clutch mounting question

[cobrabritt83]

When mounting the clutch to the flywheel, should there be a gap between the pressure plate and the flywheel? I have a centerforce clutch that I'm trying to attach to my 427 fe. I've heard from other people that when you tighten the bolts down on the pressure plate, the clutch disc should compress into the pressure plate and mount flush with the flywheel. For some reason when I do this, I always have a gap, the width of the clutch disc, between the flywheel and the pressure plate.

[bobcowan]

No. The area near the bolt should be firmly against the flywheel. There should be no gap there.

[Gaz64]

Will the pressure plate go onto the flywheel without the clutch plate?

If the pressure plate won't go home with the bolts torqued, there is a serious mismatch of parts.

Gary

[DanEC]

Can you post a picture of what you are doing. If test mounting the pressure plate to the flywheel without the disc in place you will have a small gap - less than the disc thickness. When you install the disc under the pressure plate and tighten the bolts it will depress the clutch plate and the fingers or arms will slightly move towards the flywheel as it's pressured up. If that isn't happening you have either some mis-matched clutch parts or severely worn out parts.

For instance, here is a picture of a Chevy clutch I was checking for uneven engagement and measuring the gap of the plate to frame around the perimeter of the bonnet or housing. You can see there is a gap - but it's less gap than the thickness of the disc which makes the whole thing work.



From memory I think the disc thickness was somewhere around 1/4" so there was about .070 to .080" of compression of the clutch plate when the whole thing was torqued down to the flywheel.

[patrickt]

I have a Centerforce clutch as well. I have been told, but I have never actually measured it, that Centerforce driven disks have a proprietary thickness. So, if you are not using, say, a CF dual friction disk, along with your CF pressure plate, then that could possibly be the problem.

EDIT -- Cobrabritt83, what are your exact Centerforce part numbers? This should be a pretty straight forward plug and play unless you have the wrong parts.

[DanEC]

Possible, but I ran a centerforce disc with a McLeod pressure plate for years in my Corvette. I took the centerforce pressure plate out to replace with the McLeod.

I'm not sure I'm correctly understanding his question and hope he chimes back in with a picture.

[cobrabritt83]

Thanks for the help, I will post some pictures soon. As far as the issue, the pressure plate without the clutch disc mounts flat on the flywheel. I think the issue I'm having is the clutch disc wont press into the pressure plate when torqueing down the bolts. I bought everything brand new as a kit that included the clutch disc, pressure plate, and bearing.

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by cobrabritt83

Thanks for the help, I will post some pictures soon. As far as the issue, the pressure plate without the clutch disc mounts flat on the flywheel. I think the issue I'm having is the clutch disc wont press into the pressure plate when torqueing down the bolts. I bought everything brand new as a kit that included the clutch disc, pressure plate, and bearing.

So with only the pressure plate on the flywheel, what is the gap between the pressure plate and the flywheel?

You can see and measure this in 3 positions around the outer of the clutch cover.

Gary

[DanEC]

If the pressure plate sits flat against the flywheel (without disc installed) with no gap you definitely have a Centerforce clutch with something wrong with it. Cross torquing down the PP bolts evenly with the disc installed should easily compress the PP disc as the PP bonnet is pulled up against the flywheel. If not you need to return it.

[lnfletcher]

Make sure the alignment pins are fully installed on the disk.