Clutch jammed

[crawfw]

Wondering if any recognizes this piece of metal. So I was test driving my sunbird trying to diagnose an issue and my clutch got jammed. Can not press it downward. Feels like something is in a bind or jammed around the fork and t.o.bearing. Just a guess at this point. Found this piece laying in the bottom of the bell housing. The issue I was trying to figure out is unrelated. The car is a 355 with saginaw 4 speed. Thanks for reading.

[cjbiagi]

Is it metal? Could be part of the Throwout bearing. Otherwise probably something off the clutch itself.

[crawfw]

Yes it's metal. Going to start looking inside the bell housing soon.

[cjbiagi]

Things should be pretty obvious once you open it up. Sounds like a good time to replace the clutch and associated pieces in there. I did quite a thread a while back about proper throwout bearing selection, clutch fork angle, cable adjustment etc.

[marco_1978_spyder]

Oh Yeah..., thats from your clutch disc, and another piece is probably wedged into the pressure plate creating the jammed pedal.

I have a picture of nearly the exact same piece in clutch thread somewhere on this site.

[marco_1978_spyder]

Here's the one from mine.., nearly identical break!!!

[crawfw]

Thanks Clyde and Marco, Hopefully I can find your thread Clyde. Im going to need all the info I can get. Never replaced anything inside the bell housing before. it looks pretty easy from what Ive looked at so far. Other than the manual labor of it all. lol.

[marco_1978_spyder]

To me the biggest deal is getting the disc lined up perfectly so you dont have a tranny install hang-up. Take plenty of time to get it perfectly straight.

The pilot tool doesn't automatically get the disc in the right place. A tranny jack makes this a little easier too.. try to find a used one on craigslist, or harbor freight might have one for decent price.

[crawfw]

Finally got everything tore down. The metal that broke off is from the clutch disc. It holds the clutch springs in place. Found the clutch springs between the pressure plate and clutch disc which obviously caused the jamming. Looking for suggestions on clutch disc and throwout bearing replacements. Brand,style, material of construction or whatever. lol. Everything else looked good except maybe a little burn on the flywheel disc. Whats the ramifications of not resurfacing the flywheel disc? And the best places to take it to get it done without someone screwing it up. Id hate to see it get done uneven and cause a major issue with the rear seal or main bearing from being out of balance.
It looks like I'll be going with the rebuilt trans I bought a few months back with the different gearing also. It will require the tailshaft swap unfortunatly. Also will be purchasing a mini starter to allow more clearance from the passenger side header. Will be rerouting the starter wires away from the header also. Any suggestions on that would be great too. I would like to get that done before reinstalling the headers rather than looking for the best place after theyre back in.


Thanks again,
Bill

[marco_1978_spyder]

Finally got everything tore down. The metal that broke off is from the clutch disc. It holds the clutch springs in place. Found the clutch springs between the pressure plate and clutch disc which obviously caused the jamming. Looking for suggestions on clutch disc and throwout bearing replacements. Brand,style, material of construction or whatever. lol. Everything else looked good except maybe a little burn on the flywheel disc. Whats the ramifications of not resurfacing the flywheel disc? And the best places to take it to get it done without someone screwing it up. Id hate to see it get done uneven and cause a major issue with the rear seal or main bearing from being out of balance.
It looks like I'll be going with the rebuilt trans I bought a few months back with the different gearing also. It will require the tailshaft swap unfortunatly. Also will be purchasing a mini starter to allow more clearance from the passenger side header. Will be rerouting the starter wires away from the header also. Any suggestions on that would be great too. I would like to get that done before reinstalling the headers rather than looking for the best place after theyre back in.


Thanks again,
Bill

Makes perfect sense.

Is your car a mostly stock V8? If it's never been resurfaced..I'd go for it. If not and it looks mostly ok, I'd say your fine leaving it. I left mine as is along with the original pressure plate, and so far so good.

[cjbiagi]

It's hard to say without seeing it but as a general rule I would suggest resurfacing it. You have everything tore apart and it's right there ready to come off with a few bolts. It should not cost that much, maybe $35-$40 or so and it will give you a fresh surface, just like doing a brake job and cutting the rotors. Yours is a later car so you already have a 10.5" clutch so if it's basically stock or mildly hopped up a standard clutch should do fine. Stick with a diaphragm style with the clutch cable setup as it will put the least amount of strain on everything. After choosing your clutch kit make sure you take your time and get everything adjusted properly. I have a write up on that I can post again or you can search it out. You can look at Zoom, American Powertrain, Hays, Mcleod, Valeo etc and get a good clutch kit.

[crawfw]

Well unfortunantly, after several days of researching, I decided on a clutch kit from summit. Just focusing on the specs. 1 1/8" ten groove spline, 10.4" diameter. I went with a centerforce stage 2. before recieving it, I took the flywheel in to get it resurfaced.. As soon as I layed it on the counter, the guy says, Wow, is that from a monza. Well anyhow, i guess they are different as a lot of things are on these cars. Instead of the common gm flat surface, its what he called a step up flywheel. He showed me what to look for when I get the clutch and pressure plate, Im about 90% sure its going to be for a flat surface flywheel. I think it will be returned as summit has a great return policy. I will get the flywheel resurfaced, take my old pressure plate to him for inspection and just have him set me up with a good disc,T.O. bearing and pilot bushing. The current pressure plate is a Borg&Beck and looks to be in good shape. If not then I'll have to look at the options clyde posted on this thread. BTW I have already printed out Clydes thread on the clutch fork and pedal freeplay setup. Very helpful.
So the ramification of not getting the flywheel resurfaced in this situation is= I wouldve bolted this cluth assembly on and prob never get the clutch to disengage. lol . sound about right?



Thanks again,
Bill.

[cjbiagi]

First off, a Centerforce clutch will not work in a H body. The reason is the weights will interfere with the stock clutch fork. If you call Centerforce they will recommend removing the weights. Not sure about the Borg and Beck pressure plate, generally it's recommended to stick with a diaphragm style as the others are not as easy to push in and results in a higher strain on the cable and firewall. I didn't realize that the later monza's had the stepped flywheel, when I converted mine I went with a complete Hays setup with their steel flat flyweel, "Street" pressure plate and disc and the shortest "short" throwout bearing I could find. This results in the best clutch fork geometry with this setup. I also highly recommend lubrication the clutch cable, I have been doing this and it greatly reduces the pedal pressure. I have been synthetic motor oil thus far but am open to hearing about anything that might be better.

[cjbiagi]

First off, a Centerforce clutch will not work in a H body. The reason is the weights will interfere with the stock clutch fork. If you call Centerforce they will recommend removing the weights. Not sure about the Borg and Beck pressure plate, generally it's recommended to stick with a diaphragm style as the others are not as easy to push in and results in a higher strain on the cable and firewall. I didn't realize that the later monza's had the stepped flywheel, when I converted mine I went with a complete Hays setup with their steel flat flyweel, "Street" pressure plate and disc and the shortest "short" throwout bearing I could find. This results in the best clutch fork geometry with this setup. I also highly recommend lubrication the clutch cable, I have been doing this and it greatly reduces the pedal pressure. I have been synthetic motor oil thus far but am open to hearing about anything that might be better.