Clutch Woes

Got the new parts and reinstalled. Still not working, with the pedal fully depressed the clutch fork only moves 1/2". Between the pedal assemble twisting, body flex, cable flex, etc. there is not enough movement to depress/release clutch. I'm giving up on the cable and going to hydraulic.

 

Don't blame you. I would have done it before this many attempts.

 

Yeah, hydraulic is the way to go in my book. My only advice on that subject is to stay away from the aftermarket pull style slaves. I have been using them for a while and I burn through them about once a year, they eat their own O-rings. It is easy to replace the O-rings but why bother when there are plenty of factory slaves that work great and are typically cheaper. I am swapping to a factory hydraulic bell housing and slave next time the motor is out.

 

Have you compared the throwout bearing carrier? Same one or changed out? I have seen different length ones that can cause issues like you are having.
If you do end up going hydraulic, I would stay away from the hydraulic throwout bearings. I hate these things! You have to pull the transmission to fix the leaking TO setup.
I have had good luck using Toyota slave cylinders (push style) from 1980's models.
-Donny

 

Well I finally got around to getting the hydraulic clutch set up in. I used Ozfins design( Thanks Ozfin!). The fork and pedal move freely and the slave cylinder moves a little more than an inch. The throw out bearing depresses about 3/4" into the pressure plate. Everything felt good but still the clutch does not release. Took the clutch out and assembled the clutch kit on an extra flywheel and put it in the press and depressed 1/2" it released fully. Earlier I put the trans in with no bell housing and the clutch plate is not jambed against the flywheel. I also read the Novack clutch troubleshooting guide and don't seem to have any of the issues. I'm stumped at the moment. But I love the challenge.

 

You should check how the input shaft fits the pilot bushing. At least three people on this forum have had issues with that in the last year. They were too tight causing the input shaft to turn with the engine clutch or no clutch. Symptoms similar to yours.

 

I put in a new pilot bushing just to rule it out and it made it much worse. The bushing fit on the input shaft nicely before installation, but after installing it in the crank the input shaft would not fit in it. Tried searching for other threads about this and couldn't find them. Any thoughts? Talk about bad luck.

 

Here's a bunch of related threads/posts from the last 9 months. It's probably worth reaming the ID of the bushing post install.

Help Me Get My T18 Clutch Released!Did I Install My Clutch Disk Backwards?
A Full Restoration Of My 1969 Cj5 With The Dauntless
Never Doing Another Project !!
New Clutch Not Releasing 1957 Fc150
Clutch Pilot Bushing
Cj5 V6 225 Clutch/pilot Bushing Headach,

 

This sure sounds frustrating. I wish you the best of luck with figuring it out!

 

Looks like you've got it narrowed down to the bushing. You probably can ream it out to size, although I do recall that McRuff said not to sand them out but rather it should be cut or drilled out, sanding will clog the pores of the bushing. Maybe he will see this and comment on the best method to get it to the correct size.

 

Finally got it, shifts nice and smooth after resizing the pilot bushing. Ended up being three issues:
1) The clutch cable setup in 70 and 71 Commandos SUCK! Go to hydraulic, not a big deal to install.
2) Do not assume the clutch kit you order is correct. Mine came with the wrong throw out bearing and the clutch plate jammed against the flywheel. I needed a longer throw out bearing and had to machine some from the clutch disc hub. Also a longer clutch fork pivot stud.
3) Pilot bushing was binding. Even though I tried the new bushing on the input shaft prior to install and felt good, it seemed to get smaller after install and the input shaft would not fit in it. After resizing it everything worked fine.
Thanks to all who helped especially Ozfin with Hydraulic setup and Fireball who got me wondering about the pilot bushing. Maybe an extra beer tonite

 

That's great news, I'm glad you got it figured out!

 

X 2

Success !!

 

Whoohoo!