my falcon has a clutch issue. I adjust it for about an inch of free play in the pedal and do a couple nice holeshots. Then the free play in my pedal is gone. It's all action from top of pedal. Then clutch is slipping. If I was burning up my clutch it seems to me my pedal issue would be the opposite. Or am I thinking wrong? I think the pp doesn't have enough testosterone but I'm still confused about how this is all effecting my clutch adjustment. THOUGHTS??
as the clutch wears, the free play is taken up. So it could be that the clutch is wearing out. But I would spend time looking at the linkage, and see if anything funky is happening. Usually though, if the linkage is bending or somethign, it gets more free play, not less.
What type of clutch pressure plate are you using, is it a diaphragm, coil spring, multi plate, centripetal force enhanced, Etc. Lots of different things could be going on.
Look at everything. Motor mounts, trans mount too. If things shift around the pedal geometry can change quite a bit. I had a '64 Galaxie, pretty much the same symptoms. One of the lever arms was tearing itself off the z-bar.
I made all my linkage. Very heavy duty with heim joints. I'm pretty confident that's not bending. It's a zoom three finger. Single disc. I think pressure plate isn't heavy duty enough? I'll check z bar
In my case, I thought it was adjustment, so I adjusted it. Then figured it was a collapsed TO bearing. Took it all apart, PP looked okay, changed the TO bearing since I had it apart. Got it back together, no improvement, looked up and found the torn z-bar. This was in 1978 and my local Ford dealer had one.
As a clutch plate wears the clutch fingers move in a direction away from the flywheel which will have a reducing effect on the free play of the linkage and or pedal. This seems counter intuitive, probably because it's the reverse of brake wear. But it should be a gradual process, so your rapid deterioration might be as a result of something else, or just catastrophic plate failure? Chris
Everyone has mentioned the linkage and pivots etc, what about the clutch release arm itself, is that cracked???
Check your passenger side motor mount. With a little abuse (holeshots) they have a tendency to rip apart and drop the engine an inch or so on one side which may foul up your clutch linkage geometry. Also, check your Z-bar plastic bushings for wear and that they're seated properly.
Check the firewall for flexing on the driver's side. Had a Dodge Dart that when the clutch pedal was depressed you could see the master cylinder and brake lines move around underhood as the firewall moved. Bracing from one of the m/cylinder bolts to the fenderwell helped stabilize it.
Z bar looks ok. Readjusted it last nite and ripped it down the road. All seems fine for a minute or two. Then all the free play will be gone and slipping like a sob. Nylon pivots good. I think I'm overpowering it.
BELLCRANK. I you have a bellcrank floating between the frame and the engine/trans assembly, and the levers are pressed onto splines instead of welded, check to see if the arms arent slowly slipping on the splines. I welded the arms to the bellcrank shaft when I found the splines were slowly letting the levers change adjustment as they slowly fell out of the original positions. Sometimes a bellcrank mount moves, or you may have just knocked out a plastic bushing that was on its way out anyway. Tear an engine mount? If an engine moves out of position, it can mess up the adjustments beyond what a floating bellcrank can handle. why be ordinary?
I had one where the ball screwed into the bell housing. I was young and learning. A friend found it in about 10 minutes and after tightening, victory! Still young, learned something.
I had the same problem on my '65 k-code Falcon...look really close at your Z-bar as bobbss396 said (have someone step on the clutch while you're under the car watching it). Mine was flexing and the factory welds were slowly tearing (without the pressure of someone stepping on the clutch the flex and tear closed back up) . I made a new Z-bar...problem solved.
If your linkage is OK and the clutch isn't worn out. then it has to be your engine mounts. Put a torque chain from the engine to the frame and see if that helps.
Failure of any of the linkage from the pedal to the throw out bearing, including the pivot pins on the Z bar, would all result in more free play not less. The engine mount failing would be able to reduce free play, but not in the consistent fashion described. If the clutch friction surface is wearing rapidly it would be unlikely that it would be able to maintain enough grip to readjust it and have it not slip under load. Also, if the disk is wearing that quickly, the smell of burned friction material would be hard to miss. The only part I can think of that could be causing the problem as described is the throw out fork fulcrum pin not being locked tightly in place and slowly taking up the free play; however, due to the design, I don't think that it's very likely. Regardless, it is worth checking. One other possible cause that just occurred to me. You said that you built the linkage using heim links. If the heim links are built using a standard (RH) thread on one end and a reversed (LH) thread on the other so you can adjust the length by turning the rod connecting the heim joints, this could be where the problem is located. A couple years ago, I was working at a custom car resto and performance shop and I was passed a 1966 Galaxy 500 to finish the mechanical build out. The mechanic, and I use the term VERY loosely, that installed the 427 long block and 6-speed transmission had been fired due to having little of the skills and knowledge he claimed to have. After I was done fabricating a custom hidden speed density fuel injection system tucked up under an Edelbrock Victor intake manifold, the customer insisted the engine look sixties era carbureted, I had to deal with the clutch slowly gaining free play while I was tuning the fuel mapping. It turned out that the other mechanic had failed to install lock nuts on the clutch linkage heim links and the connecting rod was slowly turning making the link shorter. In theory, under the right circumstances, the opposite could possibly happen making the rod longer. If this were to occur it would cause behavior similar to what you described your Falcon doing. Sorry for the long post. Good luck, hope you get it sorted out.
Are you measuring anything to see if rods are getting longer or shorter ? Get a Go Pro and see if the motor is jumping around when you are pulling holeshots. It could be as simple as the motor mounts. Sounds like time for a new clutch.
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