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Because I had almost no clutch action, I pulled the trans out over the weekend. In a relaxed state, the clutch TO bearing actuating arm was about 3/4" from the rear of the bellhousing. So regardless of the state of the clutch (which I assumed was worn out), there was so little travel of the arm you couldn't get full disengagement of the clutch.
So over several hours on the weekend, I unhooked everything and pulled out the trans. Not hard, but not easy either. Tunnel-case transes are much lighter than split-case five speeds, and I ended up manhandling it out onto a floor jack. It also requires a good clockwise twist on the way out to clear the welded-in stud for the column shift bellcrank.
After getting the trans out, I pulled out the clutch, and was surprised to find that (1) the disk is actually pretty thick, not down to the rivets, and (2) the pressure plate is the original one to the car, dated 8/55. Amazing. It too looked pretty good, and its friction surface and the surface of the flywheel both look almost perfect. No bluing or cracks, and very flat and smooth. TO bearing is old, but not destroyed.
So why can't I get enough throw on the clutch? I see these possibilities:
* TO bearing actuating arm is bent.
* TO bearing is worn somewhat thin, and bearing race may have collapsed some.
* Pressure plate fingers and the surface they bear against have worn.
I installed a decent used pressure plate and disk, and found the installed height of the ring the TO bearing presses against was about 1/8" higher, measured from the flywheel surface. Some that is some help, but I'm not sure that's enough height difference to give me a good clutch. "Step" in the flywheel from the pressure plate mounting face to the friction surface is the same on this flywheel compared to two 1600 ones I have, one a 101 and one a 105. So I don't think that's wrong. More investigation is required.
Pics
1. Column shift trans before cleaning, with its floor shift cousin
2. Fore/aft shift mechanism on column shift trans (shift rod attaches to it)
3. Side-to-side shift mechanism on column shift trans (shift cable, and a short arm, attached to it)
4. General view of shift arm area under car after trans removal
5. Donut/output shaft ball relationship. This is an early, larger-style ball, that is integral to the output yoke nut, and not part of the output shaft. Its matching bushing fits on the front of the driveshaft, and is not in the driveshaft, like the later, smaller ones.
Andrew
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