Cannot get into first or reverse

M

MARKA

Member
I drove my 1930 Coupe for the first time yesterday and when I depressed the clutch and waited for up to 30 seconds with the car stopped I could not engage first or reverse gears withot the gear clashing.

No matter how long I wait with the clutch depressed makes no difference and the first and reverse gears will not stop spinning for me to engage without clashing.

I have a vey low idle speed set as well .

I can engage second and top gears without a problem once the car is under way.

I have the correct Mobil Gear oil that is recommeded by people on Fordbarn.

Does anyone have any ideas what is wrong. ?

Thanks Mark.
 
It sounds like the clutch needs adjusting, or maybe one of the clutch arms is cracked or broken. Remove the inspection cover from the clutch housing top and see how much the throwout bearing moves forward when you push the clutch pedal to the floor. The clutch should have about 1" freeplay, then start pushing the T/O brng forward.
 
Tom , I checked that the throw out bearing moves forward and the arms retract o.k.

I was thinking that the clutch plate is frozen .

The car has been in a body and paint shop for 2 years without being run .

Is thier a method to free up a frozen clutch plate. ?
 
I would just start the car in first gear then step on the clutch and brake at the same time and see if that doesn't break it loose. You could also push the clutch down and floor the gas and release it several times. Hopefully one of these will free the disc.
 
MY AA TRUCK IS DOING THE SAME THING! Except it can't keep oil in it and it has a wicked sound when driving, It has a single disk clutch in it, someone replaced the origional Multi disk clutch,
i think that it is junk so i am going to get a multi disk ******, and be done,

on the Early AA trucks, the daul high gets in the way of the stop light switch and it cannot be used, but with a multi disk clutch ****** it will solve it
John
 
You are not going to believe this.
The coupe when I purchased it had a a vinyl floor mat.
I have put Baron Le Bonney kit in th car as well as floor carpets.

When I took the carpets out to check the clutch out, I also had to remove the rubber pedal pads that I had also added.

Well I started "nessie "(Car given the name of Elliot Ness of the untouchables fame )
and lo and behold no more spinning first and reverse gears. Just slips into the stationery gears as it should with the clutch in.

The lesson is if you add carpets and pedal pads remember to deduct 1/2 inch from the specfied 1 inch of free play to compensate for the loss of 1/2 of pedal travel.

Thanks Tom for pointing me in the right direction.
The simple things are what should be checked first but who would have believed that this was the problem.

Thanks
Mark.
 
MARKA said:
...The lesson is if you add carpets and pedal pads remember to deduct 1/2 inch from the specfied 1 inch of free play to compensate for the loss of 1/2 of pedal travel...

Thanks
Mark.
Click to expand...

Mark, your pressure plate fingers may be mis-adjusted, requiring extra pedal travel before full release. The clutch should be fully released before the pedal gets to the floor, even with 1/2"of extra pad.

Note that pedal free-play decreases as the clutch disk wears, so you will need to keep a close eye on the free-play adjustment if you drive it much.

Joe
 
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