with the 3-sp Light Duty. You can use an 11" with the 3-sp's but you can't use a 10" with the 4-sp.

It's entirely possible that you just need to adjust the linkage. As a disc wears, the fingers move rearward. Now with a fresh disc they are as far forward as they'll get. Plus you had the flywheel surfaced, that makes a little difference.

There are discs from china that are thicker than spec, too, and that retracts the fingers even further. If that is your situation, you may have trouble getting it to release.

Do not adjust the fingers! Did the shop rebuild the pressure plate? or is it one they ordered in?

PS -- are you sure you got the throwout collar into the fork correctly?

 

thanks for the info. my 4 speed is a spur gear 4 speed as you stated.
my foot pedal moves the throwout bearing about 1" on the smooth part of the input shaft. this works fine. the throwout bearing is doing its job its just does not move to contact the fingers. the clutch was a 11" remanufactured from a ford parts supply store so I assume it is correct.

 

The 11" clutch is correct for the T87D Warner HD 3 speed. This is the flywheel that I have been trying to find a ring gear for which has been impossible to find. Mine is not yet installed (due to the ring gear issue) so I am no help here. Hopefully you find a solution as I may have the same issue. Does your transmission use the 2 piece bellhousing/clutch cover?

 

Can you post pictures of the clutch linkage and throwout bearing? This may be a case where a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

my transmission is one piece. the flathead engine has a cast iron separate bellhousing to cover the clutch and pressure plate.

 

So you have a Light Duty 3-sp, if the trans has half of the bellhousing cast as part of the trans case.

Have you tried adjusting the clutch linkage? At the clevis inside the frame rail?

Did you remove the cross-shaft and fork as part of the rebuild? Any chance the fork is in backwards?

 

how do I attach a picture

 

And you can definitely put the fork on backwards. It is offset to one side and would sit back too far if installed backwards.

 

Unless you are a Supporter on this site, you need to post the pictures in an Album in your Gallery (here), or put it on Photobucket/Flicker/etc and link to them.

 

i have a 10" clutch with a Light Duty 3 speed in my f1. we put in new disk, PP, throw out bearing, pilot, on a resurfaced flywheel. the clutch wouldn't engage, even with clevis adjusted all the way out. we ended up welding up an extension to the rod that threads into the clevis to get the clutch to disengage. since i'm driving it 400 miles, wearing it in, i have adjusted it back in a few turns of the clevis. our clutch set was "new" ordered through Early Ford V-8 (prob from china?).