What could cause the fork to not put enough pressure on the tob against the pressure plate to disengage the clutch? Any ideas?

Hydraulic or linkage or cable type?

 

The fork itself could cracked or may have a hole in it where the fulcrum (ball) seats.

Cable type. I have two different forks one is cracked the other has been welded on the outside of the fulcrum point.

Cable type. I have two different forks one is cracked the other has been welded on the outside of the fulcrum point.

 

You just answered your own question. Both forks are messed up. Get a good working one.

 

Also, could it be a pressure plate issue? If the top of the fork is moving as far as it's supposed to, unless the fork is messed up, the bottom will also be moving the correct amount. If the pressure plate won't disengage, the problem may be there.

 

Also, there are two locations for the ball to go in the transmission. One is for cable, the other is for hydro. I dunno if you took it out or whatever, but that's something to keep in mind.

 

Kinda need more back story on this one, what exactly is going on, why is it in this situation?

Edited June 26, 201213 yr by 987687

The back story is that i was blowing out clutches and found out the bearing in my trans was bad. Replaced that and clutch tob pp flywheel and idler bearing. Now am having issues with the fork. I did not remove the brass knob that the fork pivots on. I also have new springs for the tob.

Man, you're a soldier! I've followed your recent posts as I've been having clutch trouble myself recently, you must have had that trans out like 5 times by now!

 

I don't remember the year of your car, my '96 had a steel pivot ball. I thought of making one out of brass for it's inherent lubricating properties, but chickened out thinking that it might get deformed prematurely or something. Didn't think to check the material of my '99 forester's pivot ball which I just did the clutch in. I know it didn't look like brass so if it was it must have been plated.

 

As to your problem, I've got to go with 987687's answer, get a new clutch fork. I got mine for twelve bucks from the sub dealer.

 

with a proper fork what 987687 says is true, if the top part of the fork is moving the proper distance, so is the bottom of the fork. But if the fork geometry is screwed up, like from a split that has allowed some bend in the material or a welded one that maybe contracted from heat or was welded in a way that the working surfaces don't have the same relation to each other as they did as new, then you may wind up with the top part of the fork not moving the lower part of the fork to the desired location. The amount of motion is the same, that's geometry, but if the starting location of the bottom of the fork is not as intended, then the neither will the ending location.

 

Remember that we're talking about pretty small movements on the clutch side of the fork. The pivot is located just about an inch or an inch and half from the centerline of the trans input shaft. but the cable engagement is maybe 3 or 4 inches above that. So 1" of travel up top would equal something well below that at the TOB.

 

Anyway, the point of this diatribe is that yes, replace your fork. You've replaced everything else in the system so that's the last piece (again assuming that you've made sure your input shaft is free of burrs and is not hanging up the friction disc) in the equation, might as well knock that out.

 

Good luck!

Alright, again the help from this forum comes to the rescue! Thanks for the help. I bought a new fork, $50 bucks after shipping, but it is back together and the pedal has the same amount of movement as it did before the clutch went out the last time. I'm assuming it is all good. I have about an hour left of hooking up hoses and wires and filliing fluids back up so it should be on the road tomorrow.

Well at least now it should last until the rest of the car rusts away. :-p And now you're an expert at removing a Subaru transmission!

Good deal, wow $50 bucks! I'm almost certain I only paid $12 for mine from the dealer, but I could be remembering that wrong, it was about 4 years ago.

 

or maybe prices just went up that far, I just paid almost 10 bucks for those two stupid TOB clips from the dealer. I don't remember wow much they were the last time I bought them, but I know it wasn't that much.

 

Anyway, hope it all works out for ya.

 

Will-

All back together and seems to be working propper. Thanks for the help and now i could do it in my sleep. But i dont want to, what a headache.

All back together and seems to be working propper. Thanks for the help and now i could do it in my sleep. But i dont want to, what a headache.

 

I was working on a friend's car once that kept breaking clutch forks. The owner before he had it had put the ball in the wrong place for the setup... He'd gotten pissed off at taking the engine out to replace clutch forks and actually made a hole big enough in the bell housing to change the fork out with the engine and tranny mated. And also didn't use cilps on the TOB. .... Needless to say, that car was a mess. Glad you fixed yours the proper way. haha.

Ok, took the old girl for a drive yesterday shifts great clutch works fine but it has developed a bit of a side to side shake when accelerating between 30-55 goes away around 60 mph. One inner cv joint came apart when i had the tranny jacked up to put the engine back in, could it be that causing a shimmy?

Ok, took the old girl for a drive yesterday shifts great clutch works fine but it has developed a bit of a side to side shake when accelerating between 30-55 goes away around 60 mph. One inner cv joint came apart when i had the tranny jacked up to put the engine back in, could it be that causing a shimmy?

 

I've had bad axles on a GL make a shimmy under load.

 

How did you put it back together? Does it have all the the balls and the retainer ring? Along with a healthy dose of CV axle grease?

I couldnt find the retainer ring and it didnt have ball bearings that i noticed. It looked like a u-joint that slips intothe housing that connects it to the front diff spline. So i just slipped it back together and put the boot back into place. Could low tire pressure cause this also?

I couldnt find the retainer ring and it didnt have ball bearings that i noticed. It looked like a u-joint that slips intothe housing that connects it to the front diff spline. So i just slipped it back together and put the boot back into place. Could low tire pressure cause this also?

 

Oh, you have an SFJ. The retainer ring isn't really necessary, I've run without them before...

If the tires are low, fill 'em up and see what happens, it's an easy check.

 

If the axle doesn't have enough grease, it's definitely upset and wants grease.

Im gonna check the tires, there looked to be plenty of grease in the boot. It could be too that the car needs an alignment.

The air pressure in the tires was different on a couple tires, fixed that and it helped. The tires are also worn a bit from needing an alignment.