Adjusting of clutch pressure plate

horse · Post by **horse** » Sat Oct 03, 2020 7:52 am

Hi all. I am having a new drive plate fitted into my M38 and the Gent who is working on my Jeep has asked me to check with the collective something he has found.
As per TM9-1804A the adjustment screws on the fingers should be set to 27/32 inch established between the straightedge and the face of the pressure plate cover.

My unit was set at 1 1/8 for some reason, I understand he may not be able to adjust it correctly on the cable as it is more than 1/4 more than specification.
The clutch drove fine with this setting.

So should we keep the same high setting as it worked fine before or set to the correct setting and may have to remove the box again as not enough adjustment on the cable?

The original drive plate was in good condition, the only reason to change it was as we had the gear box off looking for a leak and seems a good idea to change it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Post by **wesk** » Sun Oct 04, 2020 1:17 am

I would first ascertain which clutch/pressure plate assembly you have. The finger adjusted height is not the same on all. Also there is a special tool set W-296 required for proper setting. The TM 9-1804 tries to get around the use of this tool set by simply measuring from a straight edge across two of the finger release bearing ledges and then measuring the distance vertically to the face of the pressure plate's COVER. Not the face of the plate

The best set of instructions with quality illustrations can be found in the civilian jeep factory manual SM-1046. However try to use the earlier civvy jeep factory manual SM-1002 for the early style pressure plates. I have the clutch chapter of SM-1002 in my photo album. You can access the larger file size copies of the pages I am posting below if you go to the album.
http://www.willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules. ... _album.php

Note the illustrations for the W-296 setup plate kit and height gage are poorly done in this manual and are not shown at all in the TM 9-1804A.

horse · Post by **horse** » Sun Oct 04, 2020 3:00 am

Thanks Wes you are a star, will learn more and pass the information on.

horse · Post by **horse** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 6:44 am

Just a quick update. The clutch is the original 8 1/2inch and the pressure plate replacement is the same as the original.It was noticed the clutch folk had been slightly altered, so a new one is going in and we will see if it then makes the measurements, fingers crossed.

horse · Post by **horse** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:44 am

Okay the pressure plate has made the correct distance of 27/32 inch but the cable length is on full adjustment. After a bit more research the Cross shaft can be put in backwards and also there was an Willys notification on the Clutch Pedal Rod. So a few things to check.

4x4M38 · Post by **4x4M38** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:08 am

There is a recent thread on the cross shaft install.

Might look it up.

horse · Post by **horse** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:53 am

Thank you. Wes has a photo on his album which I have looked at and will check its the same as his, at the moment its got a MB cable on it which should be too short according to the research.

horse · Post by **horse** » Sat Oct 17, 2020 12:51 am

She is all back together, the leak was found to be a cracked transmission housing so while the unit was out any parts which required replacement have been changed same with the transfer box. She drives well but when sat with the clutch in it rattles so we are now fitting both pressure plate and a matched friction plate lets hope that stops the rattle, or if anybody has any advice on the rattle subject let me know.

horse · Post by **horse** » Thu Oct 22, 2020 12:11 pm

So the unit was taken apart again to fit a matched clutch, drive and pressure plate.
On inspection of the new Pilot bearing it was found some damage after only half an hours driving so it was decided to remove the Flywheel to is if that was damaged.
Behind the Flywheel, which appears to be in good condition was a home made shim, not sure why this has been fitted.
Before we started this work the clutch worked fine but on strip down it was noticed wear on the pilot bushing and the fingers on the clutch were out of tolerance.
Will be going back together without the shim and we will see if all is well with the new clutch and another bush.
If anybody has come across this type of thing before please let me know.

horse · Post by **horse** » Thu Oct 22, 2020 12:59 pm

I see you can buy shims to go behind the flywheel if you have had it machined to get the correct clutch adjustment, may be that is why it was fitted?
Also anybody had the flywheel machined to take a bearing rather than the solid type Pilot bushing as an upgrade?

horse · Post by **horse** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 7:50 am

Clutch back together with the original shim behind the flywheel. It would appear that the flywheel was not fitted flat and was binding on the pilot bearing also a larger hole has beed made in the middle of the spacer to allow more room for the bearing. I was warned not to look inside the gearbox housing as there could be" snakes in there". Anyway should last many years now and I know a bit more about flywheels and clutches.All good.

Post by **wesk** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:00 am

If the flywheel gets refaced (a machining of the clutch surface) the shim is needed to replace the lost material. Did you reinstall the original flywheel?

horse · Post by **horse** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:02 am

Yes, that was good just poorly installed it would seem.