Clutch pedal play problem

#1

Putting dads engine back in and have clutch problems. 6 puck clutch and UUC pressure plate. There is a ton of play in the fork from its resting position to where the bearing hits the pressure plate, so much so that when the space cylinder is installed it doesn’t compress at all. Used all the same parts from the last install (bearing was new) but a different brand of slave because the old one fell apart. The only thing I can think is the fork is from a dual mass. Ideas? Solutions without having to pull it out? Extend the slave piston rod?

#2

I had this same problem some years ago. Really made me crazy. R/R’d the tranny 5x before I figured out what the problem was. The pressure plate I was installing was a little nonstandard and required a taller thrust bearing.

#3

So what can I do without dropping the trans? Also where do u get the larger bearing?

#4

Can’t do anything w/o dropping the transmission, sorry. I would give the outfit that sold you the kit a call and tell them what’s going on. I’ve never heard of a clutch slave with a longer rod, nor a differently shaped clutch fork. Might exist, sure, but I didn’t come across them when I was tearing my hair out over the same problem. In one of my efforts, I even fabbed a longer clutch slave rod as I got increasingly desperate.

That narrows it down to the thrust bearing and the little pivot pin that the other end of the fork rests on. You can get pivot pins that are a mm or 3 taller, but the taller pivot pin doesn’t move the pressure plate much.

My guess is that the pressure plate is non-standard and needs to be pushed farther forward to release. The way to do that is with a taller thrust bearing. I’d give the outfit a call and talk about whats going on and the ideas here re. overcoming this.

Alternately, I have several new and low mileage pressure plates up in my attic. They all take the OEM thrust bearing.

#5

Patton and I stumbled onto something similar a few years back, I think it was a street car, but a mixture of ETA and ‘i’ components resulted in the clutch slave cylinder rod did not depress the fork enough to make the TOB activate the clutch.

Redneck solution? a medium sized round (philips) screwdriver approx same diameter as the slave cylinder rod. Cut off the ends and make a replacement slave cylinder rod. Cut and test, cut and test, rinse and repeat until the length was right. Worth a shot before you resort to pulling it all apart.

#6

Thanks for that idea. I read it right as I finished removing the engine :(. Oh well at least I know what else to do. So i have the early eta which is 3/8" deeper which explains some things. Ask have a SPEC HD pressure plate which I don’t know if it is the same depth as OEM (it’s not light so don’t freak out). By measuring the additional 5mm allowance for the taller bearing, that removes 1" of travel in the fork but that still leaves about 2 more inches. My question now is when installing the slave cylinder, how much should the fork travel before the slave cylinder begins to compress?