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i think he means these lines, might have contaminated surface..
One lesson i learned with my McLeod clutch which has been fantastic.. or any other clutch.. i use an entire roll of paper towels with lacquer thinner to clean the flywheel and plate before it stopped being black.. clean very well...
your advice was very helpful. I could not get any feeler gauge to go between the fingers and bearing.
Sorry to hear that. But at least that means you found your problem. It should have SOME clearance, around .150"
The fingers need to "top out" and then the bearing must be able to move some more.
So your fingers were too tight and the whole clutch assembly is now toasted.
With those fingers I would not re-use it, that is probably an artifact of the heat from slipping, affecting the belleville spring.
Measure the clearance carefully 2 or 3 times when you put it back together. It must be right!
Because there is really no other adjustment after you get it all installed.
McLeod clutches come highly recommended. Centerforce and Hayes have their issues.
If it were mine, I would have the flywheel surfaced. I wouldn't chance it. Many would. But I want a sooth perfect clutch and done right once. I would not want to pull it again.
The flywheel may no longer be flat, and it most certainly has some hot spots from the slipping, which could easily cause chatter, due to hardness variations, even if it is flat.
And you will not know for sure until you drive it. Spend the $100 to have it cut. It is not worth pulling it all again if it chatters.
Sorry to hear that. But at least that means you found your problem. It should have SOME clearance, around .150"
The fingers need to "top out" and then the bearing must be able to move some more.
So your fingers were too tight and the whole clutch assembly is now toasted.
With those fingers I would not re-use it, that is probably an artifact of the heat from slipping, affecting the belleville spring.
Measure the clearance carefully 2 or 3 times when you put it back together. It must be right!
Because there is really no other adjustment after you get it all installed.
McLeod clutches come highly recommended. Centerforce and Hayes have their issues.
If it were mine, I would have the flywheel surfaced. I wouldn't chance it. Many would. But I want a sooth perfect clutch and done right once. I would not want to pull it again.
The flywheel may no longer be flat, and it most certainly has some hot spots from the slipping, which could easily cause chatter, due to hardness variations, even if it is flat.
And you will not know for sure until you drive it. Spend the $100 to have it cut. It is not worth pulling it all again if it chatters.
reqlly appreciate your advice. We are thinking alike. I will keep this thread updated along the path. Won’t get to it again for a few days but I wanted to get the kit ordered and on the way.
The tob has a ring on it where it was touching the fingers. It has dug into the surface of the bearing. Is this normal? How do I account for this groove depth when I measure in setting it back up to achieve spec?
does the bearing turn freely? the rollers are supposed to roll and the flat surface is supposed to turn at the same speed as the fingers. looks like they are spinning across the surface, goring it. so i call that a bad bearing...
Got the flywheel cleaned off. Took it to a shop to have it turned. Got it back in and torqued down. The marks Stingr69 called out we’re threadlock from when I installed it. Cleaned the bearing and polished the tranny shaft. Put the bearing on and measured the tranny face to face of bearing. Got 2.55 inches. Waiting on the McLeod kit to move on. I did also make some progress with fabricating the removable crossmember. Hopefully more updates this weekend.
Finished welding the cross member brackets and painted it. Got the clutch in and got my measurements. Face of tranny to face of bearing is 2.55. Fingers to face of bell is 2.607. Not enough space. Before I proceed I’m going to put some thought into this and remeasure a few times.
OK so you have about 57 thou free space. Most specs call for around 150. So you need to remove a shim, if present, get a thinner throwout bearing, or add a spacer between block and bellhousing. I think that was what Gordon said he wound up doing. I would call whoever you got the T/O bearing kit from and spec to them.
I just lifted this from the Hydramax install notes.
They mention this issue: And also adding washers or the plate Gordon did.
OK so you have about 57 thou free space. Most specs call for around 150. So you need to remove a shim, if present, get a thinner throwout bearing, or add a spacer between block and bellhousing. I think that was what Gordon said he wound up doing. I would call whoever you got the T/O bearing kit from and spec to them.
I just lifted this from the Hydramax install notes.
They mention this issue: And also adding washers or the plate Gordon did.
thanks, Leigh. That’s what I’ll end up doing. I’ll get some washers I can place between bell and tranny to get me in the spec. Going to remeasure a few times first. This is a McLeod clutch so not the same depth necessarily as the centerforce one I had but it may be that I had the bearing in too tight with no space all along and it didn’t show signs of slippage until after 800 miles. I’ll keep the thread up until I get final solution. Thanks for your help.
Got the tranny in with the air gap at .165. Spec is between .100 and .200. Torqued everything down and filled the mc with dot 3. Got most if not all the air out. Right off the bat the pedal is noticeably softer. I don’t have oil in the tranny nor the drive shaft back in so I couldn’t start it up to see. It’s possible the pedal will be softer than before because before the clutch fingers were binding with the to bearing. Before I can finish this and test it out I need to finish installing the crossmember.
Got the crossmember mounted to the frame. Got the tranny filled up with oil. Just need to drill out the holes for the bolts. I got my daughter to push the clutch pedal so I could look at the tob. It was definitely moving but not sure if it’s moving forward enough. Hard to tell but hopefully I’ll be firing it up soon to test things out.
Last edited by Bluesting70; Mar 18, 2022 at 08:15 AM.
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Mcleod clutches move fairly easy compared to some of the other clutches out there. THeir grip strength is in the disc itself, Alll the Mcleod single disc clutches themselves are the same, the disc is the big deal. If you ever need to increase the clutch strength for the given horsepower you have you just need to change the disc itself as long as its the single disc style. I was buying complete setups until McLeod told me I didnt have too.
Mcleod clutches move fairly easy compared to some of the other clutches out there. THeir grip strength is in the disc itself, Alll the Mcleod single disc clutches themselves are the same, the disc is the big deal. If you ever need to increase the clutch strength for the given horsepower you have you just need to change the disc itself as long as its the single disc style. I was buying complete setups until McLeod told me I didnt have too.
Good advice. I appreciate it. It’s rated for over 500hp so I should be ok. I hope the pedal stays that soft. It’s a lot softer than the old clutch.
Finished putting in the removable crossmember. Just have to put in the driveshaft and the ebrake line and pulley. Test tonight! Any advice before I fire it up?
