[fiebru1969]

I'm having issues. My car was originally an automatic and converted to a 4 speed saginaw prior to making it to me. The saginaw was not working behind the 406 with 425 hp. Shortly after I bought the car I noticed the clutch was sticking and shifting became more and more difficult a car warmed up. Got to the point where shifting was impossible. No problem I said, I'll purchase a Super T10 or Muncie and swap it. I got a Super T10 with the best ratios from a local rebuilder. Cut the driveshaft, swapped the yoke, got the 26 spline 11 inch from RAM with the pressure plate and the TOB. When pulling the saginaw I saw no return springs were installed or if they were they were gone. I found the correct springs and installed the tab on lower part of firewall. When I pulled the old saginaw I saw wear on the shaft where the TOB rides and the clutch fork had a slight bend. Installed my clutch, pressure plate and torqued to spec. I also installed new pilot bushing all brass with oilite and had flywheel resurfaced prior to installing. I put tranny on and half inch away from seating, it would not go in. Pushed pulled, took it down, came back another day and couldn't get it to seat. Tried recentering clutch and looked at bushing and everything looks good. I did the "don't do" and got it to seat with the bolts. No heavy work needed it pulled right in. I checked to see if the parts worked as they should, it would go into gear while not running and everything seemed ok. Interesting when setting up clutch linkage that I now had to make the clutch fork push rod short as it could be to work to maintain some sort of free play and keep the TOB off the pressure plate. I was confident with how everything seemed to be working and finished putting it all together. Started car and tranny will not shift, basically acts like no clutch is engaging. I lengthened the adjustment rod got rid of all free play and then some and still no clutch. Took apart per various forum suggestions, clutch is in the correct way, TOB is in the correct way, pilot bushing looks ok. Finally took off bellhousing measured pivot ball to end and I'm at 4.75. my TOB is not damaged and it is the 1.25 size. I'm looking at long TOB's. adjustable pivots and so on but unsure how to fix this. Hate to just throw money at it. I would like to know by seeing someones setup in there 65, I'd like to verify my z-bar setup is the correct one and that the geometry is correct. When the linkage is setup the bellcrank portion with the adjusting rod that pushes the clutch fork is higher up and does not push directly form the front and back on the clutch fork. This setup comes down at an angle towards the clutch fork. The bellcrank end is up approximately an inch or so higher than the clutch fork. Is this a problem..?? I might be just grasping at straws, but I'm a bit lost.. By the way the fork is the original type and I replaced it since the one that was in there was slightly bent... Any help would be great. Thank you and I apologize for the lengthy post, but i figure the more detail the better to understand.

 

[OLDED]

Could be that the pilot bearing is too tight of a fit to the input shaft, causing the main shaft to turn all the time with the clutch pushed or not. A tight interference fit of the bushing into the crank can squeeze the ID down. Precision measure the ID of the pilot bearing compared to the OD of the input shaft to see. It needs a couple of thousandths of clearance and lightly lubed to spin freely FWIW, Ed

 

[fiebru1969]

OLDED thank you. I will take the time to do that and get back to you. In the meantime I ordered a new bushing, a new stock clutch fork pivot and a RAM steel clutch alignment tool. I'll have to get my hands on the tool to measure the ID and OD as well. Thanks again

 

[5speeds]

Forcing the trans to mate with a pilot bushing is your issue. I've seen many new pilots when installed shrink the ID too much. You really need to install a pilot bearing with an old input so the ID bore is kept from collapsing. Sometimes people beat them in and mushroom the end.So you maybe able to chamfer the end with a drill bit. Reaming it would be great except that a reamer is over 50 dollars.

 

[Bryan59EC]

I've jacked up the rear of the car, started the engine in gear, and then slowly applied the parking brake with the clutch pushed in.

Probably not the greatest method, but it did free up the bushing/shaft.

This was on an old Chrysler----not much to those bushings and they do shiink up up when they are installed.

Have not yet had that issue on a GM or FOMOCO product, those bushing are much meatier.

 

[OLDED]

I have used a brake cylinder hone judiciously to loosen up the bushing clearance. It doesn't take much to free it up.

 

[fiebru1969]

Paul, thank you. That's exactly what I did. I got it in there without considering it would collapse. I think I'll go the route of tossing the one that's in there now and installing it with an old input shaft... Anyone have an old input shaft they are willing to part with? Haven't got the alignment tool that I ordered in yet, not sure if I can use that to drive the pilot bushing..

 

[fiebru1969]

Bryan, thank you for your suggestion

 

[fiebru1969]

OLDED, thanks again. I think I'll go with a new bushing and installing it with a used input shaft or the new alignment tool I ordered if I can use it for that.

 

[fiebru1969]

SUCCESS!! I took everyones advice and did the following. I ordered a new pivot ball, new pilot bushing, all steel clutch alignment tool and a pilot bushing installer. As it turns out the last pilot bushing I installed definitely collapsed as it was installed. The new clutch alignment tool would not go go into it. This is exactly what Paul mentioned in his post. I'm sure the transmissions shaft was constantly spinning with the engine as it was so tight at the pilot bushing. Well, long story short I pulled the old bushing, installed the new one with the alignment tool, took a lot of wiggling and pulling to get it back out, but I got it out. I installed the new pivot ball as mine was worn, centered the clutch, installed the pressure plate and BOOM! The T10 slid in like a warm knife through butter. Adjusted the linkage for about a 1/4 inch of free play in front of the TOB. I tightened it down, started the Chevelle and success! Thanks again guys.. Team Chevelle makes it happen!