Clutch pedal stays on floor

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DUSTERDOWNS

DUSTERDOWNS

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In my 70 340 Duster when I shift at over 5 grand the clutch feels really light and the pedal wants to stay on the floor. When I say feels light it feels as if I could push it in with two fingers. Any suggestions , is there suppose to be a spring to pull the pedal back up or what? thanks Steve
 
I'm no expert but it sounds like the springs in your pressure plate are shot. My slanty used to do that before I replaced the clutch and pressure plate.
 
Not a tech but i have heard theres a over center spring under the dash that keeps it from getting stuck over center. use the search option here and search over center spring. you will find a plethora of info.
 
i had the same problem steve, it was my clutch. btw, did you get my last message?
 
Yep, spring. I went to auto, and the spring holds my clutch pedal to the floor, out of the way. And what a **** to install one.
 
If it is a Borg & Beck (3 finger non diaphragm style) each of the 3 fingers pivot on a pin. One or more may have broke.

I have had this problem more than once and will never use a Borg & Beck style clutch again.
 
I thought it was the overspring that held the pedal down?
The spring above the pedal makes it easier to push the clutch pedal down- to get it to come back up you need to put a spring, or two, on the fork. Mine goes from the fork to the bell housing where there is a small hole for the springs to hook to. I need a better spring as under high rpms the pedal still does not want to come up. You can remove the over spring if you are ok with the pedal being a little harder to push.
 
Centerforce???

You may need to remove the overcenter spring on your pedal assembly.

Diaphram style clutch hats will do that sometimes.

I don't have that trim piece you were looking for.
 
crackedback said:
Centerforce???

You may need to remove the overcenter spring on your pedal assembly.

Diaphram style clutch hats will do that sometimes.

I don't have that trim piece you were looking for.
Click to expand...

Absolutely correct. If you are using a diaphram clutch, remove the over-center spring.
 
There are 2 springs. One under the dash that keep the pedal to the floor when the clutch rod is not attached. The other attaches to the bellhousing and the clutch fork. This one pulls the clutch fork back and makes the clutch pedal come back up. I would suspect it is the small spring or the springs in the pressure plate that seem to be failing. I have a factory shop manual that shows the clutch pedal mechanism. Let me know and I can scan it and send you something.
 
The spring under the dash returns the pedal to the up position for the first half of it's travel and for the second half of the travel will tend to pull the pedal to the floor to reduce the clutch effort, hence the name over center spring.

The springs in the pressure plate provide the force to return the pedal to at least mid point where the over center spring will move it the rest of the way. The light spring that goes between the fork and bell housing is there to keep everything tight so it does not rattle and prevents the through out bearing from running on the clutch fingers all the time.

If the pedal stays on the floor you either have something binding up or a bad clutch.
 
Bingo- that sound right to me. I've been looking for a good explanation, thank you.
 
Ha ha ha, OMG! That's funny!

Serioulsy, I was reading this and figured that a newbie to this all would have a issue with what part is what. Where is what? How do I do what to what? Type questions amy come up. I think everything is explained preety OK so far. Pictures would be the iceing!

Who has a picture of the overcenter spring there and removed? I think that is a good place to start.
 
rumblefish360 said:
Ha ha ha, OMG! That's funny!

Serioulsy, I was reading this and figured that a newbie to this all would have a issue with what part is what. Where is what? How do I do what to what? Type questions amy come up. I think everything is explained preety OK so far. Pictures would be the iceing!

Who has a picture of the overcenter spring there and removed? I think that is a good place to start.
Click to expand...

I was actually kinda thinking someone would've posted a scan of the FSM. If I could find mine I would do it.

Oh, and thanks for not unloading on me. Seems humor is in short supply these days.
 
Humor is allways short in the heat and/or sleep.

I'd like the picture posted if anyone has it. Seriously.
 
I was talking to a Mopar guy a while back and he informed me that my car originally came with a Borg & Beck style clutch, with the 3 fingers. Currently if I try to do a burnout, rev it up and pop the clutch, the pedal will stay on the floor and the clutch will burn. This happens because, I either have a bad clutch, but it works fine any other time, or at some point it was replaced with a diaphram clutch. The diaphram clutch does not work well with the over center spring and it should be removed.

I have not removed the spring yet, but that is what I was told and it seems to make sense.

clutch_university_033.jpg


clutch.jpg
 
The other reason the pedal may stay on the floor during a burn out is the engine is torquing in the mounts and you may be causing something to bind up in the linkage.

I had the same problem when I first put the 360 in my Barracuda and had two issues in the linkage causing the problem.

The mounting point on the bell housing for the ball stud bracket moved in 72 so there are different brackets for older than 72 and 72 up. This is not clear in most references. If you have the wrong one the z-bar does not sit level & perpendicular. When the engine torques it makes it worse and the pedal hangs on the floor. I had the wrong bracket and most of this issue went away when I replaced it with the correct one.

The other thing going on in my car was the clutch fork has a spring clip on the back of it the clips into a hole on the pivot bracket inside the bell housing. The one I had the clip was broken off. I had figured it was just there to keep things in place when you assembled the tranny to the engine. But, under hard acceleration without the clip the fork will twist on the bracket and hang up. Once I replaced the fork with a new one I have not had any issues with the clutch hanging up.
 
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