Pressure Plate photo and what is problem??

[Bruce in southern OH]

Have owned this 31 Tudor for about 2 years, driving was limited because of clutch chatter. (it has gotten worse) I am going to take car to the MARC meet in June of this year so I removed the transmission and pressure plate today to see what problem is causing the "shake the head lights off" chatter. This is what I found, disc side to fly wheel looks like new, everything clean. The disc side towards pressure plate has skid marks on the pressure plate. Let me know what you think caused the marks on pressure plate. Car drove fine and shifted fine, just could not go from a start with our "voilent" chatter, thanks
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The dark streaks are clutch disc material, not heat marks
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Fly wheel and pilot bearing all look new, clean and smooth
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[redmodelt]

Off hand I would venture a guess, the clutch face of the flywheel was turned down and the lip was left unturned or the pressure plate was not adjusted properly. How do the fingers on the other side look? The springs may not have enough pressure, that one at the bottom looks funny or are not even in pressure allowing the pressure plate to bounce.

[Bruce in southern OH]

Redmodelt, do you remember the depth of lip to flywheel face, I will check tomorrow, I remember this happened to a friend of mine. Machinist did not do both surfaces and it would slip bad in third. My car would pull fine, but you never know until I check depth, thanks for the info, will see if someone post correct measurement.

[ford3]

well it looks like the clutch is slipping, not enough free play, at least 1" to 1 1/2" free play at the clutch pedal, mis aligned pressure plate fingers, bad or warped clutch judging form the blue spots on pressure plate,, what ever the problem is the clutch is definatly slipping

[1937pickup]

Is that an Asian re-pop? If it is get your hands on a Ford original and send it to Fort Wayne Clutch for a proper re-build. They may have one on the self they will sell you without a core.

[redmodelt]

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Don't have the depth at hand. If they cut X off the face of the clutch the same amount is needed off the lip. Hope someone chimes in.

[Patrick L.]

I'd first recommend putting a dial indicator on both the flywheel and clutch housing. Flywheel should be within a few thousands and the housing less than 10. And install the disk and pressure plate and measure the finger height. They should be 5/8" or 11/16" and all within .002".

[Tom Wesenberg]

I recall the depth being listed as 1.123"

Do you also have pictures of both side of the disc?

As Patrick said, be sure to check the flywheel disc surface for in and out wobble, and check the flywheel housing for alignment at 9, 12, and 3 o'clock. I try to get them under .007".

[Ron W]

I think that chatter is often the combination of pressure plate fingers being uneven and a bad throwout bearing. Ron W

[Mitch//pa]

you have it apart and only want to do it once
replace the pilot bearing, throw out bearing, clutch and pressure plate, and resurface the flywheel...
dont half ass it

[James Rogers]

Stock depth of the flywheel face to ring top is 1.125". I find if the flywheel is ground by clamping to the table by the outside ring it will grind out of level. The flywheel has to be clamped with a spacer inside the crank recess. I use a 4" double bearing race for a spacer and don't have this problem. I ship flywheels all over the US and would go broke paying return shipping if I didn't do it right. I also do stock flywheels locally and have never had a return.

BTW, I got the measurement above from a NOS flywheel that has never had a clutch or pressure plate bolted to it. Not a factory reject but a true NOS.

[Bruce in southern OH]

Thanks James Rogers and everyone else, I will go to garage today and take measurement depth of flywheel, check flywheel alignment. Then I am going to bolt old pressure plate to a spare flywheel ( after I check depth ) with new disc and check the measurement of finger height. I have a new pressure plate I purchased from Tam's a couple of weeks ago, will also check the new pressure plate finger height on this new PP. I will report back with findings this evening,

[Bob/Kansas City]

Definitely replace the pilot bearing while everything is out. A bad pilot bearing can be a cause of chatter. You might also check the diameter of the nose of the trans input shaft where it slips into the pilot bearing. The input shaft pilot bearing surface should be .668" / .666". If it is worn smaller it should be replaced..... and of course that leads to a complete trans rebuild etc.. etc... ask me how I know.

[Bruce in southern OH]

Here is what we found today, the depth of flywheel in tudor car is, flange to flywheel 1.125". Next we also have a flywheel from a car/truck that measures 1.25" on workbench and we checked the old disc and it measured .364 and the new disc measures .386 thick. We placed the old disc and pressure plate in flywheel, tightened up and measured the distance between top of pressure plate and fingers, it measured almost a 13/16". Next we placed the new clutch disc and pressure plate in flywheel and it measured a heavy 7/8". ( I could tell that it was going to be high because the last 3 pressure plates we have installed there was about two threads in adjustment screw on fingers showing above top of nut.) Now the hard part, ( this is new $90.00 dollar plus pressure plate ) we tried to loosen the adjustment screws to change the top of pressure plate to finger distance to 11/16". The screws were "Staked" and seemed to be rusted under nut on the ones we could move. Three out of the Six screws we had to side cut nut and free up to remove!!!!! Robbed the nuts from the old pressure plate ( probably still good ) and installed on the special adjustment bolts. Took about 3 hours of non stop work to get all six adjusted to 11/16"!!!( thanks DON ). Don and I are pretty sure that the poor adjustment of flywheel fingers lead to the clutch slipping and making the clutch disc deposit small amounts of material on pressure plate. NOW, like I have been told CHECK THE NEW CLUTCH PRESSURE PLATES !!!! I am sure back in cars past someone picked up the pressure plate and installed, this is when the trouble started, I was just on the receiving end.
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Pressure plate adjustment device, checks distance, continuity checker for fine tuning, and a location for dial indicator! This was the old pressure plate in flywheel showing gap between correct setting and existing finger setting.
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New pressure plate checking fingers, heavy 7/8"
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[Don]

Are the special bolts and nuts on the PP finger adjustments available ????? Had to just about destroy a couple on Bruces PP to get them loose. Guess a guy could make them if nothing was out there .

[Bruce in southern OH]

Tom W. and everyone else, could or would you explain what the pressure difference would be if you set fingers at 7/8" versus 11/16" and also the difference it would make in the clutch pedal position in car. I would like to have information to give supplier so that it is not just me giving information about why just having fingers close and even does not work. It needs to be correct height for car to operate correctly. ( installed clutch disc, pressure plate and transmission this evening, will connect drive shaft, pedals, brake rods, battery, etc. tomorrow, hope to test drive Monday, thanks everyone )

[Tom Wesenberg]

Actually the pressure on the plate remains the same as long as you have some freeplay between the throwout bearing and 6 fingers. Since this can be adjusted, you shouldn't notice any difference in pedal height either. It's just that the 6 arms are designed to move through a certain arc, and setting them at 11/16" puts them in the arc they were designed to move in.

[Don]

Are you sure the pressure stays the same? Put a spring between finger and thumb and squeeze ,the more you compress the stronger the spring gets.

[Tom Wesenberg]

The springs aren't changing length when you turn the adjustment nuts.
The nuts move the levers in and out.

[Bruce in southern OH]

Tom, how about this question, don't you think that you would set up Model A pressure plates to Model A specs if sold for Model A's? Also how much would the thickness of different clutch disc affect the finger height?