View topic - 1915 Cone Clutch Adjustment

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:37 am 
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Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:14 pm
Posts: 10
Not many miles on my car, but about 10 years since the clutch was relined with new leather. I, until last year, was not able to shift the gears while driving (hard grinding even though I was told numerous times how to double clutch). A friendly club member from San Diego (Thank you Joe!) stopped by and took me for a drive in my own car with phone coaching from Doug in PA.

I am looking for help on two clutch issues. I need to apply neatsfoot oil to my leather cone. I made a block and removed the top cover plate, but the surface is not visible or accessible. Can someone please give me the steps?

The second issue and probably why I couldn't shift before, is that the clutch is not adjusted properly. If I push the clutch pedal all the way to the floor, it has gone too far and grinds heavily. I find that if I go only about half way to the floor, I am able to shift just fine. I can't help but believe that it is not adjusted properly. Can someone please shed some light on this for me.

Plenty more questions to come. I am in a real push to get my Betsy finished in time for her 100th birthday. I work for the San Diego Zoo and we, along with beautiful Balboa Park is celebrating our centennial in 2015. I would really like to showcase this great car during our celebrations.

Thank you fellow members, in advance for your help and advice.

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San Diego County
1915 DB Touring Car
#4987


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 Post subject: cone clutch
PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:48 am 
John, good to hear from you again. What I did was make a prop like your woooden stick to hold the clutch lining away from the cone. Then brushed the neatsfoot oil everywhere I could get it. I'm told you can't get too much oil on it. This sounds completely wrong for a clutch, but I trust the person that told me. As to the adjustment the Book of Information for your car says, " To adjust the clutch, remove the clutch cover plate, loosen lock screw on clutch spring nut, and with a screwdriver turn up the clutch spring adjusting nut until the clutch holds properly. The nut is directly below the clutch throwout yoke and can be reached by a long screwdriver or drift pin. When the proper adjustment has been made care should be taken that the lock screw is tightened so that there is no chance for the nut to back off." I have no personal experiance in the adjustment. If this doesn't seem to help I suggest contacting Rodger the tech advisor. You MAY have anotehr problem, like the spring being broken or something is worn from your discription of pushing the clutch " too far" and it causes trouble. Look at everything very carefully. If you don't have the correct book of Information for your '15 you could get a copy from the AACA library. Make SURE you specify the build date for your car, I think there were at least 3 differant manuals for '15 as the car was continually changed. I'm positive the library has all the differant versions in either their own collection or in our DBC collection. You can check their online catelog on the AACA library site, it has a search. IF for some reason Chris doesn't have the correct manual for your car I MAY. I will let him copy it and send it to you. Also, get Joe more involved. He needs to get away from those USED cars he has and learn more about the old ones. Doug


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 Post subject: cone clutch
PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:23 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:14 pm
Posts: 10
Thank you Doug. I appreciate the offer. I believe that I have the right version and will dig it out in the next few days. I did the stick trick, and got a very small look at a small part of the lining. I may have messed up in that part of my restoration..... It looks like I may have had a brake shop line the clutch with kevlar. It doesn't look like leather. I am going to go through the painful process this weekend of pulling the transmission and getting a good look at it. That may be why it grabs so much. My other observation was that when the clutch pedal is depressed fully, it appears that the clutch cone is hitting the rear wall of the housing.
If anything but leather was used, I will be pulling it off and have the right material put on.

Thank you again for your help on my project. John

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1915 DB Touring Car
#4987


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 6:46 pm 
The same friend that told me about neats foot oil also told me the kevlar linings don't work. He said that kevlar is very grabby, which sounds like your symptoms. I'm all for modern materials, but sometimes the old stuff is better.


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