Throw-out bearing clearance..

bremereric

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I have my clutch hooked back up...I put the clutch return rod back on with the same distance between the end of the rod and the rubber bushing and washer...I have full stroke of the clutch pedal and everything is pretty cool...my book pretty much sucks on the following...I talked to a friend and he said in the old days you did not want the throw-out bearing spinning all of the time and that's why you wanted a slim daylight clearance between the pressure plate fingers and the throw-out bearing...he also told me that with the new throw-out bearings it does not matter whether they spin all the time or not..?
 

77RTNJ

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Eric,

Your friend is correct. The old throwout bearings were crap. They were not made for constant contact. When chrysler went to the auto adjusting clutches on the FWD cars like the Shelby Charger I had, they came out with new bearings that were made to spin all the time. On the old cars they told you not to hold the clutch in at a light to save the bearing. On the new cars it does not matter or old cars with the newer bearing too. Just to verify, you bought a brand new bearing not an NOS bearing, correct? NOS might need the clearance. All replacements for the old cars use the newer type of bearing. This is another item I learned from Rick Ehrenberg at Mopar Action.

Kevin
 

Mroldart2u

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This is just MHO on this matter... I wouldn't care WHICH bearing is installed, I would adjust it for the TYPE of car. If an older car calls for daylight adjust it that way, if it's a 'self-adjusting' full contact type of car, there is no adjustment to 'float the bearing' that will let the clutch operate correctly.
 

bremereric

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No Kevin the bearing was the new high dollar Centerforce one that I bought...I guess my buddy James was right.
 
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Mroldart2u

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No the bearing was the new high dollar Centerforce one that I bought...I guess my buddy James was right.


I wasn't inferring that your friend was wrong, or even questioning which bearing you have, I was just stating that if your car calls for 'daylight' adjustment thats the way I would adjust it... Something about the drag/friction against the fingers on a high dollar pressure plate just doesn't set well with ME... But it is your car and you know how you drive it, and what parts are installed, so adjust it the way you see fit..
 

77RTNJ

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mrold,

thats the thing with the new bearings, there is no drag against the fingers. The bearing is in constant contact with the fingers, so now the bearing is spinning all the time. The old style bearing would actually cause more wear on the fingers because it had to keep catching up to the speed of the motor every time it made contact .

Again it was an article written by Rick Ehrenberg about this.

I remember helping my Dad replace throw out bearings on a regular basis on our old Ford Falcons with the 3spds. It was about every 30,000 to 40,000 miles. On my Shelby Charger, that went over 120,000 miles before I needed to change the clutch, and even then the throwout was still good, but I replaced it because it was all apart. It had a self adjusting clutch operated by a cable.


Sometimes adjustments need to change based on newer style of replacement parts.

Kevin
 
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