Help Needed....How Much Travel Do You Need on the Clutch Arm?

[SCFFR]

I had posted a similar thread earlier in the week asking about adjusting the clutch release arm but only got one reply. Work on my MkIV has come to a stop until I can get this figured out so I would appreciate feedback.

Have a 351W with RAM Performance clutch, Quick Time bell housing and Ford clutch arm. Have adjusted the pivot bolt where I now have 2" of clearance between the front of the clutch arm and the front opening in the bell housing when the release bearing is just contacting the clutch fingers. With the arm all the way to the back of the bell housing, there is about 1/4" clearance between the release bearing the the clutch fingers.

Is 2" enough travel to properly engage/disengage the clutch? If so, I can get the bell housing bolted up for the last time, get the trans installed and get the engine in the chassis.

Many thanks for your help.

Ron

[dallas_]

I didn't measure mine exactly, but that should be more than enough. I think the travel at that end is about 1".

I had to get a larger clutch m/c because it didn't travel far enough to engage. It was only going about 3/4" and it wasn't quite enough.

[snakeboost]

Well if the clutch is new & unused you need 1/4" air gap. This will go away once the disc is compressed the first time it is used. Once that happens the fingers move outward taking up most of that 1/4" gap if not all. So if the clutch is used at all have the bearing almost touch

Steve

[SCFFR]

Thanks guys.

Yes, the clutch is new so does that mean I should give it some more clearance when the arm is in the rearmost position? Currently have 1/4" total clearance but sounds like that will be gone once the clutch gets used and compresses.

So, should I adjust the pivot bolt to increase the clearance to around 1/2" when the arm is moved all the way to the rear of the bell housing? This will still give me around 1 3/4" front travel on the arm.

Not sure if it matters, but using a cable for the clutch.

Thanks!

[skullandbones]

You mentioned you have a Ram clutch setup. I do also. Mine is pretty stiff so when I'm exercising it to see how much travel there is, it seems like not enough. However, it is changing gears easily and I even have a effort reducer which effectively takes away some travel. But there is still enough travel. Not sure if you have your cable anchored well so be sure that is done. WEK.

[SCFFR]

Thanks again for your input.

Don't know why I didn't think about this before..............I just measured the distance from the clutch fingers to the surface of the disc which is a little less than 1 1/4" which is the maximum arm travel that you would need. When the fingers expand once the disc compresses, there will then be a maximum of 1 1/2" of arm travel needed.

Moved the pivot bolt so that I now have about 1 5/8" of forward arm travel available which will increase to around 2" when the fingers expand out. I now have a little less than 1/2" of clearance between the face of the release bearing and the fingers when the arm is moved all the way to the rear of the bell housing. This will be reduced to 1/4" when the fingers expand so no concerns about the arm being pushed back all the way to the back of the housing.

I think I have it in a good place now and will go ahead and get the bell housing torqued down and then move onto installing the TKO-600 trans (from Mike Forte)...........unless I need to tweak it just a little more.

Thanks again for your help.

Moved the pivot bolt

[SCFFR]

Just finished getting the Quick Time bell housing torqued down for hopefully the last time. Ended up with 1 3/4" of free travel in front of the clutch arm which should be plenty and 3/8" of clearance between the release bearing and the clutch fingers when the arm is all the way to the rear of the bell housing. This should accomodate any expansion of the fingers one the clutch gets used a little. Measured the end of the cable with the clutch pedal all the way up and down and that looks good too.

Again, thanks for all of your help. Tomorrow's job is to trim off the bosses on the tail of the TKO-600 and get it bolted to the bellhousing.

Ron