Ely was having issues

[Chris_Dresbach]

This past evening I decided to fire up Ely and drive over to see my girlfriend. She's not afraid of the car, so I guess I should keep her... Anyway, the driving conditions were about perfect tonight with the air temperature being just a little on the cool side, but that didn't stop the mechanical gremlins that Ely seems to have. About six months ago I burnt up a clutch and replaced it with an NOS disc. The car does not get that much ware and tare, and I'm fairly good on the clutch pedal. The clutch that was in it before lasted a lot longer. The engine also decided to vapor lock, that engine never vapor locks... To add insult to injury, the car quit and rolled to a stop exactly one house away from my driveway on a slight incline. My brother and I gave it a push and it rolled its way to its parking spot in the yard. Does anybody have any suggestions on what the problem might be with the clutch? Or should I park Ely and push around the Turtle for a few months?

[GThawkwind]

At least make vroom vroom noises when you push it, you know so you don't feel silly.

[BobPalma]

Chris, your malady is unclear. Are you saying the clutch went out again? That is, it slips a lot or does not engage at all or ???

Or is it just the vapor lock problem you're asking about? BP

[unclemiltie]

Might check the clutch linkage to make sure it is adjusted correctly. Sometimes the clutch shaft has a pressed on lever and the lever slips. I have seen this on several studes. I am not familiar with the shaft on your car as to if this could be the problem. Hard to believe the disc is shot already.

[jclary]

These old cars are a tinker's dream and at the same time...a nightmare. You listed, with not a lot of illumination, a couple of very different problems. The clutches in these old vehicles are usually pretty bullet proof when treated properly. However, they don't work alone. You have a release bearing, and pressure plate assembly that work in concert with that little clutch disc.

As far as "cutting off"...it could be fuel or ignition. Something as simple as a loose coil wire, cracked distributor cap, carbon tracking, closing point gap, etc. For fuel, a piece of trash at the fuel pickup inlet, fuel pump, or even a small piece of trash holding your float needle valve open overwhelming the carburetor with gas and flooding the car out while it's running. Often these things are pretty simple to correct once accurately diagnosed. However, the key words here is "accurately diagnosing" the problem. Many of us here have embarrassed ourselves by messing with the wrong thing and initially causing more problems than we started with. The bright side of this is that it is usually these situations that offer the most lasting learning experiences of our automotive knowledge.

I don't want to tell you how many times my incorrect fuel gauge has left me sitting on the side of the road tinkering with all the wrong things before I finally figured out I was merely "OUT OF GAS!" (Good grief!)

[2R5]

I agree with what "jclary" says about all that is related with a clutch. Also I've seen where a clutch disc has been put in backwards.....not a good thing !

[Corvanti]

Chris, i agree with just about "all of the above". as "unclemiltie" states above, check the clutch linkage. i had to do several adjustments on my (sadly departed) '40 to get it right.

are you sure it was vapor lock? Mr. C has about covered all. i'll just add old gas, and the evils of ethanol gas to parts, if you haven't been driving Ely much...

let us know what you find out!

oh, and the gf sounds like a "keeper"!!!

[Chris_Dresbach]

I was a little unclear, last night the car was having BOTH problems! The clutch is probably the worse of the two problems. When I first put in the new disc (and bearing) it shifted great; I didn't have to force the shift lever at all. As time went on it has gotten gradually stiffer and I noticed that the clutch pedal has a little less resistance to it. The linkage itself is one that my dad and I made when we tore it all apart the first time. The OEM linkage is sloppy and cheap in my opinion, so we took a piece of threaded rod and two ball end joints and made a new, much more stable linkage that way. It has not been adjusted since we put the new clutch in, so I think it would be tough for it to have moved. Dad seems to think that the carburetor may have a sticking float, which would make sense because it had gas seeping out around the gaskets. I'm going to take it apart soon and find out.

[PlainBrownR2]

While you're in there(the carb), make sure you don't have any mushroomed needle valves that are sticking to the seats, but I'm probably guessing you don't have the rubber tipped needle valves though.

[BobPalma]

Thanks for the clarification, Chris. The clutch linkage part you guys fabricated may be just fine, but check the anchorages of it to the rest of the car. It sure sounds like something has fatigued. BP

[Son O Lark]

[ It sure sounds like something has fatigued. BP[/QUOTE]

Does it have a rubber mount at the rear of the tranny? It may have fallen apart and gotten the whole thing out of alignment. (Hard to shift, slipping clutch)