Need Help W/ Trans Spacer?????

[Clois Harlan]

Nothing is ever easy that is worth while...Right?

I Rec'd my New Gen II McLeod Hyd T/O brg yesterday and while setting all my gaps I find my tolerances have changed.

So here is what I have done:

Replaced my standard steel flywheel w/ new McLeod Aluminium flywheel w/ steel insert.

Replaced clutch w/ new Performance Hays Clutch

Replaced pressure plate w/ new McLeod Performance press plate

Here are my new dimensions:

Clutch fingers to the outside face of my bellhousing = 2.900

Face of T/O brg to face of trans + 3.020 (adj all the way in)

Problem is I need a gap of .100 between clutch fingers and T/O brg which means my distance between my brg and my trans cannot be anymore than 2.800. This means I need to either use a spacer between my bellhousing and engine or my bellhousing and my transmission of at least 0.220. As you know this is almost a 1/4 of an inch and this seems like an extremely large gap to make up. Has anyone delt with this problem before?


Comments or suggestions please!


Clois

[Pete Munroe]

Clois,

Glad to hear you got the new bearing...what did you think of the housing...it eliminates the banjo's with some very substantial, to me, 90 degree fittings retained with roll-pins.

I am running the same type McLeod flywheel, aluminum with steel insert, on my 289, a McLeod pressure plate and disc, McLeod bellhousing and a Tremec TKO.

There was a machined collar provided with the old bearing for my application...but I had to take it back to have it cut down for the range of clearance with the new bearing as the height of the whole assembly was different.

The shop guys, George the lead, all proved to be very helpful and pleased to get some feedback on the piece.

Again for those not familiar with my t/o bearing saga...My second generation McLeod t/o piece was the FIRST one in private use and considered a test unit... so the spacer collars SHOULD be correct a year later...you need to check the distances yourself anyway.

BUT when I was talking to Red McLeod he said you can set the clearance up to 0.20...this may mean never having to disconnect the hoses and rotate the the thing inside the bell housing to adjust the clutch as the disc wears.

There is enough travel of the hydraulic ram (at least with the McCloed pressure plate/disc) to activate the clutch...the hydraulics takes up the excess clearance anyway.

The 0.10 mentioned in the instruction sheet I never thought was enough...as the disc wears in initially, some of the distance should go away quickly.

I set mine at about 0.18, but Red said up to 0.20.

I would NOT use 0.10...hate so say call them again, but I would in your situation...they should verify what I said...but for your application, maybe not...although a disc is a disc I think.

I have about 2500 plus miles on the thing since last April, more probably...two track events and some fun driving, works fine.

Please post your impressions of how the thing looks and how the hoses fit compared to the p-o-s banjo's.

If you can take a digital picture of the thing.

I hate to think of more people trying to make the old design work...send the suckers in a get the new housing, it works.

Pete

[Clois Harlan]

Here is a shot of my T/O brg. The distance between the face of my trans and the leading edge of my brg is 3.080

[Clois Harlan]

Here is a shot of the sleve that goes on the pilot shaft of my trans inwhich the T/O brg threads onto: I wonder if I could have this machined down .250 from the trans end so my brg would slide up on it further?

[Clois Harlan]

I have dissambled my bell housing and mic'd everything again and I find (surprisingly) my new aluminium flywheel is .250 thicker than my old one. Go figure.

[Pete Munroe]

Clois,

Good pictures, 90 degree fittings and pedestals look a little different than the one I got, but maybe the design has changed a little...but I last saw mine a year ago...hope it is never out again!

I will guess the aluminum fly wheel HAS to be thicker than the steel to provide adequate strength, but that would have caught me by surprise too.

OH, just reread all your posts, should have done that before rattling off a response.

Yes, I think the collar can be trimmed from the TRANS side, the clearance you need, plus some...I used 0.18 for the clearance

It looks like the collar is long enough that it would not be unstable if it ws shortened 0.30 or so, but check with McCleod...it may be difficult to adjust if the flats don't stick up high enough to turn the thing.

My Tremec/289 clutch assembly uses the treaded adjusting collar you show and an additional spacer, (no threads, slip on) sleeve about 5/8 tall.

With the new taller main housing we had to cut down the spacer to get enough room for the threaded collar to be adjusted. I guess we ended up with about 0.300 total room available, maybe more, so the spacer collar got cut in half...will look for my notes, maybe with the original directions.

On your FE/toploader it appears no collar is used, and as the new housing is taller, maybe the threaded collar is too long.

If you DO trim it, do it at the outer end as the threaded are special locking threads, tapered on one side, flat on the other so the unit tend to lock its self under pressure, along with help from the friction fit of the o-ring on the shaft.

Did you...I could go back and look but I'm too lazy... measure the difference between the height of the clutch fingers to the outer edge of bell housing? I used carpenters squares with adjusting rules to get the depth to the cluch fingers, and then measure the height of the throw out bearing on the from the face of the trans.

Subtract the two figures, and leave up to 0.20 clearance, I did about 0.18, Red said for MY application up to 0.20 is ok.

Looks like there is enough material on the adjuster collar to cut off what you need plus a fudge factor...do not think you will need to shim out the trans or bell housing.

Pete