Clutch won't disengage

I stopped by the shop yesterday, will do it in a few weeks. Owner has a 62 Vette and a 57 Belair and is a GM man all the way, so I'm confident he knows how to work on these things...knew all about the hanger set-up without me even telling him and he will do the rear main seal and oil pan gasket, clean the pickup tube, oil valve, etc. at the same time, knows the whole deal about raising the engine and removing the front cross member too....

Vantasia, you found the right guy!

Great photos, Don! Really shows it all clearly.

Since there are only 3 bolts holding the engine and transmission to the van, we don't normally remove the crossmember and oil pan with the transmission out,,,,,,,the engine has to hang there,,,,,so they are not going to do this on a lift,,,,we would normally do the clutch, put the transmission back in, put a bar across the doghouse,,,,,,chain the engine to it, drop the crossmember and oil pan so we dont disturb the wiring and hoses that are still attached to the engine,,,,,,,, then everything stays in alignment,,,,,,,,,

donivan65 wrote:Since there are  only 3 bolts holding the engine and transmission to the van, we don't normally remove the crossmember and oil pan with the transmission out,,,,,,,the engine has to hang there,,,,,so they are not going to do this on a lift,,,,we would normally do the clutch, put the transmission back in,  put a bar across the doghouse,,,,,,chain the engine to it, drop the crossmember and oil pan so we dont disturb the wiring and hoses that are still attached to the engine,,,,,,,, then everything stays in alignment,,,,,,,,,

I will explain that to them but he seemed know how to do it, said it had been a few years, but he'd done it before...I'm gonna show him your pics of the bar and chain and the rotated tranny I saved from here....

I am just giving you some tips,,,,,,,some information that you can bring up to find out their plan,,,,,now if they meant they will also do the rear main AFTER they got done with the clutch, that would make more sense to me,,,,,,but it is a good idea to let them know your concerns, before they do something that everyone regrets,,,,,like lowering the transmission too much while the fan blade cuts into the radiator, for instance......

I take 2 jack stands, lay a pipe across them and chain the engine up to it,,,then you can remove the motor mounts, crossmember and oil pan to get to the rear main oil seal without disturbing the wiring, hoses and linkages,,,,,,HOWEVER, I would never do this if the rear transmission mount was not holding everything in place,,,,,,

Great series of pics, I will print them and show them.....luv ya gov!

well then== whats the verdict ?? ever get this torn down & identified??

Well,,,,seems like Leftcoast is out of town,,,,,his van is in VanAgains driveway,,,,blocking it in,,,its going to be in the 90's today,,,,I think I will drive down there to the Pacific Ocean from my home in the mountains and drop off some of my old parts,,,,, and they can sort out what the problem, or problems,,,,are........

sounds like a "cluster------" there with the clutch! Maybe they never looked @ the origional,& new one to begin with?? comparisons?Hope they knew to get that flywheel surfaced?? Only ever clutch problem ive ever encountered was one that had the throwout bearing badly installed & wore out the pressure plate contact area. Ill guess that disc was installed backwards or to bearing was wrong one?

Youre sure a great guy for all thye help!!

He found one pressure plate bolt broken off in his flywheel,,,so the last shop left it that way,,,,I gave him a good flywheel,,,,,but I 'll get more pictures later today,,,,,but you got to admit,,,,this surely gets us a lot of information on clutches,,,,,,,,and thats what we come here for,,,,,,,learn how to keep our Earlys on the road ,,,,sometimes what not to do is more important than what to do,,,,,

With the back of the van jacked up, we were able to pull the tranny back out of the way and just leave it strapped to the jack. Don suggested I stick a ruler in the back opening of the bell housing and measure the distance from there to the fingers of the pressure plate, so we could compare it to the spare parts he brought.  I measured from one tooth got one number but then when I measured the tooth opposite that one I got a different number, at least 1/4" different! This led us to remove the bell housing to see what was going on.



I could see there was a gap between pressure plate and the flywheel on all the bolts on one side. Maybe 3/32". I figured they forgot to do the final tightening of these bolts but when I put a wrench on them, I couldn't tighten them any further. So now I figured the bolts were too long and bottoming out. However, it turns out that the holes go all the way through the flywheel. I don't know what the problem was with those deeper threads but I ran a tap through them all and a couple were so bad I thought I might break the tap (and then we'd have a new problem). (This was not a brand new flywheel.) After that we were able to get the pressure plate to tighten up against the flywheel all the way around. This brought the fingers in and the longer throwout bearing now had plenty of room!

This is a photo of Don's spare clutch assy with one side loosened to show what happens. Leftcoast's wasn't quite this lopsided but you can see the problem. The raised fingers made it so the throwout bearing would not fit between them and the clutch fork.



I know we'll get no sympathy from those of you back east but we had a hot day for doing this job. The Santa Ana winds made this thirsty work.

Oh, and I couldn't believe how quickly Don got that old pilot bearing out! Helps to have the right tool. The new bearing made it difficult to get the tranny slid back in there but this was the time to do it, along with the new clutch.

Great teamwork guys! Test drive results?

Awesome work guys. Glad to see this problem has been resolved.

You guys can vandalize my van anytime you'd like!!!

now??curious here as to the lenght of "Shoulder"on those bolts ?? Too long a shoulder will cause this problem as they will bottom out in the flywheel--- without being secured on the presure plate to flywheel=loose pp. Possibly the new pp was a thinner one =mounting wise than the old one?? Allowing the bolts to bottom out on the bolts shoulder?? Just another =Quality Job -by an auto repair shop!?!

,,,,,,,,,,after him driving it for a day,,,,,,I got an S O S text from him just now,,,,,,saying the clutch is making noise,,,,,,,,,,,,he is going to park it,,,,,,,,,so I guess this story aint over,,,,,,,,

Good luck and drive safe!

,,,,,,,,,maybe its 2004R or 700R4 time for him,,,,,,,

Hopefully it just needs adjustment or something simple

,,,,,maybe the clip broke on the clutch fork and the fork or bearing is banging around in there,,,,,or the fork came off the ball,,,,,so lets see what LeftCoast finds,,,,,,,,,the van had a really long adjusting rod added to get that short bearing to reach the fingers, but I don't know what got put back on it this time,,,,,