ok shifts through all 6 gears with the engine off, brand new pilot bearing, centerforce dual friction clutch, brand new t-56, brand new prebleed master/slave cyl, when i turn the engine on it will not go into gear, no grinding i just push and nothing,

 

We screwed something up.

 

your throwout bearing is in wrong

when you slid it into the clutch fork the little "tangs" on the fork itself need to go inside the bearing collar...when there on the outside the bearing isnt against the pressure plate, so theres is play between the two...

 

they were on the inside i believe,......right traviz,

 

Pull the slave cyl. off and make sure that the clutch fork angles slightly toward the rear of the car, and make sure it doesn't flop around. If it's not pushed all the way up and locked onto the pivot it will not engage the throwout bearing.

 

ya i aligned the clutch fork on the stupid bearing.

 

If the pilot bushing is a "bushing" did you grease it, if not it will drag and act like the clutch is engaged. If it's a bearing and is in cocked, it could do the same thing.
Lastly, jack the rear of the car up, push the clutch in (trans in gear, not running) and see if you can turn the drive shaft. It will take some effort, but if you can't turn it (with the clutch in) I would look in the bell housing for your problem.

 

its a bearing, and i did grease it, i believe they said that the wheels did not turn, and that the slave and master are acting properly the fork is pulling 3/4th to 1inch on the tob its just not disengaging, so what ever....its going to the shop...i doubt i can get the 4 people over again to drop the tranny down. i hope that if its the clutch they will warranty it if not im out $600 its been alittle over 90 days

 

well the clutch itself would be fine..

 

Yeah, I don't think the clutch itself would be bad. Is the disc in right, or sometimes the fork will bend and (unless you have a new one to compare it to) you won't realize it. I used to pull those big a** Ford T&C toploaders by myself on my back, in the dirt, you and another guy should be able to handle a t-56.

 

well we did do 2 things which is probably why it doesnt work think it will dammage it

we could not get that son of a bitch to bolt down so we bought slightly longer bolts and started bolting down the clutch...than it pulled it self together,

than we pulled in the tranny the last 2inches maybe by the bolts.

one things for sure i put the disc in facing the right way....and lined it up...

 

Was this a T-5 to T-56 swap, or from auto to manual? The reason I ask is, maybe you just don't have enough pedal travel to engage clutch. The bushing/retainer that holds clutch master to pedal on my car is worn enough that I had to lengthen m/c pushrod a little. This also could be b/c I used V6 trans in V8 application with pressure plate for early 70's camaro. (diaphraghm type). Just a thought.

 

Hub (small disc parallel with big disc) facing the engine?

 

it was auto to manual, yes the clutch was installed the right way, its a friggen dual friction, it about only fits on one way.

 

and the large stickers that say
FLYWHEEL SIDE

as stated in a reply that theres 3/4 to 1inch...movement...

 

Does the clutch peddle feal normal going in and out?

 

IMO "pulling" the tranny into alignment with longer bolts is a no-no. I've used longer bolts as dowels to help hold the trans in place but that is all. It sounds like you used one of those cheapo plastic input shaft alignment tools, they never actually workthat well, but maybe that's all you had. In the future, get the trans in as far as possible and then have someone apply pressure to the clutch pedal as you push the trans in. You may have bugged up the disc or the bearing. Again, if you cannot rotate the trans with the clutch (pedal) in, then go to the bellhousing. Idon't think that a T56 has the capability of engaging 2gears at once like a Muncie or T10. (reverse and first will lock the trans so you can help install it). I assume the trans did work freely prior to the install, right?
Custom88 mentioned his problem with the pushrod play, could you temporarily stick some washers in there and see if it would work? (This is usually an indication of a bent fork BTW)

 

The plastic ones work fine if you know how to use them.

To push the fork into the throwout bearing, the trans has to be basically almost totally bolted up, so much for that idea.

 

theres your problem right there dude,,, NEVER< NEVER pull in it by the bolts NEVER...what happens is that when u let it hang there it warps the disc..think about it, the weight of the tranny is hanging on the clutch hub...there is no reason other then the pilot on the end of the input wasnt lined up with the pilot bearing that it wont go in....you guys didnt have it aligned right, thats why it didnt go in...and when you pulled it in with the bolts you probley warped the disc and fubard the pilot bearing...it has no chance of working

try this...put it in first gear then start it...when its running try to pull it back out of gear into neutral...i bet it wont come back out of gear, in fact i bet it will start to move forward

 

we pulled the transmission in using the correct bolts, we tightened the clutch with longer bolts then swapped them out for the standard bolts it came with, when we pulled the tranny all the way in with bolts we had it supported with a jack at all times!

 

the trans was maybe....1/2 an inch away when we pulled it in by the bolts....

took it to a shop today....dont feel like pullin that sob again...he said its a clutch problem. its not engaging properly...

by the fact that wont go into gear when running.....he put it in gear turned on the motor and it jumpedand died.....than it was hard to get out of gear...

i would also have to add that the trans and engine were dead straight on... i can gurantee it....i bleive it was when i tried to get that stupid dual friction clutch bolte dup ....the discs wouldnt mate enough so i could bolt it down...tried even a c-clamp...centerforces tech support reccomended this....and the bolts that they had from what i had were longer anyway...the part numbers matched from gm...so i just put homde depo longer bolts when the discs mated...i used the gm ones and tighend and torqued it.

 

You should NEVER EVER use the bolts to "draw" the trans up to the engine.

What you did by doing that, was you either punched the center of the clutch disc out, and now the disc isn't flat any more; or, drove the trans pilot into the pilot bearing/bushing off-center, and destroyed that. Either way, you destroyed something, which is the inevitable result of doing what you did. You should always be able to slide the trans in all the way by hand, if the whole thing is assembled correctly. The T-56 is a bit more difficult than some others, because it has the 2 little dowels instead of the clutch gear bearing retainer fitting tight to the BH; but that just means you have to be a little more careful.

The right thing to do is to align the disc to the crank properly, before bolting the clutch to the flywheel. The little plastic alignment tools aren't always good enough to guarantee proper alignment. I use an old transmission clutch gear as my alignment tool. Longer bolts aren't needed for that if you assemble it correctly.

It's not impossible, no matter how strongly you protest, that you simply put the disc in upside-down. I'm not sure if that will destroy parts in this type of clutch or not.

I have a CF DF clutch with my T-56; went right in, fit correctly, works perfect, first time. I had 2 CF DF clutches with the T-5 that had been in there before; same deal with those. I've had about every brand of clutch there is in some car or other that I've had, over the years; CF, Hays, B-W, Zoom, Ram, McLeod, that I can recall off the top of my head. Every single one of them worked great. Seems to me like about 99.999% of all clutch problems other than wear-out, are installation malfunctions.

 

when things are lined up right, there's no need for "pulling it in," it will slide in. Hey, it sucks having to realign a clutch because things aren't in alignment, but not breaking a clutch is better than breaking one.





The jack doesn't assure clutch / input / pilot alignment, period.

 

see RB paying attention to your wisdom i have learned :hail: :hail: .....

 

And old input shafts are the ultimate alignment tools

 

ive done tranny's twice before and ech time ive always had a problem getting it that last 1/4=1/2" and i always used the bolts to pull it in. i dunno maybe i just dont have the strength to push it in.

and YES the clutch was installed the right way, 4 people thier has seen it.