[DeTomaso] Clutch woes in Asa's garage

Asa Jay Laughton asajay at asajay.com
Sun Sep 6 22:35:50 EDT 2009


Mike,

I love you man... but it feels like I'm beating a dead horse.

First, the obvious.  I can't get a power bleeder on it.  So first, I 
used a vacuum system to pull fluid through, then Shelley and I bled the 
system by foot/hand to the point we'd sent the -same- fluid through 
twice with no bubbles.  Pumping up the clutch has no affect, i.e. 
several pumps gets me the same travel as one.

As for the piston being almost completely withdrawn... no chance in 
hell.  The internal spring pressure (inside the slave cylinder) is 
enough to keep the piston at the very outboard end of the cylinder, with 
nothing else assembled.  When everything is assembled, the external 
spring is fighting the internal spring and in most cases, the internal 
spring wins.

Chuck's video of the slave movement is -nothing- like what I am able to 
get, especially with the external spring removed.  If I remove the 
external spring, I can't seem to get nearly any movement of the piston 
back into the cylinder.  I honestly am beginning to believe this is why 
my clutch was burned up to begin with.

Lord I sure could use another expert on site with me to validate my 
insanity.  It's not rocket science, I've done this before on other 
cars.  Yes, I'm feeling really stupid at the moment because I can't get 
it to work, and I've gone through step by step, again and again.  It's 
like I'm missing something obvious, but can't see it.  But then, I can't 
be sure because my clutch was toast when I took it apart.  So maybe it 
never -was- working quite right.

Asa Jay

Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired

& Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA

1971 Mach I Mustang  [ASA JAY]
1973 Pantera L 5533  [ASASCAT]
    
******************************     
http://www.asajay.com
http://www.teampanteraracing.com
  



MikeLDrew at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 9/6/09 18 41 1, asajay at asajay.com writes:
>
>
>   
>> Well, that's two people who have said the same thing.  So then my CNC
>> replacement should give me the same amount of throw as a stock unit. 
>> What gives.
>>
>>     
>
> At the risk of suggesting the obvious, I've seen exactly this type of 
> scenario in action before.   The cause was a bunch of air in the clutch line due 
> to improper/inadequate bleeding.   I bled my clutch with a pressure bleeder, 
> and found that I had to depress the pedal about halfway in order to get 
> fluid to flow.
>
> FWIW....
>
> You should set up your system so that the piston inside the slave is almost 
> completely withdrawn into the slave, and the fingers on the clutch fork are 
> almost but not quite touching the throwout bearing.   This will give you 
> the maximum effective stroke for a given amount of pedal travel, while 
> preserving the free space necessary between the clutch fork and throwout bearing.
>
> Mike
> _______________________________________________
>
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>
> Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com 
> Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.80/2349 - Release Date: 09/06/09 05:51:00
>
>   



More information about the DeTomaso mailing list