Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train Is my clutch disc too thick or close to the flywheel?

My question is how much distance should there be between the disc when the clutch pedal is pushed in and the flywheel? I only have approximately .060 and this doesn't seem like it's enough, but then again I didn't measure my Saginaw clutch before I took it out. Keep in mind that the pedal is fully pressed to the floor. I left about 1/8" gap between the clutch fork and the t.o. bearing before it makes contact.

Some background:
I'm installing a T-5 into my truck behind my I6 and am using a 1985 Camaro T-5. I got the Borg Warner clutch pack #90160 which is for a 1985 Camaro to match the splines on the transmission. The thickness is the same as the clutch for what I had on there which was a 1970 Saginaw- both 1-1/8".

The pic below is taken from underneath the truck looking up and shows the gap. (approx. .060)

A related question is, before I installed the transmission I could shift into all the gears but now I can only shift into one gear and neutral. It seems that this is odd and I'm not sure if that's related to the clutch or if I just need to readjust the travel on the stock shifter as a result of it's new home in the truck.

1/16" between disc and flywheel is fine.

Did it go into all the gears before you installed it?

Did you try rotating the tailshaft?

Thanks gearhead. Yes, it shifted into all the gears before I installed it. I tried rotating the driveshaft and I can in neutral and 1 other gear. I spun the flywheel too to see if that would help but problem is still there. Tomorrow or Thursday I'll check the t.o. bearing and see if I should install the longer one off my Saginaw. I'm also going to double check that my clutch disc is install with the correct side facing the flywheel. Also going to check to see if the shifter itself is installed backwards.

I too am having this problem. I installed a s10 t-5 to my stock 250 bell housing using a flywheel, clutch, pressure plate and throwout bearing from an astro, 14 spline 11". I had a 9 1/8" clutch with some flywheel and pressure plate and the clutch tore up quickly (have no idea about the flywheel and pressure plate and neither did the parts stores). Since all the parts are from the same vehicle, why does it not diengage? The pressure plate does not move no matter how far I adjust it.

If this has been answered some where just send me there, I will continue to search.

You may have to extend the input shaft splines back toward the transmission with a die grinder or dremel tool. This has been covered.

Hey 69chevytruck. I had a similar experience when I put a T5 in to replace my Muncie SM 465 trans that had an 11" clutch. I bought the astro van 11" clutch package which included the 11", 14 spline, x 1" dia hub disc, pressure plate, throwout bearing, and pilot bearing. When I installed it all I got was grinding when trying to shift into reverse, and it flat would not even begin to go into any other gear. I concluded that the bell housing depth on the SM 465 is deeper than an astro van bell housing and the astro van pressure plate fingers did not stick out towards the throw out bearing enough for the bearing arm to push far enough to make adequate contact. I ended up using the astro van clutch disc, but I used the stock chevy 11" pressure plate and throwout bearing. I used my stock bell housing as it has the boss on it for my bearing fork arm. I kept my stock flywheel as it seems to be in good shape. You can use the pilot bearing or a stock bushing, no matter. I also "massaged" the input shaft splines on the T5 just like in the images on Fla54chevy3100 (Dave's)webshots. You must do this!! After that it works.
Hope this will help and encourage you.
EV

I just noticed this thread again and thought I'd post my findings. The gap shown above is perfectly fine and in fact could be slightly less (I adjusted it even closer after that was taken). Also, regarding my shifter problem- it was indeed put in backwards. After rotating it 180*, it worked just fine.