anyone got a book of matches?

heres the problem: NO MATTER WHAT I DO, the clutch wont disengage!! i figured i would do all the research that i could, (reading every thread i could find about clutches, talking to everyone i know, adjusting linkage 18 different directions, kicking her, yelling at her, etc, etc), before posting this, but low and behold..........im stumped:? i figured that the problem had to be inside. i went ahead and pulled the tranny and t case to see if i could find the problem. the disc was put in correctly and same with the t/o bearing. the only things that looked a little odd was when i pulled the tranny, the pilot bushing fell out. i think that is because i hung the tranny off the motor for a sec while i readjusted the tranny jack. i noticed i can put the pilot bushing back in by hand instead of with a hammer or some kind of motivation. the other thing i noticed was that a couple of the fingers on the clutch were angled in on the pressure plate while it was still attached to the flywheel. i didnt think much about this until i had already pulled the pressure plate off of the flywheel. my thought here is that maybe when i originally put the clutch in, maybe i didnt tighten the press. plate bolts all the way down on one or two of them causing the fingers to look bent in.....and possibly causing the clutch to not disengage all the way. im gonna run a tap into the press plate mounting holes on the flywheel to make sure theyre clean.
other than these couple of things.......i dunno what to do!!
btw, i have the 225 with a t86 and a d18 case. the frustrating thing is that this thing used to run and drive just fine before i took it apart 10 years ago. while i rebuilt the engine, tranny, t case, o/d, and put in a complete new Luk clutch kit since then, i have not changed any linkage or anything like that. all of the items replaced were with matching parts, (double and triple checked that).
i apologize that this is so long but im trying to include as many details as poss.
thanks for any advice
dustin

 

i think i have the right amount of clearance. i got a new bushing thats a little tighter just in case

 

I have a used pressure plate we could try .

 

would you mind bringing your jeep with ya?R)

 

jeep don't have a/c

 

Any nicks, odd marks on or in the pilot bushing?
Is the clutch disk still straight,?

 

there are a few nicks on the pilot bushing. it looks like it got a little banged up when i was putting the tranny in last time. the clutch disc however is perfectly straight, (i checked it today). :?

 

I'm still wondering how the pilot bushing got so loose in the end of the crank shaft, any odd little bronze filings in there?
Are the fingers on the PP even, now that it's out?
All I got for now.

 

i didnt see any filings in the bellhousing. the bushing didnt look as though there were any gouges taken out of it, more like it was a little dented in the front. ive got a replacement that im gonna put in. the fingers are all even now that its disconnected from the flywheel. i had a friend of mine attatch it to another flywheel and test it to make sure it functioned today. when he was taking the pp off, i noticed the fingers flexing as he was removing the bolts. at that point it looked the same as when i took the bellhousing off. thats why i think that the bolts may not have ben tightened all the way when i put it on.

 

dude ,I can't make it today ,got a emergency call to help pour sinceit's going to be 104* in escon. tomorrow?

 

I had the same problem on my 71 I had the fork pished too far in I pilled it out about a half inch and It worked perfect

 

I had a similar problem recently. I was starting My Flattie after being disassembled. The clutch, pressure plate and throw out bearing were all new and I believed properly installed but wouldn't disengage. I was able to remove the shifter cover and inspection plate and confirm when stepping on the clutch petal the fork was moving and starting the throw out bearing to slide against the pressure plate fingers. It turned out to be linkage issues. The petal would slip on the cross shaft. There should be a woodruff key on the shaft preventing any movement between the petal and shaft. then there was a small amount of wear on the eccentric and rod ends. with the combination of a little slack on each end times 2 rods combined with the slack on the petal shaft the motion of stepping on the petal was lost. Once I installed the correct woodruff key and replaced the worn rods with threaded rods and clevis ends the clutch disengaged no problem. If your clutch pressure plate, throw out bearing and fork are correct It has to be the linkage and the linkage may have a small amount of play in several spots causing the problem.

 

i ended up running a tap through all of the pp holes in the flywheel. i think this will help because i never did it after it was surfaced and balanced. plus when i ran the tap, a lot of crap came out of the holes. i noticed that some of the bolts didnt go in as far as some of the others prior to running the tap. when i pulled the tranny, i noticed a few of the fingers were "bent in". the fingers returned to normal when i unbolted the pp. im thinking that all the crap that was in the holes was preventing some of the bolts from going in all the way. hopefully this cures it

 

Kind of weird on my 67, when I put a new clutch in from Napa, the collar around the throw out bearing was not correct, so we had to pull the collar off the old bearing and but the new bearing on the old coller, I guess there were some notes in the listing when buying the part but they forgot to tell me. So pending where you bought the clutch from you may want ot check that out...

 

well????? did not hear from youthis weekend , your either still driving it or we did not fix the problem........................or do we just need to go to Circle K and get some matches.

 

sorry my internet has been down. SHE'S ALIVE!!!!!!! thanks so much for your help steve!! one problem..... the input shaft seal on the tranny is leaking. as well as the rear main seal and the driver's side valve cover. the tcase and o/d however...........are sealed tight! so are you up for pulling another tranny? lol