[DeTomaso] update on clutch slave not compressing fully

[Pantdino]

I drove the car from my other garage to home. The car had been sitting for a month there, and the stop bolt WAS touching the bracket. But upon pressing the clutch there was no free play.


After the short drive home the car sat for an hour or so and I noted the bolt was no longer touching the bracket. I used a piece of rope to remove the spring (stiff spring which takes 2 hands for me) and now even though the bolt was not touching the bracket there was free play-- I could easily move the clutch lever about 2-3 mm with my hand, as it was when I adjusted it before.


But after actuating the clutch a few times the bolt is further from the bracket than it was before the drive home and the clutch arm is like rock-- absolutely stiff, can't move it with my hands at all.


My life is complicated by the fact that the clevis pin has been seized in the bores of the clutch arm since I got the car in 1989. So I can't remove it to see how the pin aligns with the bores. But right now the clutch arm is still under tension from the hydraulics, so it would obviously not line up.

I
t has been too long now since I installed the new clutch slave, so I can't remember what the actuating rod looks like under the rubber boot and I can't compress my boot far enough to see. I'm thinking the rod has a female thread, into which the end with the hole screws. I that correct? So I need to rotate the portion of the rod hidden by the boot to decrease its length, correct?  Can I push the boot off the far end and turn the exposed metal with vise grips to do this?


Thanks, 

Jim