Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train clutch will not disingage

just changed my 216 for a 235 and now am haveing trouble with my clutch it wont disinguage every thing is replaced in the right order I am stumped any ideas? the rod that goes from the adjuster to the yoke maybe? it was a litle worn but worked with the 216 is the lenth different ? any help would be great as always its great to talk with you guys

I am not familiar with the diff. between the 216 and 235. I do know that it does not take much additional throw to make a cluch disengauge or not. Temp. adjust the rod with no play and see it it make a difference... do not leave it that way or the T/O won't last long.

I had some floor pans installed on mine incorrectly and did not allow the pedal to travel far enough... took along time to find. I pulled the trany many frustating times. The solution was to remove the rubber bumper at the top of the pedal travel for now...which provided more throw and waalaa.

I would try these things before you pull the tranny again. Verify more travel will not make the clutch disengauge 1st.... then figure why you need more travel or where you are loosing travel.

Clyde

I'm in the same club with Clyde as far as not actually having done the 216 to 235 swap. The thought I had was which clutch fork is being used?
If the pivot ratio is more than it should be then the movement of the pressure plate might not be enough to completely release the clutch disc. Pedal travel may be enough but when all the geometry of the linkage and fork ratios are added in you simply may not have enough travel at the throw out bearing. If it is any help I discovered when building the clutch linkage for the 250 in my 37 Chevy that the throw out bearing needed a little less than 3/4 inch travel to completely release the pressure plate. This is a standard 10.4 inch diaphragm clutch and is operated with a clutch fork that has a 2 to 1 ratio - the part of the fork outside the bellhousing needs to move about 1 & 1/2 inches to push the t.o. brg @ 3/4 inch. The pedal can move a mile but it's what is happening at the clutch fork that will matter.

Hope at least it gives you a place to begin checking before tearing things all apart.

Mike

Dear 50C;

All of your 216 (l950 Chev) stuff should work just fine on any 235.

You may have gotten a "short collar" throw out bearing into the mix some how.

Good luck, John M.......

Hey 50chevy,
Let us know what you find. I always enjoy a good clutch story. ;- )

62 clyde thanks for your intrest, I am on my secsond round of removing my tranny and still no luck it was working when I started this whole thing. I am using same clutch plate t/o bearing as they all new 100 miles back I have the same bellhousing and clutch linkage as befour its a mystry to me still need any help you can offer stumped in Omaha 50 chevy

Could the clutch be in backwards. Its easy to do.

52pu

Did you try to adjust it where there was no free play in the pedal? This would help prove it is disk friction causing the problem. Then to figure out what is causing the friction?

The cause could be pilot bearing.

A bad pilot bearing could spin the shaft and cause the problem...but would not have much ability to apply power to the wheels. Push in the clutch... put it in gear...then bump the starter and see if the car rolls. If it does I would say it is related to disk friction for sure.... not pilot bearing.

Dear 52;

52pu may be right. If the disc was wrong or installed backwards this would happen.

I saw a disc missmarked "flywheel side" once & just lucky I caught it in time.

I made this error when I was 14 & my first clutch job etc.

Good luck, John M.....

Dear 50C;

I would just start over.

The parts/components that worked before are probably not the issue. So; double check all the new/different ones.

A parts clerk may have given you the wrong parts.

Inspect the springs in the hup (center of disc). They go toward the transmission. If you installed it backward they would have hit the flyweel bolts & be marked in some way.

The rest you know.

Good luck, John M....

OK, I am having the same problem with my clutch. I have tried adjusting it to extremes both directions with no real luck.

Someone mentioned the clutch being installed backwards..... I hate to ask (for fear I may have done it).....which direction should the clutch face?

Dave
53 chevy half ton
230 ci with manual 3speed

Did you check to see if a direction mark was stamped on the clutch hub showing the side that goes against the flywheel?

I am not sure it would matter which way the disk was... as long as it did not hit the bolts. Mine is installed with the springs toward the bolts...but they do not hit the bolt heads.

My 2 cents

Clyde

Gentlemen;

Looking at the disc from the edge, the hub holding the coil springs is offset. Although one can see the coils from both sides, the 'offset'portion goes toward the transmission (inside clutch assembly) to operate.

If installed backward the hub will hit the flywheel, locking up the clutch. Sometimes it won't completly lock & the disc will gring on the flywheel bolts.

Most clutch sets are rebuilt and have a sticker on the disc saying "flywheel side". These usually are correct but can be on the wrong side.

This may have happend to you.

John M.........

Did you use the 216 bellhousing or one from the 235? The clutch fork and throwout arm may not match. You should be able to get it all to work pretty easily, though, I am running a '62 261 with an 11" clutch and flywheel with a 216 bellhousing. I just had to dig around to find the right release bearing to let the clutch engage all the way. It seems my pressure plate is pretty tall.

You can safely run the engine with the sheet metal shell on the bottom of the bellhousing removed. You should be able to have someone step on the clutch (with the engine off) to see if the release arm is pushing on the throwout bearing and the pressure plate springs are moving. If they are, you may have installed the disc backwards.

This happen to me when i installed a diff engine for some reason got clutch disc in a bind would not realese. so i backed the four bolts on tranny off enought to wiggle tranny and then started it and bam clutch works fine.

How did this turn out? As a side question, would the input shaft/pilot bearing require any grease on istallation? Or just stab the trans into the bushing?

I am with those who belive that the disk may be in backwards.

Also, what is your free travel on the pedal? It should be someewhere between 1/2 and 1 inch.
Take your hand and push the pedal down until you feel the release bearing contact the fingers on the pressure plate and give a serious resistance.

If you are using the same clutch, pressure plate, release bearing, fork and bellhousing that you used before you shouldn't have a problem.
If the flywheel you are using now has been surfaced more than just a little and the disk is in backwards the disk will come into contact with the flywheel bolt heads more easily than it did before.
The only other thing that hasn't been mentioned is the possibility of a severely warped disk due to allowing the weight of the transmission hang on it. That doesn't happen often but it can happen. usually the result is clutch that grabs a bit when being applied because it isn't making contact smoothly.

No lubrication is needed on the (imput shaft) splines, or the bushing.

If you were to put some there; it would "find It's way" to the flywheel/disc & the clutch would slip etc.

Good luck.

I hate to agree with what 52pu said, but when I read your post, that was the first thing that popped into my mind.........(thinks to self) "Hmmmm, sounds like the clutch disc is in backwards." If I recall, another member posted the same problem about a year ago. When some guys suggested his disc was in wrong, I got all paranoid and wondered if I may have messed up when putting my clutch in. ( At that time I had installed my tranny, but was nowhere near ready to fire up the engine)After much worrying that I messed up yet another part of my project, my brother emailed me some pics of what it should look like when installed correctly. Whew!....my mind was relieved!