new clutch which throwout bearing????

[paphigliano]

I am in the middle of replacing my clutch 1966 chev truck,,,,the old clutch had a longer throwout bearing,,,,my new clutch kit has a shorter throwout bearing,,,,here is my ?,,,,,do I use the new shorter throwout bearing with the new clutch kit,,,or do I use the longer throwout bearing that was in the original clutch,,,,maybe its too early this am but my brain cant get around this one yet today???

[waspp]

I bought the longer bearing when I did mine because that s what was in there before, but I ended up taking it back apart because the clutch was depressed and had to use the shorter bearing that came with the kit.

[paphigliano]

thanx,,,,,thats what I didnt want to happen either,,,so I will go with bearing from the kit,,,gracias amigo.

[jocko]

What you want to do is ensure that the overall stacked height of the release bearing and the pressure plate are the overall same dimension. So, if you bought a kit that included a disk, pp, and release bearing - and the release bearing was SHORTER than the one you had before - the new pressure plate should be LONGER by about the same amount (and vice versa, if the release bearing was LONGER, then the pp should be SHORTER). So, generally speaking, that's why it's a good idea to use all the stuff in the kit because it's designed to work together. If you ONLY replace a pressure plate or ONLY replace a release bearing, you need to replace them with parts that are the same height (or thickness, probably a better word). Otherwise, you change clutch pedal gemoetry and pedal travel from stock.

[Wrenchbender Ret]

Use the one that came with the kit.

[geezer#99]

Jocko you described it. Almost.
The plates are the same height. The fingers are different.
Two kinds of pressure plates. Raised and flat finger. Raised gets short bearing and flat gets long bearing.
Back in the 60's there was only the flat finger plate. Worked well in non performance apps (lower rpm) but when shifted at high rpm (5500-6500 rpm) the fingers over-centered and the clutch pedal would stick to the floor until the revs came down and the pedal would return to normal rather violently. Of course the motor was likely toast due to way over revving. The raised finger plate was designed to eliminate this problem.
Put 2 plates side by side and it's not hard to see the difference.

[Brad54]

It's a good time to check the condition of the clutch fork's pivot ball as well.
When I did mine, I discovered the pivot ball was worn into a very pointy cone.
Fortunately, I had another one on the shelf in another bellhousing.

-Brad