thanks for the input from both Please read the previous posts by me on this issue. Page 1 and 2 are good for a start
When the alignment is off to the point it is grooving the pivot studs it needs to be corrected. Yes I could slap it together as the previous shops did and shove it out the door but my conscience won't allow it. I would love to find the root cause of the alignment issue but the owners budget doesn't allow it. if it were not for the lateral misalignment shimming the L mount would get by. But then we'll also have a head pipe too close to the torsion bar. What I'm doing is not correct but easily reversible when his budget allows and will alleviate the alignment issue for now.

At 69 YO I've been around the block a time or two. Couple that with 25 years of engineering, 25 years of owning a classic car resto /repair shop and 56 years of busting knuckles. I am not trying to be rude or offensive but rather fill in some of the information you must have not had. Thanks again fo r your input and trying to help
I will keep all posted

I made a dummy shaft out of 1" plastic rod boring both ends to fit the OD of the pivot balls. This allowed me to install an the mounts and shaft much easier and better see the misalignment. After trying several different things to no avail, there was a new BH mount in the parts box that came in with the car. I installed it with the dummy shaft. I proceeded to cut one of the braces closest to the pivot stud on the back of the mount. Removing a bit of material from the brace allowed me to tweak the Pivot position enough to where the dummy shaft slips all the way back and forth with no binding.
I'll weld it up tomorrow and continue with the remaining assembly. What a PITA.
Thanks again to all for the support and I am praying that the issue is history.
Will follow up once running and the clutch is tested

Sounds like a smart way to figure it out! Hope it works this time, keep us posted!

After welding and painting the Z bar went right in and appears to be pretty well centered The hack job on the exhaust was another issue. Whomever thought of slotted on size fits all flanges should be castrated so they can't pass on their moronic thinking. Couple those with a 1/8" or so flanged lip for sealing, and a larger ID pipe than the manifold and one has a real challenge trying to line up the pipes and gaskets to the manifold.
Finally used two different sized OD sleeves to slip over each other centering the manifold and pipe. This of course required a different gasket which had to be sourced and the hole spacing modified. I'm about ready to start drinking again

every time my old man would see me, he would look and say : "he,he,he.........i got hair and you don't.........he, he, he........."
but then, he didn't work on cars [he just broke them ] and i do..............
still got any hair on the top of your head ? i don't...........

LOL yes as a matter of fact I do have a full head of hair although lately I've seen more in the shower👀😂

However, I finally got to do a test drive today and all was NORMAL, WOW!!! 💥🚀🧨🎉🎇🎯🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️imagine that. My prayers were heard 🙏🙏

I do want to thank all that contributed and offered help while reading my findings. The ROOT cause? Don't know But I'm going to guess that the bolded portion of RudeRunners post below was the culprit.


Thanks again to ALL

Thank you for sharing your troubleshooting procedure. It always helps to see how others attack, and solve, problems.

you're more than welcome
MY only hope is that those that contributed have not gotten bored and ignore the post. I don't know if there's a way to highlite the title or make it stand out


It is always a challenge to walk into a bubbafied mess and try to find his ingenious approaches to doing thing's. I could write a book on them 🙄
here's a pic of the MAN HIMSELF LOL

bubba and his "helpers" have caused me untold amount of grief over the years.
glad you got this bubbafied mess behind you !

Bubba has nothing on farmers, I've fixed more than my share if their fixes.

he does have a liking for their daughters said just like them cow and pigs the bigger the better ( bring more at auction and BEER) LMAO

You BTW pretty much nailed it with you earlier post several days back so and

Freaking awesome! I almost want to put one of my 4-speed cars together one of these days...LOL..

I'm amazed at the stack up of small issues that led to the huge one you dealt with and conquered. I hope the car owner is singing your praises loudly and not whining about how much it cost only.

Did you snap a picture of the modified bracket ?

Good work getting it back to working properly.

Thanks and No I did not. The modification would have been hard to see/detect. I removed about .100" of material from the brace behind the pivot ball. Using a press and shimming I was able to tweak it toward the front of the car and upwards. Took a few attempts to get it where it looked good with the dummy shaft installed. Removed it, welded it, painted it and finished the install and assembly. I've had my fill and am looking forward to finishing the car up and sending it home. Not much left and the owners not back until Sat. so I'm tending to some other things which there seems to be an endless list of.

he's definitely happy but whimpering as usual. By the log sheet I have racked up over 100 hours in this mess. That time includes the analyzing, research etc. I'll lose my backside but it's done, as right as the budget would tolerate, and likely the last one for awhile. If I hit him full bore with parts and the little that's left to do it'd be close to 15K. Hard to swallow for a chattering clutch problem.
So, what does one do? take what they can afford and eat the rest. BTW I'm going on a diet LOL 🤣😂

4 speeds are FUN!!!!!

This is why I learned to do it myself. I won't begrudge a man what he's earned, but conversely I couldn't afford to pay the man with the knowledge either. So I "invested" in learning how to do it myself.

Sometimes that was more expensive than letting the man do it, lol. Something I learned after the fact.

In this case, surrender there were a few small things but, after seeing the flywheel pictures I'd say that was 95 percent of the problem. A thousandth or so at the flange becomes pretty significant at the pressure plate bolts.

I didn't expect rest buildup but the possibility that the crank might have been dropped at some point.

Yep no way I’d have been able to stay in the hobby paying others for most of this stuff. I’ve come to accept I can afford to redo it if I screw it up, maybe buy parts I didn’t need to to begin with, etc and still be ahead of paying a shop. Tools I don’t even flinch at buying and my hobby has always led to me having tools I use in the house. I don’t think I’d want to be doing this for a hundred an hour anyway.