Clutch does not work followup- is this idea plausible?

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:52 pm

Gentlemen,
A friend of mine who use to drag race Chev Novas presented the thought and asked me if a competition clutch was installed, possibly with a thicker disc. He speculated that a thicker disc may be just enough to not allow the clutch to fully disengage, thereby not allowing me to shift the car into or out of gear. He stated that he had run in to that problem (thicker disc)on occasion with his Nova. Do I have this right ? He presented the thought that I could possibly ride the clutch just enough to wear down the disc to the point that it would then be possible to shift gears. Is this a far fetched idea or is there some merit to the thought? If he is correct what are the down sides to his idea? In addition to driving around riding the clutch in first or second gear. I know I sound stupid here, I am just grasping at straws here looking for a reason to not take the engine and transmission out. I have not yet looked into the suggestion from Ray B. PS --I have adjusted my slave cylinder to the point that I only have about 2 or 3 threads left on the pushrod with no change in clutch status. Still does not disengage.

Post by **Datrock** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:21 pm

Tim, here is a thought, you mentioned that you installed a new slave cylinder. If you still have your old one , take it and compare it to the new one to see if the length between the 2 mounting holes and the large open end, piston hole, match up. The new one maybe shorter. Also compare the length of the new rod to the old rod.. The new slave cylinder parts must match your old ones to work correctly.

As for driving the car to wear in the clutch.. don't.... Bill

spyder · Post by **spyder** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:45 pm

As far as a thicker clutch, you should be able to adjust the nuts on the slave shaft. A backwards disk, done it to keep the crappy centerforce pressure plate aligned. It worked O.K. until I broke loose the outer mounts. It still worked but made grinding noise with the clutch pressed. Misaligned shift rods in the tranny being out of position shouldn't be an issue with the clutch disengaged.

This is a head scratcher!

Could you have contaminated the disk with oil?

O.K. Plan "B", put the car in 4th, press in clutch, start car, revup to see what smokes. It will do one of 2 things, get better or worse. If it gets better, problem solved. If it gets worse it was broke anyway, time to pull motor. "JIM, IF YOU DECIDE TO ACCEPT THIS MISSION THE AGENCY WILL DISAVOW ANY KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR EXISTENCE, GOOD LUCK JIM!"

steve68 · Post by **steve68** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:17 pm

i had this exact problem.And all i had to do was adjust the pushrod on the slave cylinder. It worked before and after it didn't..now it works

Steve

Post by **dbrick** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:11 pm

Steve brings up a great point, Go over everything that has changed, one at a time since the clutch last worked. This problem is very wierd, so the solution should be very simple. Finding it may not be easy, but if it was easy, it's no fun.

steve68 · Post by **steve68** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:29 pm

i used the same clutch even, left the tranny in the car!!!! and still got out of whack!?! weird, but im glad thats all it was..just remember to leave at least 1in of slack in the clutch pedal.

Steve