4 speed woes

Hopefully a few people can chime in and give me some answers on this. Carb is a 70 cutlass 4 speed conversion, been driving it for over 3 years now, no issues till 2 weeks ago. so a few weeks ago, the throwout bearing was getting louder and louder and everytime i stepped on the clutch pedal it was literally bumping up and down. finally I could no longer shift or get a decent pedal. Pulled the tranny and the throwout bearing was basically destroyed, the bearings fell out what was left of them and the fingers on the pressure plate were very grooved and rough. put a new bearing in 2 weeks ago, i know i should have changed everything and got 2 weeks out of it and same problem, roller bearings still good but the bearing was desintegrating, the hole in the center was oblonged, the side wall wore through as if it was rubbing something and i could no longer drive the car. just got finished pulling the tranny and clutch for inspection and here's what i found. pressure plate as i said, badly damaged fingers from the first throwout bearing that went bad, some fingers bent. clutch worn, a bit premature I think but it was burning as when the first bearing went bad. in side the bellhousing, the pivot ball got very worn, not a smooth round head anymore which resulted in it wearing the clutch fork pretty badly were it pivots. I have one of those roller bearings in the back of the crankshaft, that seemed to be in good shape, no movement and it spun freely so I'm thinking I wont have to touch that. now on the tranny, I have a few issues and not sure what to do. The input shaft has very slight play if I wiggle it around but I have 2 other 4 speed tranny's and each one has the same exact amount of play, very little but its there so I'm hoping thats normal. now one issue I have with the tranny is that it keeps popping out of 2nd gear especially when not under a load, just coasting. it stays in all other forward gears just fine. Now the popping out issue has also started with reverse and I must actually forcefully hold the stick in reverse to back the car up. I wasnt sure if its a issue with wear on the shift levers. when I had it out 2 weeks ago I drilled the holes larger and put those hurst bushings in there but it still pops out of 2nd gear and reverse is still just as difficult although i did still see some wear in the reverse lever. now someone told me back when the issue was only with 2nd gear that it could be inside the tranny itself, i forgot what he called the thing that would hold it into gear. so right now im not sure if i should get the tranny rebuilt while its out and I'm waiting for my new clutch and other parts or just put new levers on the car and hope that fixes the problem. I just ordered Mike Garrisons reverse one and found the 2 others for the forward gears. Now if its recommended that I rebuild, can someone recommend a place out here on Long Island that I can bring it to. I know years ago S & k speed used to rebuild them. Or is this something I can do myself if i can find a rebuild kit? the tranny is a borg warner super t10 with the 2:88 first gear ratio. Actually my second one in the car, the 1st one i granaded with a hard launch so if there is anything I can do to beef up this one, if it is recommended that I rebuild then let me know. I do have an iron case for one laying around. Ok thanks for any inputs. just want to know if I should rebuild and can a bad throwout bearing cause so much damage and if the bearing in the back of the cranks has no play and spins fine can i just leave it in. Also if any of you guys do tranny rebuilding I would gladly do business with you.

Allen
allioop108@aol.com

 

Sounds to me like your clutch issues most likely all started due to a failing pressure plate or the sprins in the pressure plate to be exact. The pulsing feeling in the pedal is from uneven pressure on the clutch disc and uneven spring force on the throwout bearing due to bad springs. Relate it to the feeling you get from brakes with warped rotors, it's very similar. You most likely had a finger from the pressure plate constantly contacting the throwout bearing and causing premature wear and failure since the bearing would always be spinning at flywheel speed and have an uneven load placed on it due to only one finger contacting it. A new clutch kit would be in order and check the tranny front bearing retainer for wear were the throwout bearing slides on it to make sure the throwout bearing rides straight and doesn't destroy your new pressure plate due to uneven pressure on the fingers. Your gear issues, 2nd and reverse are most likely due to either internal tranny problems (worn synchro on 2nd) or misadjusted shift linkage not fully engaging a gear. I would lean towards a internal wear issue based on the second gear issue.

 

thanks, I checked the adjustment 2 weeks ago on the shifter so that was right on and then went as far as readjusting reverse to force it more into gear and same problem. ok so then that leans toward internal problems. i guess the synchros or replaceable or fixeable????

Allen

 

wow ok I pretty much figured out what went wrong, never knew how i never saw that but on the front of the tranny, the round thing that bolts to the front of the tranny and the input shaft comes through that, well the snout part is missing. a coworker at the shop told me thats the very piece the throwout bearing rides on. well since thats missing I guess the bearing was rocking all over the place which would explain the wear pattern on the pressure plate fingers and the oblonged hole on the 2 week old bearing. guess i never notice till I had it next to the other tranny. so much for a rebuilt ebay tranny, not sure how they could call that rebuilt and the most important item was missing. luckily the same person that mention that had given me a brand new piece a few months ago. now to just swap it over. that also explains why i never had trouble till I swapped that tranny in.

Allen

 

i would still pop open the case and look at the gears and syncs. if it needs rebuilt look up autogear out of new jersey i believe. they are suppose to
have good parts. jim