Clutch or not

[Kazzoo]

Trying to help a friend out ,
1949 Ford custom 239 flathead v8.

In gear let the clutch out the car does not move and the motor does not die, wheels of the ground, let the clutch out and the wheels turn.

Not sure if it’s a bad clutch or adjustment problem.

[KiWinUS]

If I understand you correctly jacked up wheels OFF ground let clutch out wheels don’t turn. Correct. On the ground let clutch out and wheels turn. Correct?
When off ground and clutch out did you look at both sides or just 1? Only 1 may turn due to brake drag and the other side is turning. Spider gears baby. Look at driveshaft wheels off ground clutch out is it turning?

[cas3]

One of your axle keys has broken, or is missing

[KiWinUS]

Originally Posted by cas3

One of your axle keys has broken, or is missing

Poster says it’s a 49 so no axle keys. If broken axle wheels won’t turn on ground and clutch out.

[tubman]

Probably a broken axle. The way the axles break on these cars, it leaves a couple of rough surfaces on the broken ends. sometimes, there is enough friction to transmit power to an unloaded axle. Next time, hit the brakes (if any); the wheels should stop.

[cas3]

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Yes, I missed that, but he is saying it wont take power while on the ground. Something is broken, and while in the air it must drag enough to turn it

[hueyhoolihan]

the good news would be if the clutch plate is barely in contact with the flywheel when the pedal is let out, and only needs some adjustment. not so good news would be that the clutch plate is completely worn out such that it spins lightly on the flywheel with the pedal out. bad news would be differential or axle problems.

i wouldn't make too much of the fact that the wheels turn when lifted off the ground. i'd test if if it's possible to stop them from turning...by hand.

in any event, i'd be working from the good news toward the bad news.

[Flathead Fever]

I replaced a lot of clutches at work that the discs were worn down to the metal, no lining left at all. Those phone co drivers "wouldn't" let us know when the clutch was staring to slip, only when the truck wouldn't go anymore and it was towed into the garage. The using department got the toe bill for letting he clutch go that far. The rebuilt clutches we used at the seemed to be pretty good in the 1980s. Except one time I got one boxed wrong. I replaced at least one clutch a week and there were five of us mechanics, lots and lots of clutches. We always measured everything, flipped the pressure plates upside down on the bench and made sure the machined surface of the pressure plate was level between the new one and the old one. Do not let go of the original clutch for a core until the job is done. I've seen people turn the core in before they had installed the new one, what if it's wrong clutch in the box. Now you don't have the original one to compare it to.

The rebuilds lasted as long as the originals with those crazy drivers. I had one driver that didn't get "one week" out of a new Chevy C-50 aerial boom truck clutch. The flywheel was machined; factory new clutch and he burned every bit of lining off the disc and then he tried to blame us. They took the boom truck away from him and gave him a ladder. The using department got the entire bill for that one.

We worked nights but we got off early on holidays. One Christmas we had everything done and there was just one guy left out, we were just waiting for him to come in and we could go home early. He comes in with a fried clutch, it had probably been slipping for a week. We were pissed. The boss said, you guys can go home when that truck is back in its stall. The whole shop jumped on it, somebody was inside taking the floor mat and shifter out while it was up in the air, another guy on the driveshaft, one guy was in the parts room looking up the clutch, two guys pulled the trans. We had that truck back in service in an hour. Normally it took about four-hours for one guy to do the job.

The drivers also blew up rearends, lots and lots of them. Blown spider gears, pinion gears broken in half, ring gears missing teeth, broken axles. Regardless of whether it's the clutch or rearend you're going to need remove the driveshaft. We'd pull the driveshaft and put a big pipe wrench on the differentials yoke and block it so it could not turn and then tried to rotate both wheels, if you could turn both of them at the same time in the same direction the rearend was blown up. We'd also would stick a magnet in the rearends filler plug hole and see if pieces of gears came out. That was usually a pretty good sign you'd found the problem; the magnet works on transmission to.

[40cpe]

If your driveshaft is turning with the wheels stopped, it is a rear end problem. If it doesn't turn, it's in the clutch or trans.

[Flathead Fever]

Originally Posted by 40cpe

If your driveshaft is turning with the wheels stopped, it is a rear end problem. If it doesn't turn, it's in the clutch or trans.

That's about as simple as it can get.

[69a]

Car on ground. In gear, clutch out. Rev the engine a little, and observe the speedo. If needle moves, it is axle, or diff. If needle doesn't move, it is clutch or gearbox.