Pressure plate to flywheel HELP!

[ejp2fast]

As some of you know, I am doing the auto to 5 spd swap. Ok, got my flywheel on and new clutch. Haynes calles out 13-20 ft lb for the pressure plate to flywheel... When i do that, and put the tranny in, my clutch release lever only moves like .75 inches, and that is all from the spring, not the throwout bearing against the clutch fingers.....hmmm..??
Heres how my day went: I think initially I over torque the pressure plate bolts to the flywheel.....put the tranny back on, and almost had it done....
then i go to push in the clutch and it doesn't disengage....
so i undo everything and remove the tranny and adjust my bolts.... still the same thing!
I don't know what to do! Unless this is normal!

So i have a question for all you 4 and 5 speeders... how much should the clutch release lever (where the cable meets the tranmission) move to disengage the clutch? Mine as stated above is only like .75", but thats only the spring.....

any help would be appreciated!!! I gave up for the night!

[elcamino1]

Is this your first time installing a clutch?
If so you probably have clutch disc In backwards!

[ejp2fast]

actually i made sure of that! (although this is my first time)... the disc says "flywheel side" on it.... i made sure of this!

To clarify, here is what it seems. The throwout bearing is not compressing the clutch fingers AT ALL. My only movement from the clutch release lever is the spring..

[lasvegascop]

See if you can snap some pics if you have the tranny still out? It would be easier to diagnose the problem from pics possibly? I was thinking same thing...maybe the disk was in backwards. Anyways, I replaced my clutch couple months ago also and that was my first time too....no problems at all....I wonder what might be going on with yours????

[ejp2fast]

yeah could take a few pics, but don't know if it'd help. tranny is lining up fine, i just don't have anything to go off of as i don't have another manual festy around.

how much should be clutch lever move? how much of that is spring only, how much is pressing to the fingers?

[lasvegascop]

What Im getting is...if you have the orig engine, orig tranny and Festi clutch it has to work! hahahah...You did obviously put the manual flywheel on, brand new clutch and throwout bearing....

Ref the lever movement? I donno...cant measure by myself....anyways...I suspect you might've put the throwout bearing in incorrectly? Possibly?? Hard to tell from description ya know?

[mechanicaldj]

have you considered that the pressure plate may be bad from the start?

or you may have to re-adjust the clutch cable

[Festy46]

Look at the clutch lever when you have the clutch pedal pushed all the way to the floor. The lever should be about parallel to the engine if you drew a line straight across the valve cover from front to back of the engine. Did you install the bracket that supports the clutch cable on the transmission? If you didn't, that would keep the cable from working correctly. Correct cable adjustment would be with the round "thingy" installed on the end of the cable and with a nut against the round "thingy", you should have about 1/2" or more of thread sticking out beyond the nut on the end of the cable.

[CharlieZ]

Is there a flat plate that goes between the engine and clutch housing that should either be there or not? Seems I saw a photo on the forum of such a plate.

[jglutz]

Did you have the fork that holds the throw-out bearing apart or out?

If the tranny...when installed...bolt up flush...most likely your installeation is correct.
I'm not sure that over tightening the pressure plate is a problem...It mates flush with the flywheel...cann't get any tighter.

The stroke of the clutch...what you call out as 3/4 of an inch...is that measured ath the pedal?

[imateo44]

i was having this same issue.. and it seams like it doesn't want to move when you try and move it with your hand.... all i did was try and actually start the car.. and as soon as i started the car, the clutch released.. and now it is still tight when i push it with my hand .. but had a friend go inside the car and actually push on the clutch and it moves fully

[lasvegascop]

yeah...there's no way you can fully press the clutch with your hand.....its really tuff.

[ejp2fast]

yeah...there's no way you can fully press the clutch with your hand.....its really tuff.

thanks for your replies guys!!!

hmmm, if this is the case, then i may have had it right to begin with and this is all for naught! when i had it together and tried to push it with my hand, i just had a funny feeling that something didn't seem right... and b/c this may be pretty hard to do by hand, this may all be correct....

Now, i talked with my father-in-law about this and he said the old clutches (from the 60's) had some sort of ratchet adjustment on the pressure plate (ie fingers) that when you had a NEW clutch disc, you adjusted it accordingly and then as the disc wore down it ratcheted to adjust for the fingers....

is there any way to adjust a Festy pressure plate? this seems far fetched as i don't think so but thought i'd ask.

Also, any of you more experienced guys that have info on new vs old clutches i'd be interested to hear your history lesson!

[ejp2fast]

Is there a flat plate that goes between the engine and clutch housing that should either be there or not? Seems I saw a photo on the forum of such a plate.

Yes, there is a thin cover metal plate that for the manual transmissions goes beween the engine block and the transmission housing... for manual transmissions this is one solid piece, for automatics it is in 2 sections; an upper and a lower. I believe this is the case b/c then for the automatics, you can just remove the lower section to get to the torque converter to driveplate bolts.
Without this plate, the flywheel (and for the automatics, the driveplate) would be exposed to the elements and debris from the road.

[ejp2fast]

i was having this same issue.. and it seams like it doesn't want to move when you try and move it with your hand.... all i did was try and actually start the car.. and as soon as i started the car, the clutch released.. and now it is still tight when i push it with my hand .. but had a friend go inside the car and actually push on the clutch and it moves fully

hmm... why would starting the car release the clutch??? as previously mentioned, trying to move it with your hand is difficult... only the clutch pedal has the torque to do it..