[Jerry Cowing]

Rick,

I also have a Unique with a 428 FE & toploader and am having fits trying to get the clutch to work properly. It will not go into reverse unless I shut the engine off then it shifts into all gears easily. If I start it in neutral, it won't go into gear, if I start it in gear, the car starts to creep. If I'm driving, it will shift, but it won't go into gear easily especially at high revs. Here's what I've done so far:

From the very first day I started the car in Feb 01, neither myself, So. Auto folks on 15 Apr 02 nor anyone else has been able to adjust my clutch properly. I still can not get the clutch to adjust properly. I have replaced the flywheel, pilot bearing, clutch disk, pressure plate, throw-out bearing, Wilwood ¾” master cylinder, Wagner F-124111 slave cylinder and the silver slave cylinder rod adapter with jam nuts. I have checked to insure the proper fork (DOTZ-7515-A) is installed which it is according to Unique’s assembly guide for a 428 FE. I have installed 0 washers/shims, 2 shims and 3 shims under the fork and it made no difference except to move the fork closer to the slave – it didn’t help the adjustments. I have bleed the system numberous times using 3 different methods: normal peddle pressure method, the let it sit and let the air bubbles rise method and the vacuum method. There are no air bubbles in the system. I have made sure the slave cylinder piston was all the way retracted by opening the bleeder valve and pushing the piston in until it stops at the back of the slave cylinder.

It appears that the slave shaft does not move far enough to disengage the clutch completely and therefore only partially disengages the clutch. When I depress the peddle a half inch, the slave moves a half inch. When I continue to push the peddle all the way to the floor (an additional 1-2 inches), the slave doesn’t move any further. Some folks have told me all it should take to move to disengage the clutch is ½ inch, so why isn’t mine working? When we replaced the flywheel, my mechanic noted that the pilot bearing had some wear which he thought was excessive for only having 3800 miles on it. He thought that maybe the transmission was binding in the pilot bushing. He said besides changing the throw length of the slave by either replacing the master or slave or both with a different size, the only thing left to check is the bell housing alignment. I noticed that the bell housing was stamped “Not a Safety Shield”. Is this the correct bell housing? When I ordered the engine, I was told these engines came with shatter proof bell housings, so maybe I’ve got the wrong housing.

Before I start changing the master and slave cylinders again and aligning the bell housing can anyone answer the following questions for me:
- how far should the fork have to move to fully disengage the clutch? Pioneer/McCleud 3-finger, 12 inch.
- what is the maximum distance the Wagner F-124111 slave cylinder is capable of moving? I was told this is a 7/8 slave, but the bore measures 1 inch.
- Do you have any other suggestions than what was discussed above?

Thanks,