Giving Up?
I believe my 4 year trial by fire of changing over my automatic Dart to a Manual is close to over. For 4 yrs now I have run onto several problems. Severe chatter, which I solved with pinion angle shims and clatracs, to a last season experiencing reverse grinding and impossible 1st gear engagement. I switched to a RAM 3 finger this year. Same problem. Adjusted clutch to 60 thousands release. When warm same issue. All new linkage and rebuilt transmission. Could the stock bellhousing be doing this? Man I hate to do this but I may switch to an automatic. Please help.
When I switched over I remember having issues with the pivot fork bracket bending and cracking when I installed a Hayes street strip clutch. I also didn't have enough fork rod adjustment and had to weld some all thread to extend it. I started with a lakewood bell housing and no matter what...the bracket would bend and crack. So I switched to a centerforce dual friction and had the same issue till I made my own bracket, first I made one identical to the stock dimension...no enough fork travel and hit the bell housing before good engagement...so I made another about maybe 3/8 taller, all out of 1/4 steel, bam...it worked.
Nothing works like it should most of the time when it didn't come that way to begin with.
Chatter must mean wheel hop, you need a cut n roll to relocate the spring perches correctly in order to set the pinion to driveline angle, shims help but might not be enough .
I run the 4*shims, still have a 0 angle, you want more down, 3-6 degrees they say.
Ss springs were the real culprit, I didn't have long enough rear shocks and that bound the rear allowing it to do the boogaloo with the driveline.
Key points... fork rod length, pivot bracket strength and height , longer shocks in the rear, align the shifter and tighten tabs on cover.... Set the clutch fork to zero and then back half a turn.
