VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 throw out bearing clearence question

OK I put a whole new clutch kit on my 41. It has a 216 in it , I adjusted the throw out bearing so its just off the clutch but not for the bearing to ride on it. But when I apply the foot pressure it feels like it has some slack in it. And seem a little low on the peddle before it engages

So my question is , does the throw out bearing have any contact on the clutch when not in use?

Page 193 of the 41 manual is specific about the throwout bearing not contacting the clutch fingers unless the clutch pedal is depressed from 1" to 3/4". I have always checked the free travel of my clutch by pushing it in by hand and measuring the free travel with a ruler. Free travel ends when I can not easily push the pedal in, about 1". The "slack" feeling could be caused by the throwout arm spring.

I will post some pictures later.

Good luck, Mike


First picture shows the clutch throwout arm spring attached to pedal as you look at the spring from the engine compartment. The second picture shows the spring attached to the frame. If you need a better picture of the spring go to Chevs of the 40's throwout arm spring.

E41,

mike has given you a good answer to your post.

The clutch release bearing does not engade the fingers on the clutch diaphram until the pedal has traveled some inch or so. if it does, the bearing will be spinning all the time and the feel in the pedal will not feel right.

As he has suggested, you may want to crawl under the car, trip the return spring and then feel for the inch or so slack to assure that the release bearing has some play before it contacts the fingers of the diaphram.

i hope it all works out so that you are pleased with the clutch feel and operation. Please let us know how it works out.

Charlie

BTW: All us 41ers really feel bad when one of our cars comes down with even a slight fever. (A full bout of sickness is seldom heard of unless the beautiful 41 has been in the hands of an unappreciative owner.) We will sit with you by the sick bed until the car has fully recovered. Will too!

BTW2. If your 41 has a fulton on it, please do not mention in any further correspondence. It may have a cooling effect on your fellow 41ers enthusasiam for helping you. Just kidding. It won't.

thanks for that bit of info I'm gonna measure the free movement of the peddle before it bearing comes into contact. Thanks again.

LOL

the car isn't on the road yet but I have to make sure all the mechanical parts are up to par before I get into the paint and body part.

And I try to limit on posting the type of style I'm putting this car together ( no flakes or wild paint jobs )
other than I'm not putting a V8 in it with a automatic trans. I'm gonna try out the new clutch after work and drive it out of the shop and see what it feels like , Ill post up how it went.

I have always tested for "play" with the spring installed, not disconnected.

I would like to update my previous post by pointing out a mistake in terms used. "I have always checked the free travel of my clutch..." I should have said, I have always checked the free travel of my throwout bearing by pushing...

I would also like to point out that page 196 of the 41 shop manual talks you through the adjustment of the clutch pedal. Figure 114 is excellent for showing the nuts (A and B) for adjusting the clutch pedal.

Thanks, Mike

Okay I found a potential problem that might be giving me some excessive Slack when I went under the car and started pulling down on the pedal I can see the arm that the throwout bearing is connected to has a little bit too much movement on it so I think the clip that hold on to the ball is wore out or maybe the ball so under again I go.

update , I changed out the throw out bearing arm clip and it still had play so them changed out the arm pivot ball and that did the trick, thanks everyone for your input.

Edmunds41,

Thanks for the heads up on your solution. I am assuming from your past posts that the throwout fork ball was not the correct size for your throwout fork, or the ball was badly worn. Which was your problem?

According to the 29-54 Chevy Parts Manual the same ball .0796 was used from 38-54.

the ball was badly worn which gave more play on the peddle. Since the car wasn't running when I bought it I didn't know of this till I got to that point. Also I have other throw out barring forks and made sure I had one that wasn't wore out too.

here's was my problem