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Rod,

It's best to check and adjust pedal free travel and throwout bearing clearance before doing anything else. So -

Pedal Free Travel: Best done by hand on the clutch pedal.  Gently depress the clutch pedal by hand.  Only the top inch of travel at most.  You'll be overcoming the assist spring, but you should feel a slight "bump" as the master cylinder pushrod contacts the piston.  Adjust the master cylinder pushrod until there's 1/8" free travel at the pedal before you feel the "bump".
Alternatively - reach up under the dash and grab hold of the master cylinder pushrod.  With the clutch pedal fully released you should be able to wobble the pushrod slightly, and as you depress the clutch pedal, the pushrod should feel firm.  This will allow you to gauge the free travel.

In short: back the master cylinder pushrod off a few turns and gradually adjust it up until you have between 1/8" and 1/2" pedal free travel.

Throwout Bearing Clearance:  Working from under the car, grab hold of the clutch fork with your fingers, and pushrod with your thumb.  Try to push the pushrod back through the clutch fork.  You'll feel the throwout bearing contact the pressure plate.  There should be about 1/8" free travel at the end of the clutch fork.  If you can't move the clutch fork relative to the pushrod, your clutch is out of adjustment.  Wind the adjuster nuts down the pushrod toward the slave cylinder until you achieve the right free travel.

Both these adjustments right?  Time to check whether the system's bled properly.  This is best a two-person job.  Have someone push down on the clutch by hand while you observe what's going on at the clutch fork.  As soon as the pedal free travel's taken up, the slave cylinder pushrod should start to move.  The end of the clutch fork should move nearly an inch with a full stroke of the pedal.

To me, it looks like something's not right with the actuating mechanism.  I'd try checking first that the slave cylinder piston's not stuck in its bore (pop the rubber boot off and shine a light inside).  And the pressed steel clutch forks can crack or break, producing symptoms similar to yours.  Unhook the return spring, remove the pushrod, remove the spring and covers from the clutch fork, shine a light inside the bellhousing and inspect the clutch fork to see that it's not bent.

Rob

Gee its been 12 months since my last post.

I have slowly be plugging away and happy to say I drove the car out of the garage for the first time on weekend, needless to say not in the manner I had hoped. More about that in a moment.

The hold up really has centred around lifes challenges and to a lesser a degree finishing off the front seat. I will make another post on what I did there.

Now to my saga on the weekend. I had enormous issues bleeding the clutch. Just couldn't get the air out. Not sure where it has been coming from as I ensured all new fittings were snug up tight. I have gravity bleed and that has been the best approach. I have adjusted gear linkages and when using the clutch I can move into most gears with the motor off. However, when the motor is runnin,g there is no way of finding a gear. When I place her into gear, push the clutch in and then start the engine, she takes off under the steam of the starter motor.

I have read a number of previous posts, and please correct me if I am wrong but I am thinking the clutch plate is stuck to the flywheel. I am not too keen on removing the gearbox.

One thing that doesn't sit right with me is the Slave Cylinder Adjustment rod. I have adjusted the free play and there is very little room for ajustment even if I had to do more. Please see photo. This is significantly different to the amount of adjustment I have left in my ute.



As a side note, the clutch assembly is new, the flywheel has been machined (could a stuck clutch still occur with this?), free play adjustment has taken place at the master and slave, and the pedal adjustment has taken place.

Any suggestions on bleeding the clutch or how to rectify my issues, I would be very grateful. Itching to drive the old girl down the road.

Cheers Rod

 Hey Gary. At least he got the number right!

Cyber Truck spotted outback

What engine are you running mate and who did the rack sump?

 The engine mounts themselves or the brackets that are welded to the crossmember ? If the former you need to put up some pics so we can try and figure out what they are from ??

Brett,

Buying your motor would be the sensible option, but I like the idea of building something up out of discarded parts.

Rob

Sounds like you have it well covered Rob. I am starting to feel the need to move my EK engine on which has everything you are thinking about.

Sent from my SM-T865 using Tapatalk

Brett,

Down in the dungeon I have a well-used Repco Special Sports 3-3/16"-bore B-series motor which I got from Stan Bennett.  It might have been his speedway car tow vehicle's motor.  The head's been ported and had red motor valves fitted.  It could do with new valves, guides, rings, bearings and a balance (I have a lightened flywheel to suit) plus a reground cam, as I think it's running a stock cam at the moment.  It'll give me something to play with.

Rob

Factory preparation for the Armstrong 500, or perhaps Jack Davey's work for a round-Australia trial(*) sound plausible, but my favourite would have to be Repco upgrade.  Wasn't it Lou Kingsley who had a Repco-headed FE, and used to tow his caravan between meetings with his race car?

I think Lou’s crossflow tow car was an FC wagon.

Hunting down a Repco head and then prepping it for abuse has given me one heck of an education in patience.

Cheers,
Harv