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A short, but painful update. Well, not too painful. The transmission rebuild went well. The new pressure plate, clutch, and bushing were installed also. I re-installed the drivetrain and my temporary seating. Time for a test drive.
The engine fired right up. I attempted to slide her into 1st gear...and...grrrr grr gr....gear grind. The clutch would not disengage. I diddled around with the clutch cable for half a day. Nothing I did helped.
I finally realized that the drivetrain needed to be pulled again. Anyone else notice how good you get at stuff like this when you have to do it two or three times in a row?
Anyway, after reading a bunch of threads, I found that any of a number of things can cause this. Not wanting to have to pull the drivetrain again, (3 times was enough) I decided to address every possible issue. The result of this choice is that I have no idea what my original problem was.
I installed a new pivot fulcrum and clutch fork. The new clutch disc had a very slight warp. The old disc was, well, pretty new, so I put it back in. The bushing was pulled, then slid onto the input shaft. It seemed a little tight, so I reamed it out a bit.
I re-installed the drive train and my temp seating. I fired up the engine, then pushed in the clutch. I let out a sigh of relief, then took the chassis for a spin.
Everything went fairly well except shifting into 2nd gear. Synchros work great, but the shifter just won't throw the gear far enough to keep it engaged. It just barely catches, but occasionally slips out.
I inspected the shift fork and found some decent wear groves on both sides of the fork. The wear is even, but I am missing 3/64" of material. I don't know if this is enough to cause my problem, but I decided to get a new fork anyway. I will also trim some material from the poppet groove, as described in the Willys memo we have all seen recently.
This will probably be the last project I do on Whitey for a while. In preparation for the Fall Colors Tour, I have a number of small projects planned for the OD Willys. New brake shoes, valve adjustment, new fuel pump, oil change, etc...
Tim
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