helterskelter

I'm posting about a co-workers 2000 Mustang GT that I've been helping him work on. He bought the car about a year ago and the clutch was spent. I helped him replace the clutch ~6 months ago with an autozone replacement. Clutch felt normal after replacement. Within a month or so the TOB started to sing and the clutch became progressively harder to actuate. We replaced the cable and re-adjusted it. Noticed that the quadrant was on its last legs.

He needs the car so he continued to drive it. Clutch became increasingly difficult to actuate. Adjuster quadrant failed. We replaced the quadrant with an aftermarket one that had the adjuster at the firewall. It works 'OK' for a couple days then clutch continued to be difficult (impossible) to use.

He limped the car over to my garage yesterday and we pulled the transmission back out. The TOB was spent and no longer running concentric (probably .030'' out of concentricity). The input shaft was fairly clean with no galling, it had some play, maybe .010'' at the far end (did not seem excessive). The pivot inside the transmission and pivot on the lever arm had some wear, but was fully expected on a car with 150k miles, nothing out of the ordinary.

We went ahead and brought the old clutch kit back to the parts store and they gave us a new one. We installed the replacement clutch and clutch was still stiff but useable and felt like it was binding at release (ie it felt sticky when I let the peddle out). He needed the car so we got it off the stands and he took it home. Today while he was driving driving the clutch eventually got to the point it bound up and could no longer be used. He limped it home.

At this point I am at a complete loss for why it is binding up. The cable has a gentle U shape down to the transmission, but the entire assembly is extremely stiff. The TOB is oriented with the high spot away from the lever per the instructions. I did not check the shaft for roundness or run-out while we had the transmission out. My co-worker is no stranger to working on cars and I've done about 10 clutches myself. I've never been so cluster****ed with such a simple mechanism. Short of going office space on this car...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsBB93IqJkE...can anyone advise what to look at next?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

8111870a

You said you "replaced the cable and re-adjusted it" Is this an adjustable cable, or stock cable you adjusted at the quadrant as per OEM instructions?
Adjustable cables are notorious for being problematic. A stock cable with a firewall adjuster, aluminum quadrant is the way to go.
Other thing is the TOB. Only use Ford spec'd bearings. Using the one from a parts store kit is asking for trouble.