I have a model a with 49 Ford 8BA and 39 trans the cluch linkage has continued to give me trouble our friend built this car for my dad and I, period correct as he would have in the 50's. he used 49Ford 8Ba 39 trans 40 ford pedal assembly???? the pedal assembly is offset outbaord about 2" from the cluch lever so he fabricated an offset linkage with stock connectors and a plate inbetween creating the offset. ( not the best setup) this linkage had to be to the floor to disengage the clutch and continued to bend and cause trouble. I welded it up once, but it bent again.I am worried about trashing the syncros in the tranny as I had to limp home a couple times with this bent linkage, grinding gears...... anyway. I just fabricated a nice linkage with heim joints and solid rod inbeteen. but..... the shift lever force seems SO EXCESSIVE. the lever want to almost pop out of the socket. I have not adjsuted my new linkage longer as I am concerned I will just buckle this or pop the clutch lever out of the socket if I force it.... I thougth about fab'ing a new clutch lever with a pillow block bearing and longer shaft instead of the ball/socket setup. is this super high effort correct, or could the throwout bearing be siezing, not wanting to slide? I read 9 pages of searches and understand it is high force, but wonder how much force is too much force. and how can I tell. is there a torque I could measure with a long lever/wrench? etc.... Ramb
What kind of clutch linkage do you have on the trans? the newer rod with a flat side style or the earlier lever style? I've had more success making the lever style work with custom setups.
What is the pressure plate?? If it is '49 Ford passenger, you may have some serious interference going on in there between throwout and sleeve and pressure plate fingers. What are the distance from center of pedal shaft to center of pin and center of clutch cross shaft to center of pin there??
I'd remove the inspection cover on the top of the transmission and take a look. If he used a truck (cast iron) bell housing then should have used that clutch setup. The fork doesn't align with the stock pressure plate fingers. A common problem when mixing and matching. Then again it may just be the linkage. No way to measure the force that I know of. You probably can't press it in by hand.
I had this problem. The pp fingers hit the throwout sleeve because they are too long on the later pp. Got to go with the old style pp. Frustrating huh?
Also, if pedals are '40...clutch lever is on left of pedal assembly, and the matchup to whatever is up ahead now is going to be pretty awkward with high potntial for twisting. But if you have '49 pressure plate, everything needs to come back apart already, and that is a nice opportunity to put in the rest of the late cross shaft and offset parts and fix the linkage too.
Here are soem pics of my setup with my new linkage and his first one. I will have to check with him on pressure plate.
Transmission Mac has the picture online: http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/FH_images/FH_trans-pics/Flathead_Clutchassy_1940-48_85hp.jpg Similar setups with the side shaft were used '40-48 plus at least F-1 pickups, and last time I looked Mac the part place in NY had most of the parts available new. Note that the late cross shaft ends in a tab that enters the part on the right in your rightmost photo. Do not mess with the linkage til you find out if the guy has the wrong pressure plate in there...nothing will work at all right with late plate and early throwout. Serious conflict in the geography down there.
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