Clutch Help - Hate to have to ask

[Dusti Snider]

I've read and read and read the last few weeks preparing for this weekend...

Clutch had gotten really bad on Otis. After the big show in Raleigh I left him with a friend of mine to replace the clutch while my daughter & I were at the beach. About a month ago while I had it out at our county fair it went out again. Once I got him home I found that two of the clutch fingers had come off, tore the throwout bearing all to pieces. Anyway...

Louisburg Tractor said they had some trouble out of some of their clutches and offered to send me a new clutch. I split Otis Saturday night, put the new throwout bearing in. This morning I replaced the brass input shaft bushing, mounted the new clutch and set the fingers to 1-1/4" from the backing plate, no the pressure plate, not the clutch disc.

Put it all back together...paint stirrer clearance (1/8") on the throwout bearing, pedal at 2-3/4" from the floorboard, and exactly 1" of free play...

Started the tractor, pushed in on clutch and growled like junk yard dog. Down some more tweaking, opened up the throw out bearing clearance just a tad more, now growling from the clutch now, but it still won't go in gear. It just wants to grind...

I went back again tonight, bent an 1-1/4" hook on a piece of wire and opened the fingers up a tad more, reset all the clearances. Still won't go in gear. The adjustment screws are probably one thread below flush now. I'm beginning to think that I shouldn't have opened up the fingers to the 1-1/4" to start with...

Open to your thoughts and suggestions please...

[Boss Hog]

It needs to be 1 1/4 check the hanger the bearing fits in. may be bent or worn

[Super A]

Dusti I can't offer help but my FIL has something similar. Had the clutch replaced in his '53 Cub this spring before garden time. He says it got where it wouldn't go in gear, he has looked in the bell housing with a flash light and the fingers look like they have "collapsed" as he put it. Says there is little spring resistance when he tries to manipulate them by hand. I wonder if he got one of those "bad" pressure plates.

Al

[TJG]

Hi,

The clutch pedal adjustment can be very fine. I've had to push the pedal down by hand with the tractor running and almost "feel" the adjustment rather than simply set it by the tape measure.

Todd

[Clark Thompson]

the picture to me shows the measurement being taken from the clutch coller. It should be taken from the flat part of the pressure plate where the spring clips hold the fingers. In the picture I can see that the fingers are incorrectly adjusted. keep inmind that all aftermarket pressure plates are inferrior as well as the graphite throw out bearings. .

[Bill Hudson]

the picture to me shows the measurement being taken from the clutch coller. It should be taken from the flat part of the pressure plate where the spring clips hold the fingers. In the picture I can see that the fingers are incorrectly adjusted. keep inmind that all aftermarket pressure plates are inferrior as well as the graphite throw out bearings. .

Dusti,

Yes, Clark has it nailed. Your tape measure is at an angle, place it straight down and it will be on the plate right next to the little spring clip. Make your adjustment to 1.25" and you should be fine when clutch free play is adjusted to 1". Be sure to loosen the free play adjusting bolt prior to sliding the Cub back together.

Bill

[Dusti Snider]

Well guys even though the picture is a tad mis-leading, that's exactly where I took my measurement from...the backing plate, where the springs are mounted. The right side of my tape is resting on the backing plate in the picture.

Once I put it back together and it wouldn't go in gear I got to second guessing myself. So I used the bent wire thing and went back and opened them up just a tad more.

Boss I appreciate the suggestion, my old throwout bearing yoke had been spot welded together, so I had to get a new throwout bearing yoke back in the summer. It has a good tight fit. The throwout bearing itself has been pumped slam full of cheap grease and has been soaking in a sammich bag full of grease since week before last...

Ya'll bear with me...I like to figure stuff out, and understand why and how it works...goes back to me taking my brand new bicycle apart as a five year old...

I know according to the service manual that the "test length" of the Auburn clutch is 1.25", I'm assuming that is where the magic number comes from. In my feeble forty something mind, the purpose of the screws is to adjust the travel of the pressure plate to compensate for wear of the clutch disc. Loosening the screws, as I initially done, relaxes the springs, raises the fingers from the backing plate and allows to pressure plate to travel closer to the clutch disc, to compensate for wear. Tightening the screws, lowers the height of the fingers, compresses the springs and draws the pressure plate away from clutch disc, toward the backing plate to allow for the thickness of a new disc.

As it stands right now...The screw are cranked down so far, they're already one thread below flush in the jamb nuts. As the clutch wears and the pressure plate needs to relax closer to the disc to make up for it, I'm not gonna have anything left hardly to adjust...

[Eugene]

Lub the pilot shaft bushing?

2 years ago at MidMo cub fest installed a new pressure plate. The finger height adjusting screws were to short to get the full 1 1/4" and still have threads for the nut. Wound up setting the finger height at 1 1/8" to get the bolt threads flush with the top of the nut when tightened down.

[Dusti Snider]

That's just about where I am right now Eugene. It would scare me to run it like that. I believe that's why the other new one may have come apart to start with...

I put a new pilot shaft bushing in it this time, and lubed it with a dab of copper plate...

Started the tractor last night with the PTO lever engaged, pushed the clutch in and the ol' flat belt pulley never slowed down Obviously...

[ScottyD'sdad]

is the disk in backwards? Fixed one, for a neighbor, that had that problem.
GSS-1411 Service Manual for Cubs and Lo-boy
Longer portion of the spline, away from the flywheel. Ed

[Dusti Snider]

I had that sickening feeling as well, when you start second guessing yourself. But no, Ed the hub of the clutch is facing the transmission. I guess tonight I'll be in the shop reading and tweaking the adjustment...

It just shouldn't be that difficult...

[Matt Kirsch]

Get someone to push the clutch with it running while you look up into the hand hole, so you can see what's going on instead of guessing.

[Jim Becker]

I put a new pilot shaft bushing in it this time, and lubed it with a dab of copper plate...

I've never used Copper Plate but isn't it an anti-sieze? The anti-siezes I have used are pretty thick. Did it possibly make the situation worse?

[Dusti Snider]

Jim some of it is very thick, this stuff isn't that bad. I kinda skimmed off the "liquid" off the top of the can and put a dab in there, a small dab at that. I know one can of the silver "Never Seize" is so thick you can't hardly brush it...

[Boss Hog]

the pilot bushing is one place to use the new high temp, molly ,high dollar, or what every else they call it grease