Hello everyone,

I've foolishly decided to rescue a 914 powered by a Chevy 350. A new clutch (stage 2 organic) and pressure plate from Kennedy arrived. When installed the fingers of the pressure plate become completely pressed in, leaving the throwout bearing very lonely. So I pulled everything apart and took some measurements as you'll see in the pictures below. The depth of my recently resurfaced flywheel is much smaller than the height of the pressure plate and clutch. Do I need to shim the pressure plate for this initial install of the new clutch? It looks like a significant amount of shimming will be needed. Any advice would be appreciated.

-Bill

Best contact Kennedy with specs on the flywheel.....might have mis-communicated somehow & got wrong PP.....

..........picture of car?

I suspect you have a pull type pressure plate which would make the fingers seem too low when comparing it to a traditional push type. Definitely call Kennedy and have them walk you through the installation process (specifically the throw out bearing setup).

Andys

Thanks. I sent e-mail to Kennedy and they're usually good about getting back to me within a day. Pictures of the car? Ok. Here's my disaster. The first thing I did was pull the spark plugs and about a gallon of water drained out. It had been sitting outside for quite some time. New engine, fresh seals on the transmission, relocated alternator to passenger side. I'm leaving what looks to be an industrial dishwasher water pump in place for the moment. This conversation was absolutely homebrew.

Minor update. Kennedy informed me the depth of the flywheel needs to be between .825 - .830 from the bolt up surface of the pressure plate down to the disc surface. I'm within those tolerances. They also said that the fingers of the pressure plate should be flat when properly torqued to the flywheel. Yay me; another win. So the culprit is the clutch fork pivot needing another washer to allow the throwout bearing to properly reach the pressure plate fingers. I took my pivot ball out to size a washer for it and was surprised to find it appears to be adjustable. A Google image search didn't find an example of what I've got. Pics below including one of the readily available version. Red arrows pointing to the collar of my pivot ball. Is mine adjustable?

here is an old thread on the subject.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-914...s-v8-914-a.html

That adjustable pivot looks neat, but I wonder if it could lose adjustment with time? A washer under the other solid pivot seems more solid to me.