[FWDLK] "Clutch"-ing at straws (long)

[Dan Morton <morton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, the world's slowest auto mechanic schlepped back to Mom's house
yesterday, where all that needed to be done make the '55 driveable was to
hook up the transmission and clutch linkage.  The transmission linkage was a
piece of cake.  I put new bushings in the clutch torque shaft, and
reassembled all of the clutch linkage -- everything seemed to go back
together just as it was  before.  I got in the drivers seat, stepped on the
clutch pedal and... Whoa!  The pedal dropped to within an inch of the floor.
I pulled it up again quite readily, but as soon as you get past an inch or
so of depression, it takes off for the floor.

I dropped the lower bell housing again (sympathetic readers will recall I
had to do this to find that paint on the clutch plate splines was keeping
the trans from going in), and could see that with the clutch pedal up, the
throwout bearing was nowhere near the pressure plate!  So what happens is,
when you step on the pedal for the first inch, the clutch pedal return
spring gets over the "hump" where the bearing is SUPPOSED to meet the
pressure plate, and then accelerates the pedal to an inch from the floor --
where it finally DOES meet the pressure plate.  I confirmed this by having
Mom push on the clutch (Mom's remember how to do this) for that final inch,
and saw the pressure plate release pressure on the clutch.

WHY?!

I made no adjustments to the clutch release fork rod -- indeed, it's near
the end of its travel, where it was when I took it apart.  The clutch
release fork is NOT in backwards -- it swivels very nicely about its fulcrum
as you move the clutch linkage.  Nothing else is adjustable, as far as I can
see.  Now, here is something that has changed:

When I pulled the block to be rebuilt, the rebuilder discovered it was too
far gone -- he got another 230 L-head from a reputable salvage yard and
rebuilt that instead.  And in fact, the motor seems to run fine.  Now, I
know that none of the overall dimensions have changed -- trans, driveshaft,
motor mounts, everything else seems to have lined up perfectly.  But I'm
wondering if something else could have changed?  For example, if he used the
new crank instead of the original, could the crank flange have been thicker
on the old, placing the flywheel closer to the throwout bearing?  Or, am I
simply overlooking something obvious here?  I sure hope so -- and that
someone in the group has a simple fix for me.  (One that doesn't require I
pull the trans again! ;-)

        adTHANKSvance,
        Dan
        '55 Savoy