Centerforce clutch

I have 3 cars with centerforce clutches all have a problem going into gear and I have experienced2 of the cars moving slightly when the clutch is depressed to the floor and the car is in a forward gear.

Tonight we removed the transmission and clutch from my friends car which is one of the three problem cars. We checked to see if the clutch disc slides smoothly on the splines and if there are any burrs preventing the disc from sliding and everything looks good. The shaft actually had some grease from the throw bearing too. The clutch fingers do not show any wear.and all three cars have new slaves, pilot bearings, clutches and throw bearings.

Any ideas? So far I have had 5 cars with this problem, one being my Blue car before the 6 speed swap. I have had it with rebuilt transmissions and old transmissions and all have the same issues. I have installed 3 of the clutches but 2 were by mechanics with the same results.

Typically when the car is first started it shifts fine but the more you drive the harder it becomes to go into gear. With the clutch staying engaged enough to move the car every once in a while it seem the clutch is not disengaging properly but I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

Can you over torque the pressure plate on a centerforce clutch?

Any suggestions would be helpful

Wow I thought nobody was going to experience this.

I remember my first clutch swap was a center force dual friction and it was one that the shop had laying around, too much of a coincidence but I agreed to buy it, the guy who installed it had no idea, right after the install I was unable to leave the shop, the car didn't go into gear since things kept rotating regardless how deep I stepped the pedal.

I pulled the car back into the shop and expedited the order of a 94-95 center force Ii.

Opinions on the forums chucked it to install error but I think there was more to it. Anyways 7 years later my CFII destroys its disc. And I buy another center force dual friction. And surprise this one works perfect. No shims etc..

You can try shims but I think a batch of these clutches are problematic, try shimming the slave? Very frustrating though.

The funny part is that David re installed the the clutch in my car for the 2011 shoot out as my t56 had not been installed yet and it worked perfectly. I will recheck the installation instructions in the manual as Centerforve says to follow those instructions. I have installed several stock units into other cars and they worked fine.

The last one I installed worked perfect until it was removed so we could replace the rear seal during an engine and transmission swap from an 89-94. We had to change to the newer trans as second was finished but after installation it has the same issue. I assume I am doing something wrong since two have worked either before or after I installed it. Very frustrating .

Hmm. I just stuck one in my car, I haven't had a problem. I did have to slightly enlarge some of the bolt holes that bolt the pressure plate to the flywheel. I say either the clutch needs bled or maybe it does need shimmed. Do you bleed the clutch when you are done?

Chris

I've been running Centerforce Dual Friction clutches for years and have never had that problem. I always grease the pilot bearing thoroughly as well as polish the end of the input shaft. My clutch always grabs at about halfway. I also run the Spec aluminum flywheel and have to bore out the bolt holes in the pressure plate. I have had that problem with the stock clutch and flywheel though.

I'm going to say that it's important to tighten the PP down in an even star pattern, drawing it up gradually rather than running the bolts down one at a time.

I'm also going to say that it's my opinion that in some cases the discs are warped. It is not practical or maybe even possible to determine this by visual inspection, but this can be a problem.

Start with purchasing a new disc and making sure that your flywheels are within spec. I think new is .990" or 1.00". Use shims if you are more than .025" under that.

Kinda sounds like the slave cyl, I know you said they are new, but I've gotten bad slave cyl's before right out of the box. My f150 had this same problem, the slave cyl had a slight leak but wasnt noticable enough to fill the reservior. it wasn't being pushed out enough to fully dis-engage.

After about 6 months of it being that way, I took it out and found the leak. Re-installed a new one, and the problem was fixed.

Thanks everybody. it just seems so strange that the two done by mechanics had the same issue as the 3 I have had issues with. I thing I am going to measure everything tomorrow and see where I end up. Took the transmission out on the first car on Friday and all the parts look good no leaks, no wear on the fingers, clutch disc etc. I have a new clutch in the box for another project so I might have to try that too.

I did have the flywheel ground down when we installed the new clutch last year. Was told it was within spec but will check for my self.

ricardoa1 said:

I think a batch of these clutches are problematic, try shimming the slave? Very frustrating though.

Click to expand...

I have my questions about this also. Seems a lot of clutches from a certain time period seemed to have problems. In my experience it was always the disc, not the PP.

The only problems I've had with the Centerforces have been the flywheel side pucks fall off of the disc when they wearout.

Problem corrected

Ok we measured the flywheel and it was .954. We shimmed it with two pieces of .1799 shims and reinstalled everything yesterday. The car's owner took it for a test drive tonight after bleeding the clutch and installing the shifter and console and it apparently shift perfectly. . I am going to check the 2nd car this weekend to see what is going on. It chatters so I expect it will need to have the disc replaced but I will see what I find.

Fixed car #2 6.5 hours labour

Found a very small leak with the slave. No apparent sign of a leak out side the transmission. The were a few hot spats from the chattering so I installed another clutch and flywheel. Shimmed slave .0179 as flywheel was less than .990 again. Also found shifter handle had loose bolts . Car shifts beautifully now.

Now on to car number 3