clutch fork pivot ball problems

[zrk666]

hey guys i was driving my car about a couple months ago and noticed that the clutch got real cruddy. had all kinds of free play in it. it had free play for half of the distance that the pedal moves. didnt really do anything about it right away. i thought it was a master cylinder problem or slave cylinder problem so thats why i didnt mess with it right away because it wasnt completely bad yet. so i look under the car and start trouble shooting the problem and pull the slave off and then i take the dust boot off for the clutch fork off. i noticed that the fork was moving around a little to much so then i looked up in there and noticed the fork ball was gone. it broke clean off. i have never seen that before and have been working on these cars for years and put many trannys and clutches in dsms.

just want to know how common or uncommon this problem that i have is??

 

[banishedmunk]

In the 9 years I have been in these cars I have never seen one break off. Are you running some heavy pressure plate that would induce extreme stress on it? Is the ball still in the fork it should be?

 

[toofast82]

Did the ball snap off from the threads or is the whole pivot ball missing?
I suppose if it was not tightened all the way, it could vibrate out.
I've never seen the ball snap clean off from the threaded rod portion

 

[zrk666]

it broke off from the threads. just a 2100 act setup. the ball was still in the fork when i got it out. didnt vibrate out or anything like that i had to use a strip out socket to get it out.

well i got it in with a different one and now the throw out bearing is making way crazy noise. got to pull it back out and take the shim out of the back of the ball. it had one in it so i put it back in and now its making noise when you let the clutch out in neutral but when its pressed its not making noise. so its coming back out tom for sure.

i noticed too that the fork is all the way to the engine block side as well. going to have to figure this one out for sure. the fork and ball i used came off another tranny i had laying around so it should be the same. i hope. the threads were the same size and diameter so well see tom.

 

[banishedmunk]

you may want to check the tob to make sure it didnt come unclipped. that is if you were doing all this with the trans still on the car

 

[eclipse001]

Im having these similar problems and i also have the 2100 clutch

 

[zrk666]

i just got the tranny on the ground!!! the tob was still attached to the fork. heres what happened the fork was grinding on the pressure plate. on the yellow paint. there was a distinctive mark on the pressure plate and the fork where it was grinding.

so looks like the shim is coming out and then going to test fit until i put the car back together for the final time.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Yeah sounds like too much shim to me. Let us know.

 

[zrk666]

ok the shim was the issue for sure. ok the original fork was exactly the same except the hole for the ball was deeper in the original so there for it needed the shim and the hole on the new one had a shallower hole so it didnt need the shim.

its all back together now and working great. thanks guys for the help