guys,

can you help?

i have a ford TKO, the mcleod GM scattershield with the adapter for the ford tremec. i have a mcleod clutch with three fingers PP and i cant remember which TO bearing i have (could find that out), but i know it fits the ford tko input shaft

i heard a rattling noise coming home the other night and decided to pull the tranny. what i found was a broken TO bearing (part of the back ring was broken off) and a broken clutch fork... one of the fingers of the little spring that holds the bearing.

what could cause these to break? i do remember that i had to grind a little off the clutch fork to make it accept the ford TO bearing. it was kinda tight, but did fit in the fingers of the fork.

i wasnt dropping the clutch or anything but was shifting kinda hard from second. could the bearing have slammed back on the input shaft real hard and just cracked??

also, clutch free play is very minimal (certainly not the inch i think im supposed to have. but if i add more freeplay (make the clutch rod shorter), i dont have enough leverage to disengage the clutch. i think this can be corrected by making the adjustable ball stud longer therefore making the travel distance required by the TO bearing to disengage the clutch shorter, allowing a shorter clutch rod and allowing more freeplay.

is this correct?

if this is correct, is there a max distance that the adj ball stud can be made? it seems like too long of a ball stud would be bad for something.. but what, i dont know...

are there some measurements that you know of with the mcleod clutch/ball stud,bearing that would make things easier or is it just kinda trial and error?

any ideas would be greatly appriciated. i can get pictures of anything you want.

thanks guys!

I thought that setup used a late 60's/early 70's toploader throwout bearing like out of a Mustang.

Jody

jody,

im not sure what the 60s/70s setup was, but the bearing is for a ford... which bearing did you use?

thanks

I've used hydraulic bearings in the two I did. If you have your old one I'm pretty sure it can be matched up. The collar size is Toploader I believe.

Jody

yeah,

i tested the newer ford bearing on my old fork (grinded it a little to make the bigger ford collar work).

i grinded the new (angled for firewall clearance?) Lakewood fork the same way (the fork itself, not the spring fingers...one of which broke).

this bearing's "rear lip" was much thinner than the one that came with the mcleod clutch setup but better than the one that came with the tremec.

had i ordered a mcleod bearing with the thicker rear lip, but with a bore to fit over the ford input shaft, i wonder if it would have snapped.

any ideas why it did snap? did it catch on the input shaft housing??`

http://www.geocities.com/fiftyfive.geo/bearing_1.jpg