The last couple days were somewhat productive on the '55. I decided to drain(yeah drain) out the old rear end fluid on the '55. The stock Dana 44 has a drain plug in the bottom of the rear end, which made removing and flushing the old fluid really easy. That was replaced with some 140W that I also use in the Lark, which as usual made for a really messy, stinky, and disgusting task.
While I had the rear end in the air, I thought on a whim that I should see if I can get the engine to power the rear end. Well, we discovered that it would grind and then shift into 1st, not shift into 2nd or 3rd, and would get a sliding noise when it was thrown into Reverse. Reverse on the Foxcraft shifter put the ball into the instrument panel, so with a little bending, I was able to get it to engage reverse. The three forward gears however, in combination with a clutch pedal that went clear to the floor, told me that the NOS clutch I put in the car a couple years ago, had stuck to the flywheel. I got under the car and lengthened the adjustment rod that went to the pivot on the bellhousing, the one that goes to the throwout bearing, with little results. So, last night I went looking around the regular Studebaker forum site, and on the advice from the guys on the Racing Studebaker forum site, I went out today, jacked the rear end up, put it into 2nd, started the car, wound the car up, and jammed on the brake.
Still no results, the clutch had not freed itself, even after 3-4 times. Even worse, the brake pedal had gotten really, really stiff, which meant the rear brakes had locked to the drum. That also made the car hard to start in gear. So I went to the bleeder screws, let out some of the fluid to relax the wheel cylinders, pressed the brake a few more times, and bled them again. I had got them to the point where the pedal wouldn't get hard anymore, so I continued with the clutch. I remembered that I lengthened the adjustment rod last night, and after getting under there and realizing that the throwout bearing needs to come forward past the point where it gets "solid" to disengage the clutch, I returned the adjustment rod length to it's stock position. Well, with a couple presses of the clutch pedal, I heard what sounded like a paper bag exploding under there, and I got resistance in the clutch pedal again. I went back under there, turned it a couple more times and called it good. While I had the front elevated, I broke out my one man brake bleeder, cracked open the bleeder screws, and gave the brake pedal a couple more pumps. I did the same thing to the rears, so now the brake pedal does not get hard anymore, nor is there any significant amount of air present in the lines to lock up the brakes. As an addendum, this did not reveal itself until the car had power to the wheels, that more bleeding needed to be done.
This had an effect on the Megasquirt ECU, which immediately saw all this power from the engine, so when I turned it over, the engine decided to race! We couldn't have that, so that was a simple matter of turning down the idle air screw on the throttle body. By about this point, it was too dark to see anything so any photos will need to come later, or as they say "News footage at 11"....
While I had the rear end in the air, I thought on a whim that I should see if I can get the engine to power the rear end. Well, we discovered that it would grind and then shift into 1st, not shift into 2nd or 3rd, and would get a sliding noise when it was thrown into Reverse. Reverse on the Foxcraft shifter put the ball into the instrument panel, so with a little bending, I was able to get it to engage reverse. The three forward gears however, in combination with a clutch pedal that went clear to the floor, told me that the NOS clutch I put in the car a couple years ago, had stuck to the flywheel. I got under the car and lengthened the adjustment rod that went to the pivot on the bellhousing, the one that goes to the throwout bearing, with little results. So, last night I went looking around the regular Studebaker forum site, and on the advice from the guys on the Racing Studebaker forum site, I went out today, jacked the rear end up, put it into 2nd, started the car, wound the car up, and jammed on the brake.
Still no results, the clutch had not freed itself, even after 3-4 times. Even worse, the brake pedal had gotten really, really stiff, which meant the rear brakes had locked to the drum. That also made the car hard to start in gear. So I went to the bleeder screws, let out some of the fluid to relax the wheel cylinders, pressed the brake a few more times, and bled them again. I had got them to the point where the pedal wouldn't get hard anymore, so I continued with the clutch. I remembered that I lengthened the adjustment rod last night, and after getting under there and realizing that the throwout bearing needs to come forward past the point where it gets "solid" to disengage the clutch, I returned the adjustment rod length to it's stock position. Well, with a couple presses of the clutch pedal, I heard what sounded like a paper bag exploding under there, and I got resistance in the clutch pedal again. I went back under there, turned it a couple more times and called it good. While I had the front elevated, I broke out my one man brake bleeder, cracked open the bleeder screws, and gave the brake pedal a couple more pumps. I did the same thing to the rears, so now the brake pedal does not get hard anymore, nor is there any significant amount of air present in the lines to lock up the brakes. As an addendum, this did not reveal itself until the car had power to the wheels, that more bleeding needed to be done.
This had an effect on the Megasquirt ECU, which immediately saw all this power from the engine, so when I turned it over, the engine decided to race! We couldn't have that, so that was a simple matter of turning down the idle air screw on the throttle body. By about this point, it was too dark to see anything so any photos will need to come later, or as they say "News footage at 11"....
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