1947 M clutch fingers to throwout bearing clearance

[KentS]

Hello Everyone. i put in a new Steiner clutch over the weekend and the fingers on the pressure plate are adjustable. i backed the throwout bearing up all the way and then i adjusted the fingers so that .020 clearance is there before the fingers touch. i have looked everywhere to find the actual spec but i cant find anything. i dont want to put the pump back up in it without adjusting it to the real factory spec. yes i need to order a manual and i will.... but was hoping somebody could just tell me that clearance.
the thing is, as the clutch wears, that clearance will decrease so i dont want to set it up too tight. thanks in advance. Kent

 

[caterpillar guy]

If it was a newly rebuilt pressure plate it should have been set already. No adjustment needed.

 

[Charlie M]

I've bought two from Steiner and had to adjust both. Neither was an M.

 

[Hayfarmer]

I bought one from IH one time and had to adjust fingers on pressure plate to get it to work right

 

[Janicholson]

The finger height is important, but not to the T/O bearing. The finger height should be uniform to the friction disc hub plate, and in the middle of their travel. The finger to T/O bearing clearance is more like .080, and usually is adjusted by setting the free play at the platform to pedal location. (IIRC it is 1.25 inches) Jim

 

[the tractor vet]

Welp i can not count the clutches i have installed over the last 35 years and never once have i had to mess with finger settings . Any GOOD clutch rebuilder has the fingers set as per spec.'s Clutch fingers are set when the pressure plate is BOLTED DOWN to the fixture and set with a Gauge FOR that clutch . and any adjustment needed for FREE PLAY is done on the clutch release arm/ rod for the clutch pedal. SOOOooooo as long as you have between 1 to 1 1/8th free play on the CLUTCh pedal to platform your good to go . Sometimes you guys over think and cause yourself more grief and start messing where you should not be messing . BUT i Always Bought quality clutches that came with a WARRANTY Plus i was a Stocking dealer For that company . I did a lot of looking and talking before i chose them and while i was open for business i had many socalled rebuilders come to me wanting to set me up with there product . Yea they were CHEAPER BUT if something did go south they would replace BUT they would not stand for the labor to replace there JUNK . That tells me volumes on there quality . A company that not only stands behind what they are peddling and also the labor Guess who i am going to deal with . And of ALL the T/A's , all the clutches , or anything else i installed NEVER once did i ever have a claim . You all flock to these OTHER people then have a problem and come running on how to FIX the problem . No i can't tell you what that pressure plate sets at for finger height as i am not a rebuilder . That MIGHT be found in and OLD Factory service manualfrom WAY back when the mechaincs use to do the rebuilds in house . The inhouse rebuilds stopped back inn the seventy's when Factory rebuilt stuff first started really hitting the market . In my ealry days of wrench twisten in dealerships We did the REBUILDS on Stqarters Gen.'s and alt. Water pumps Transmissions Engines and rear ends Carb's Dist. . Now today all the socalled Mechanic's/ techs just have to know what way to turn the bolt qand nut to drop in a REBUILT ASSEMBLY and plug in the computer to program it.

 

[Mrfred54]

Tractor vet has covered this very thoroughly. You should never have to adjust those fingers. It is done on a precision tool. I used to rebuild everything as tractor vet has said, even the pressure plates. Would dismantle them and have the facing machined down and reassemble it and put it on the pressure plate tool and adjust the fingers to the height using the proper blocks and spacers per the service manual. Clutch pedal free play is ALWAYS done with external adjustment

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

The spec is not out there because you're not supposed to have to adjust the fingers. It was supposed to be set right when it was put in a cardboard box and set on a shelf. It was probably right to begin with.

Set the pedal free play externally, and go. New clutch should be at one extreme of the rod adjustment. Wore out clutch at the other extreme.

Really, the actual "spec" is not important so long as you can adjust that clutch rod on the left side of the tractor to get the correct free pedal travel.

 

[KentS]

no it wasnt set in the box. the 3 bolts were almost all the way out and there would have been 1 of clearance. i need to know the distance now.

 

[KentS]

thank you Janicholson that is what i was looking for. everyone else, i bought this from steiner because i thought they had good quality, they fingers were NOT set. how would i have known this ? i didint even know there WERE adjustable until i received it.
the set bolts were all the way out and locked down. this would have resulted in NO clutch had i not noticed it. i would have used up all my pedal travel just getting to the throwout bearing with no travel left to compress the clutch. i set the clearance to .020 but i consider that not enough for wear. so i'll nudge it out to .080 now and i think that will work

 

[the tractor vet]

IF by chance and this i doubt then you should have sent it BACK . Normally when a rebuilt clutch is sent the pressure plate is LOCKED down by means of three pull back bolts, three nuts placed between the fingers and the pressure plate cover , this makes the fingers look like they are layen flat and this also allows for easy of installing the pressure plate over the clutch disc and alignment , then when you put the cover bolts in to tighten down the pressure plat to the flywheel it pulls the fingers down more and you remove the shipping bolt or NUTS and you are now done other then free play on the clutch pedal adjustments . NOW none of us really know where your at and we don't have a good answer for you . Ya want a quality clutch then ya go with a HyCap rebuild . God only knows where Stiner gets his clutches from could be China for all we know like everything else that is almost right .

 

[the tractor vet]

Then you need to start buying from a quality rebuilder . since my first clutch job way back in 1963 i hav e never had to adjust any orther then the ones i have had to rebuild on the bench myself with PIECES and NEW parts as a rebuilt was not to be had by any rebuilder and for those we had the Spec BOOK and the fixture to do the rebuild on . And over the years we have installed push clutches , pull clutches and hand clutches . Some MFG's have special service tools to adjust the clutches like John Deere as they have to be set after install and i had to get the service tool to do the one i worked on . Two stage clutches have to be set up and again they need the special tools for that and the spec.'s are in the shop manual. But as for the Borg and Beck plates they are done at time of rebuild to the correct finger height . If one is NOT correct then send it back as it was done incorrectly and it is garbage.