Pressure Plate Adjustment

psimet

psimet

Senior Member
I watched a few videos and read up on how to adjust a pressure plate. I have a small granite surface plate and indicators from my misspent youth in manufacturing.

I started adjusting but just couldn't get the fingers the same. Pretty soon I noticed I was chasing my tail and had let the nuts up enough they were basically even with the top of the slotted posts.

At this point I think I am just going to install the clutch and adjust the pressure plate in place. Anything I should keep in mind adjusting it when it's installed?
 
When you say "installed", do you mean the pressure plate will be bolted to the flywheel with the new clutch disc in place? But the engine and flywheel are still out of the car?
 
The best way to adjust the pressure plate is with it on the flywheel with the friction disk installed. Measuring out the pressure plate only on the granite plate will let you know that the fingers are equal with the plate friction surface but will not tell you whether the fingers have the proper depression relative to the rear of the pressure plate housing, which is where the 5/8" (some say 3/4") is measured. It sounds like you might have attempted to adjust the finger depression without the PP and disk installed on the flywheel.

If at all possible, I check the adjustment with the flywheel removed and flat on the bench. This is relatively easy if the flywheel has been sent out for surfacing as part of a clutch replacement. I put clocking marks on the PP and the flywheel afterwards to assure it gets finally mounted in the same relative location. However, I don't remove the flywheel if I'm not resurfacing it. I use a dial indicator mounted to a long parallel bar that spans across the PP housing to check the finger depression (see photo, beer cans are not part of the setup). Definitely overkill to measure to 0.001", but it's what I have and it's easy to use.

To that topic, I prefer the pressure plates with the dual locking nuts on the adjustment screws over the ones with a single staked nut.
 

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Jim/GA said:
When you say "installed", do you mean the pressure plate will be bolted to the flywheel with the new clutch disc in place? But the engine and flywheel are still out of the car?
Click to expand...

Correct. Engine is still on the stand and I installed the flywheel yesterday. Was just looking to adjust the pressure plate.
 
JayJay said:
The best way to adjust the pressure plate is with it on the flywheel with the friction disk installed. Measuring out the pressure plate only on the granite plate will let you know that the fingers are equal with the plate friction surface but will not tell you whether the fingers have the proper depression relative to the rear of the pressure plate housing, which is where the 5/8" (some say 3/4") is measured. It sounds like you might have attempted to adjust the finger depression without the PP and disk installed on the flywheel.

If at all possible, I check the adjustment with the flywheel removed and flat on the bench. This is relatively easy if the flywheel has been sent out for surfacing as part of a clutch replacement. I put clocking marks on the PP and the flywheel afterwards to assure it gets finally mounted in the same relative location. However, I don't remove the flywheel if I'm not resurfacing it. I use a dial indicator mounted to a long parallel bar that spans across the PP housing to check the finger depression (see photo, beer cans are not part of the setup). Definitely overkill to measure to 0.001", but it's what I have and it's easy to use.

To that topic, I prefer the pressure plates with the dual locking nuts on the adjustment screws over the ones with a single staked nut.
Click to expand...

Looks like a nice setup. I just need a bar. I have some old tools used for measuring tooling offsets that I might be able to repurpose.
 
I'm with Jay-Jay. I seen a video where the pressure plate was adjusted on the work bench. I can't wrap my head around how that works without it bolted to the flywheel. Sure you can get all the fingers even but how you check the finger depression.
 
psimet said:
Looks like a nice setup. I just need a bar. I have some old tools used for measuring tooling offsets that I might be able to repurpose.
Click to expand...
Another way is to set a straightedge across the PP and use something the right width beneath it as a go-no go gauge. I have several small blocks of steel that I use this way. A piece of 3/4” x 3/8” flat bar works well for setting at either of those dimensions. You are after consistency, not an exact number.
 
Took about 7 minutes to do once I had it mounted. Machinist’s square as a flat edge and a caliper for depth. Having a capable kid to help make the adjustments helped.
 
psimet said:
Took about 7 minutes to do once I had it mounted. Machinist’s square as a flat edge and a caliper for depth. Having a capable kid to help make the adjustments helped.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right. Capable kids are essential.
 
Sounds like you have completed your adjustment.

For the record, the most important thing is to have the adjustments on all the fingers the same, within 0.002 and not the absolute distance. Without the fingers being all the same the clutch could chatter. It will drag when disengaged making shifting difficult at best.
 
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