clutch question

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Paladin1001

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So now I'm stumped, I replaced the cable with a factory Ford piece, adjusted it as its supposed to be and compared it to the old cable, the old cable was definitely stretched, it was 3/4 of an inch longer than the new one. It also had some hokey stuff done to it by a previous owner to make it work.

The pedal effort is much improved, way easier to push the clutch in. I inspected the TOB and it appears ok as does the pivot crank. No visible issues on it. When I frist took it out for a test drive it was better than before but by the time I got baack home it was just as hard to shift as before and when its idling in neutral I can't get it into gear. As soon as I push the shifter toward first or second the car starts to creep forward and it wont go into gear. FOrget reverse, it won't go into reverse at all when it's running. Turn the engine off and the sifter goes through all the gears, no issues.

I am starting to think maybe the pressure plate is bad but all the springs (fingers) look OK.

Any Ideas?
 

evilcw311

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Either you didn’t adjust the cable correctly or the pressure plate is bad.


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Paladin1001

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I pulled up on the pedal hard several times, I got some clicks out of it the first time but now it doesn't want to adjust out any more.

It was weird though, when I left the house on my test drive it was ok, still a tad stiff but definitely not too hard to shift. By the time I got home, engine and trans fully up to temp, it was impossible and I couldn't get it to adjust at all.
 
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Paladin1001

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So I went out and sidestepped the pedal a few times and now it appears to be working correctly. I guess I couldn't pull it up violently enough. I can say that the new cable was a pain to get in place, the old one basically fell out, very little prying on it the fork and it was out.
 

evilcw311

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You gotta pull it up pretty hard sometimes to get it to click all the way. That why most of us use a non adjustable cable but switch to an aftermarket quadrant and firewall adjuster.


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Paladin1001

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I will probably be adding one, I just wanted to try to get this thing drivable again for the short term.
 
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Paladin1001

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So it got bad enough that it was not dependable so I pulled the trans out today and I thought I would post what I found in order to help someone out in the future. The clutch fork had popped off of the pivot bolt and was only being supported by the TOB. Also the pilot bearing is shot, I don't know if its from this or not but the clutch was in good shape, the pressure plate has some wear on the fingers from the misalignment but its not awful. The TOB was in good shape too.

I'm putting in the new stuff obviously, since its out but it was not the cable or the pressure plate. Still had to pull the trans to fix it but now I know for sure the clutch is new. It was also very oily inside the bellhousing but the rear main is dry. I wonder if it was coming from the flywheel bolts, several of them were very oily when I took them out. I'll be coating them with thread locker to keep that from happening again.

I bought a new pivot bolt and clutch fork. the spring on the fork is all jacked up. I think it was the last one in there also the starter only had two bolts in it and the exhaust has all kinds of jacked up hardware. I'm going to fix some exhaust leaks while i have it all apart. see the pics if you are interested. IMG_2935.JPG IMG_2933.JPG IMG_2933.JPG IMG_2935.JPG IMG_2933.JPG
 
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Paladin1001

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New clutch is in and wow, its like a whole different car. I replaced everything though so it should be I guess. New flywheel, clutch, TOB, pilot bearing, cable, pressure plate and fixed a bunch of jenky messed up half-assed fixes from previous "mechanics" who worked on this poor poor car.

Great videos on youtube really helped out, search chris fix videos, he does the whole swap in two videos on a SN-95 98 GT, very informative.
 

Mustanger

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Here is a comparison of a Ford OEM clutch Cable with it's many internal layers of sheathing that really lasts for years & years! Compared to all other Aftermarket cables! Maximum Motorsports sells adjustable OEM Ford cables that they have modified to work with a firewall adjuster I have had mine for 12 years & going strong & smooth.Ford Clutch cables Compare.jpg
 

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