jerome951

Hi Everyone,

Yes, I'm still playing with my clutch and have run into basically the same problem as before. You may remember my clutch drama from last week:
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...eferrerid=7375
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...eferrerid=7375
I don't think I've ever done a repair on my car that's kicking my *** so badly [note to admins, we need a "getting kicked in the ***" smiley. Will come in useful on this board].

I have the clutch assembled and installed (KEP stage 1 PP, 930 disk), slave in, and the torque tube in position and bolted down (not yet torqued to the clutch housing).

I wanted to make sure the clutch is releasing properly before I hoist up the tranny, put in the starter, etc.. Unfortunately, the clutch isn't releasing (I can't turn the tranny end of the driveshaft by hand) when the clutch pedal is pressed. I can turn the ring gear so the flywheel/pressure plate isn't bound.

Here's what I'm seeing....
The clutch pedal won't go all the way down to the floor. Turns out the cup end of the fork is hitting on the housing before the pedal is fully depressed (see pics below), and I guess not moving enough to take the pressure off the disk. There is some resistance in the clutch pedal.

As you can see from the below pics showing the slave resting and fully extended positions, the fork isn't moving very far when I release the pedal, and this is the same position the fork is in before the slave is installed. I've removed the pivot shaft a couple times and tried to reposition the fork, thinking the fork was riding on top of the release bearing rather than under it. However, the fork only seems to want to go into this position.

Does the fork need to be positioned under the bearing before the housing is completely mated to the engine case? I haven't tried that yet.

Unfortunately I can't see through the inspection hole along the fork to verify the fork is catching the bearing. It's just too tight to the housing to see in there.

Without the slave installed, the cup end of the fork won't move much (only a mm or so) longitudinally to the car.

Any thoughts before I roll the car out into the driveway and light it on fire???? That's crossed my mind a few times. At least it would warm me up after being in my 45 degree garage...

Thanks in advance for any advice you can lend.
Jerome

Van

Jerome - 2 new thoughts for you... Is this the same flywheel you had before? And, is this the same clutch fork as you had before?

Obviously something is "in the wrong place"... It seems to me that somehow the throwout bearing is "too far back" towards the rear of the car - by a bit (1/4" maybe). After looking at your pictures of how the KEP pressure plate is a little shorter than the stock one, it could be like something's 3/8" off...

Is your flywheel bolted onto the end of the crank correctly? Can you look down the TDC ref sensor hole and see if the set screw is properly lined up?

Are you using the same bell housing? I once helped a friend do a clutch, and after getting it all together, the engine wouldn't turn over... We put the wrong bell housing on, and it was pressing against the ring gear preventing the flywheel from moving. Put the right bell housing on, then there was enough clearance.

In fact, after recalling that story, I'd bet you have some issue like that. I bet you have an '86 bell housing with an '87+ block... or whatever - but the opposite problem from what my friend had.

jerome951

Hey Van,
Housing and fork are the same as I took off. Flywheel & PP aren't binding (I can turn them). There is some wear on the fork. I don't have a pic, but the wear surface is just slightly below the part that doesn't ride on the bearing.

Flywheel was resurfaced and measured to be 0.002 under minimum thickness. Actually, I think a thicker flywheel would make the problem worse.

While I didn't put a ruler on the pressure plates, they visually appeared to be the same thickness, but I might not have noticed a 1/4" difference. I did contact KEP to verify I had the correct PP and they verified.

Flywheel should be bolted down properly but I haven't had a chance to look down the TDC hole yet. I did set the speed sensor depth from the ring gear before putting the housing on and they appeared to be lined up.

samluke

If you still have the original pressure plate and friction disc, you might want to re assemble with those and see where the fork sits. If it looks correct, then you could change one item at a time to see where the problem is. Ie try the KEP first to see if thats where the problem is. It almost sounds like its the KEP pressure plate hanging up on the flywheel lip. But if that were the case it would probably interfere with the bellhousing.

If it looks wrong with the stock parts then its something in the crankshaft, bellhousing, release fork or something.

Better to be patient and figure it out.

jerome951

Thanks Richard. I did verify the PP is seated to the flywheel after torquing the PP bolts.

I think my next step is going to be sliding back the torque tube and housing (hoping the disk doesn't slip down) a bit to verify the fork ends are under the bearing. If not, the extra clearance to the housing may allow me to position the fork correctly and tighten the housing back down.

If that doesn't work then I'll pull everything apart again and substitute 1 component at a time.