adjusting clutch

I recently had to replace the clutch and pressure plate, and flywheel in my super A farmall. When I replaced it I attempted to place it in gear and all it does is grind. I was wondering if anyone could advise me where the adjustment is located and if they think this may be the problem. I would apprecaite any and all help I could get.

Farrell: The clutch adjustment is done through hole in bottom of torque tube, just ahead of clutch pedal pivot shaft. Requires a 5/8" or 11/16" open end wrench. I always take both under the tractor as I never remember the correct size.

Another possibility, you may have put the clutch disc in backwards. You wouldn't be the first to do that. In fact I didn't make that mistake until my 3rd clutch change. Just too much of a hurry.

Farrell, I'm not saying this is exactly your problem, but if there's too much free play in the pedal, the pressure plate won't move far enough to free the clutch disc.

Here's the adjustment, and it's underneath the bell housing tube, at the rear under the pedals.



No. 1 is a U-shaped yoke, both arrows being the same piece.
No. 2 is the threaded-clutch rod that pushes on the throwout bearing carrier. Where the arrow no. 2 points to the threads, is a hole in the yoke so that in the adjusting, the threaded rod can move through the yoke if necessary.
The No. 3's are the nuts that serve to adjust and clamp. If you loosen the roght one, and 'draw-up' on the left, you'll pull the rod backward relative to the yoke, and loosen the pedal. Conversely, if you loosen the left nut and 'draw-up' on the right, you'll pull the rod forward, moving the throw-out bearing closer to the pressure plate, reducing the pedal free-play, and making the pressure plate move a greater distance to free the clutch disc. Once it's adjusted right, turn down the loose nut to clamp it all in place.

Hopefully, your nuts aren't rusted tight.
No pun intended.
=;-D

Dang it Hugh, you beat me again!
Signed,
One-trick pony

LOL

The clutch is as tight as it can be and has no free play in it. I appreciate the comeback P and R. Thanks

Could be your free-play adjustment, could be your pilot bushing. Could also be that you just need to wait a second or three. Farmalls and others of that era are notorious for being gear clashers. In normal operation, you need to give the tranny input shaft a few seconds to stop spinning after you press the pedal.

Free-play is easiest to check and adjust and should be done first. It should be an inch to 1-1/4", measured at the actual foot-pad on your pedal. (On other models it's measured between the seat deck and the pedal arm.) For that distance, you should only feel the resistance of the small return spring that hooks between the pedal arm and the underside of your seat platform, before running into the resistance of the springs on the clutch itself. In other words, the distance you can move the pedal easily by hand.

Too much freeplay is not uncommon with a renewed pressure plate or friction disc. If your measurements at the pedal indicate too much freeplay, the adjustment is easy, but awkward. You'll find an opening on the underside at the rear of the torque tube, just in front of the transmission. Follow the linkage from your pedal and you will see it connected to a piece with a threaded rod passing through it, with a nut on either side of the lever in the linkage. Loosen both of those nuts and thread the front one toward the end of the rod (rearward). This will force the rod forward, reducing your freeplay. Snug the other nut back down and recheck. As another verification, you can peek through the access hole in the left side of the torque tube or through the handhole on the underside of the torque tube under the clutch. When properly adjusted, you should see just about a half-inch clearance between the face of the throwout bearing and the clutch fingers.

If all that is in order, and the problem persists, you may still have a sticky pilot bushing. It's located in the rear of the crankshaft, and supports the front end of the driveshaft that passes through the clutch and transmits power back to the tranny. The time to have inspected/cleaned/replaced it was while the tractor was split for the clutch change. It's a dry fit, non-lubeable (if that's a word!) bronzish alloy, and tends to accumulate crud from a leaking rear main seal coupled with chaff and clutch dust, all of which makes it "stickier" than it should be, enough sometimes to keep the shaft turning, even with the clutch released. It's easy to overlook and if it wasn't cleaned up or replaced while you were split . . . A simple test for that problem, if you have a PTO, is to depress your clutch pedal with the tractor in neutral and PTO engaged and see whether the PTO shaft continues to turn. Again, if everything else in in order, that would indicate the pilot bushin being the problem. If so, you could verify that by hooking some kind of PTO driven implement on and trying the same test, still with the clutch pedal depressed. If it turned without the load but does not with the load, then it's likely your pilot bushing. If it still turns, then you may have other issues with adjustment to the clutch cover itself.

HTH

Lawd, I spent fifteen minutes typin' and my conscience made me stop. And I left that out!

Actually, since I've looked at what was posted while I was typin', I kinda suspect that might be it, where he says he's bound up with NO freeplay at all.

so, to add a follow-up question, when the clutch adjustment for free play has been taken all the way up to the end of the adjusting rod its time to replace the clutch? On mine, I am at the end of that rod and I get some gnashing of gears. Is it normal that there is now slipping only gear grinding when the clutch is at its end? Or do I just need to move the seat forward a little more!

Depends which way you're out of adjustment room. As the clutch wears, freeplay is reduced. If you can't adjust the rod to pull it any further back, i.e., the front nut is running into the non-threaded part of the rod, then, yes, I'd take it apart and start with a new friction disc at the least and evaluate the pressure plate and cover with an eye to whether they need replacing, too. If you're running the nut off the end of the rod, then there's something else going on.

I appreciate all of the information. I'll try some of the things that I was told and see if I can locate the problem. Thanks to all of you.

For Eric-

When I did my clutch, the bottom 'handle'-part of the fork holding the throw-out bearing was bent forward, when the picture in the parts manual showed it as straight. I don't know how it got bent except for a previous owner with a real REAL heavy foot.

One possible reason you're running out of clutch rod may be a similar situation, in which the 'handle' of the fork is bent SO far forward that it's using more rod than necessary. You could probably take a peek at this through the hand-hole under the bell housing.

You experienced guys, I had a bearing-type throw-out, but I've heard of graphite blocks used as throw-outs. Is it possible for that to be sufficiently degraded that it would use up clutch rod?
It's hard for me to conceive that a thinning clutch disc could use so much rod that it's no longer adjustable. Even with my mildly bent fork, I still had plenty of rod left over.

I just re-read Scotty's post. Good question for Eric.

Which way have you lost adjustment? Are you running onto the non-threaded portion of the rod, or are you going off the rear of the threaded part?

P&R Pete, do you have a picture of which way the clutch disc goes next to the fly wheel that you might could e-mail me. If you are anyone else has a picture I sure would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.