Clutch Whining

That is, I'm whining about my clutch not disengaging.

It's on the tux w/ V6. When the engine blew up, I had another V6 in the shop to stuff in. What a mistake it was when I decided to throw a new clutch on there...shoulda left well enough alone. Since June, I've installed this engine & tranny, then yanked the V6, installed, yanked it again, installed, yanked a 3rd time, and installed again yesterday....all for the same reason: the clutch won't disengage. Waaaahhh!! What's wrong??

*standard replacement diaphragm clutch...looks like what came off, except the old clutch was an 8" clutch instead of 10".
*New pilot bushing
*Resurfaced flywheel
*Even put a longer neck on the T.O. bearing this last time
*Disc isn't backwards
*Linkage seems ok.
*Pushing the pedal throws the fork normally, and the "feel" of the p.plate fingers pushing in is typical.
*But even with the pedal all the way in, the dang thing won't even HINT of disengagement.

Anything obvious that I mighta missed?? :?

 

Is there anyway that you can let you're transmission hang back. I mean 1st put on the clutch and pressure plate,mount the bell housing with the T-O bearing and clutch fork. Now put on linkage, but don't slide transmission on 'till you take a look and see if anything is getting in the way of it disengaging when you press the clutch pedal. Take a flash light if you have to so you can see around the clutch fingers and T-O bearing.
Maybee you'll find the problem with the transmission off of it. Hope some of this helps. Good luck.

 

Yeah I sorta wonder if it may be tranny related because I've installed this clutch 3 times and still have the same symptoms. If it's tranny, what would it be? It's the same tranny that went with this engine, and I had verified clutch workability on the bench prior to separating them and replacing clutch.

I'm having a buddy come by on Thursday to take flashlight into fork hole to verify throw/p.plate finger depression. I'm familiar with the pedal "feel", and it feels like the fingers are being depressed normally.

It'd help if I had a clue about how a clutch actually works...how it allows changing of the gears. I have no idea!

 

Glenn, great description. Honestly I had no idea of how it works. So the p.plate fingers push the disc away from the tranny shaft temporarily? So then does the tranny shaft cease to rotate, and allow you to shift, until the clutch is released, and then the shaft rotates again?

Oh, when I push in the clutch w/ tranny in gear, and then attempt to start the engine, the CJ-5A moves with each crank. NO disengagement. So if the pedal, bellcrank, cable, fork, T.O. Bearing, and P.plate all cooperate (as seems to be in this case), what else could it be? It either has to be the disc, flywheel, or tranny, right? What other variables are there? The Flywheel was resurfaced, the disc is new, and the tranny worked with the V6 when bench-tested prior to installation. So now what should I troubleshoot?

 

It's possible that your input shaft is binding on the pilot bushing. Measure the distance to the face of the pilot bushing from the face of the bellhousing, then compare the measurement to the input shaft.

 

I'd have to yank the V6 out to make any measurements. Can't quite grasp what you guys mean by "bottoming out" or input shaft binding on the pilot bushing. You mean that it's not going inside the PB?

 

Think of this example the tip of the shaft of the transmission goes into the small hole in the flywheel, the hole in the flywheel is not a thru hole. If the shaft is too long it will bind against bottom of the hole in a way making a solid link between the engine and transmission so the clutch will have no effect on how the energy is transmitted to the transmission shaft. Did I make that clear as mud :?

 

Ok, that's a good explanation. What I don't get is that it's the same tranny that worked with the same engine before. So unless the input shaft has done a Pinnochio lately, it "should" still be the same length, right? :?

 

The only thing changed was the clutch diam?
I'd try another 8" disc to see if maybe the disc is hanging up on somthing.

 

Yes, the transmission input shaft is the same length, but you have installed a new pilot bushing, so it's possible that the pilot bushing was not driven into the flywheel far enough, or the pilot bushing was to thick to start with, or the inside bearing surface is damaged, or the inside diameter of the pilot bushing is to small. I would also check the length of the front bearing retainer and make sure that it is not interfering with the clutch disc.

 

Do you have the clutch disk installed backwards?