Issues with setting up my clutch free play

[67 GTX]

The car is a 67 GTX with a 440 and 18 spline 4 speed. I have a McCloud 3 finger clutch setup in it.

When I set the air gap to .060, the throwout bearing stays in slight contact with the pressure plate.

I then set the free play at the pedal itself, and set it to 1.5". I tried going a bit more, but any past 1.5" then I had to help the pedal up a bit with my foot.
But even at the 1.5" free play at the pedal, the throwout bearing still makes contact with the pressure plate when I'm in neutral. I can also hear it.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Does this mean my fork is slightly bent?
Car does shift fine.

 

[FrnkNsteen]

The car is a 67 GTX with a 440 and 18 spline 4 speed. I have a McCloud 3 finger clutch setup in it.

When I set the air gap to .060, the throwout bearing stays in slight contact with the pressure plate.

I then set the free play at the pedal itself, and set it to 1.5". I tried going a bit more, but any past 1.5" then I had to help the pedal up a bit with my foot.
But even at the 1.5" free play at the pedal, the throwout bearing still makes contact with the pressure plate when I'm in neutral. I can also hear it.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Does this mean my fork is slightly bent?
Car does shift fine.

I'm a little confused by what you're saying about setting the air gap to .060" and the TO bearing still touching the pressure plate. I'm also a little confused about the 1.5" "Free play" at the pedal.

Here's how I set mine up, and I'll say I don't have a lot of experience, so please let me know if something I did doesn't sound right....

With my clutch engaged, meaning the pressure plate is clamping the clutch disc to the flywheel, (and with the return spring attached from the clutch fork to the bell housing), I adjusted the rod that presses on the fork until I had about .060" - .090" of space between the TO bearing and the fingers of the pressure plate (mine is a diaphragm style). There are no other adjusters anywhere on my linkage ('67 Barracuda). FYI,.... With my diaphragm style pressure plate, I had to remove the over-center spring from the pedal.

Brewers performance told me how to set it up and told me that if the clutch fork return spring didn't have enough tension to bring the pedal back to the top, that I may have to add a small spring under the dash to help home the pedal properly. I didn't need it though. The clutch fork spring provided plenty of return pressure to return the pedal to home when not in use.

Don't know if that helps, but it is how I did mine and it is working great.

 

[Frank Mopar]

Do you have the spring attatched to the clutch fork? If not you need one

 

[Daves69]

Is your fork all the way onto the pivot? Are both fork tips on the release bearing properly?
0.60" is just a starting point with the pedal fully depressed and a tight bell crank linkage. Any extra slop there can eat up adjustment pretty quick.
With the adjustment backed off, can you attain more finger to release bearing or is it bottomed already?
Did you inspect the pivot for wear or bent condition and the fork for worn out/flattened tips?

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I like FrankNsteen's idea of a 2nd little spring inside the car to pull the clutch pedal up

 

[67 GTX]

I'm a little confused by what you're saying about setting the air gap to .060" and the TO bearing still touching the pressure plate. I'm also a little confused about the 1.5" "Free play" at the peda

With the clutch fully depressed, I get the .060 air gap. When I release the clutch, the throwout bering is still touching the pressure plate fingers.

The 1.5" free play was set at the pedal itself. I have roughly 1.5" of pedal movement before the pedal starts to become hard to push by hand.

Is your fork all the way onto the pivot? Are both fork tips on the release bearing properly?
0.60" is just a starting point with the pedal fully depressed and a tight bell crank linkage. Any extra slop there can eat up adjustment pretty quick.
With the adjustment backed off, can you attain more finger to release bearing or is it bottomed already?
Did you inspect the pivot for wear or bent condition and the fork for worn out/flattened tips?

I do have the clutch spring installed.

I was thinking wear on the fork pivot ball or even the fork itself. Is there any good way to check this without removing anything?

Can you please explain more by what you mean from if "With the adjustment backed off, can you attain more finger to release bearing or is it bottomed already?"​

 

[Daves69]

I was thinking wear on the fork pivot ball or even the fork itself. Is there any good way to check this without removing anything?

I can't think of any. Maybe you could see something with a mini cam.

It's possible to pull the fork but it's royal pain to get it back on the release bearing pads and into the pivot correctly by ones self.
I found on my 11" set with Lakewood 3 piece I needed to add an 1/8" spacer under the pivot to get me over center on the pedal. I didn't pull the trans out. It's little tight in there.
Careful, you don't want to drive the finger backsides into the disc when you floor the pedal.

what you mean from if "With the adjustment backed off, can you attain more finger to release bearing or is it bottomed already?"

At some point the release bearing will bottom on the bearing retainer if the fork don't first. If you cannot adjust the bearing off the plate fingers in neutral I'd think the release bearing is too long or the plate out of adjustment or damaged.
If you can get bearing clearance off the fingers, I'd believe the pivot is too short, worn/bent, fork worn/bent, or combination of them.