av8 need HELP no clutch

i put a t5 s10 in and a flathead. i can see the t/o bearing pushing the p/plate and the p/ plate move from the c/disc.still no clutch. on a t5 how far back can you set the c/disc? mines at the begining, at the smooth shaft of the trans. the begining of the spline.

 

Are you saying it won't engage, or won't disengage?

Bob

 

Disc in backwards?

 

its like theres no clutch when i start the car i can't put it in gear. when i depress the clutch and go to start the car it moves forward when in gear.

 

To effectively trouble shoot this please list all parts you used in your conversion. And explain if no clutch means it wont disengage or no clutch means it wont engage.

 

d/ bond adaptor, hogs head 4 speed truck t/o sleve, short t/o bearing. i had to cut the pilot shaft down. the clutch disc where the spline is, the t/o sleve because the trans was 8" from mounting to tip. and the inside of pilot bushing to bell were trans mounts to was 7 1/4" i cut everything down equal till trans bolted up. i might not have enough throw on the throw out fork arm that goes to clutch pedal.

 

So it won't disengage. Can the disk moved back far enough away from the flywheel before it runs out of splines? The short splines on the S10 T5 input can be a problem in that regard.

 

if i remember the disc was right at the begining of the splines. i don't think it can go back anymore. i only have about 5/8" of spline in the disc can i take more off? if any maybe 1/8" to 3/16" is that going to be enough?

 

I had the exact same problem when I put a T-5 behind my Studebaker. I was sure it was the clutch travel and played with it for a week or so. I finally put it in gear, shoved in the clutch and started it in gear in a safe place where I wouldn't hit anything if it started which it did and the disc released from the flywheel and all was well.

It was a brand new disc up against a turned flywheel. It was in the truck for a few months until other problems were sorted out.

It would grind trying to shift from neutral to any gear. Once the disc broke loose from the flywheel all was fine but I did have to readjust the clutch that I had mistakenly adjusted to try and fix the problem. What a relief.

 

If the pressure plate is releasing, then you have a bind between the disc and the flywheel. Sounds like the disc is not aligned with the input shaft and is cocked on the shaft, causing contact with the flywheel. Maybe not enough insertion depth into the disc to keep it square with the flywheel?

 

I had to mill down about 3/16's on my adapters to get enough insertion depth into the disc. Just a thought.

 

i ran out of spline the clutch can't go back anymore to release.

 

Sounds to me like youve ruined your main shaft in the tranny by doing all your grinding...Drop back ten and "Punt"

 

So, you think the beginning of the splines is shoving the disc against the flywheel? If you want to prove that, you could loosen all the trans bolts 1/8" and then put 1/8 washers between the trans and bell, one bolt at a time. Then tighten them all and see if it will release.

But if you only had a marginal amount of spline length to fit in the disc, it does not sound like an easy fix.

 

thats my next move. if it tells me thats what it is then i can only have a spacer made up for all the way around the trans.

 

First what size clutch and pressure plate are you using, 9" or 10" and what size of clutch disc and where did it come from? If you are using a 9" ford pressure plate and a GM disc these are not compatible. the GM discs are slightly larger and rub on the edge of the Ford pressure plate when installed not allowing the disc to spin freely.

Next what throw out bearing are you using it should be a 32-48 and the corresponding throw out sleeve and collar.

The next question come up to the throw out arm, what did you use for a throw out arm? If you made one did you index it correctly for the throw of the clutch pedal. The arm should be indexed by bringing the throw out bearing up to just bump the pressure plate fingers , then indexing the arm and push rod to the pedal assembly throw.

The last point centers around the input shaft, in may cases the pilot shafts have to be shortened. Since you said you already had, did you make sure that the pilot shaft was not bottoming out in the crank pilot bushing. This will also cause the clutch not to seem to disengage because the thrust bind is actually spinning the input shaft. After trimming the input shaft you should have bolted the unit in position less the clutch disk, knocked it into high and tried to spin the tail shaft to determine that the end play on the input shaft was sufficient and not bound up.