65vertable

well some of you may be familiar with my issues but for those that aren't i have a 65 convertible 289 4bbl T-10 trans, car was sitting for 17 years in a field. my father-in-laws brother owns it.. hes decided to sell it.. but its got a lot of issues now from sitting, so my f-i-l and i decided to come get the car (3hrs away) take it back and work on it, get it mechanically sound and give it back to him, free. father/son project. well gas tank was rusted through, hit the brakes and most of the lines popped, nothing electric works (mice!!) everything (i mean it) rubber is chewed in half, including heater hoses at the firewall.... so anything long story short. i replaced a bunch of crap, got the engine running! and the brakes work. tried to drive it and the clutch is froze to the flywheel... W T F.... here is what ive tried. keep in mind the car is located at a very very nice colasac subdivision we have tried putting the car in ALL gears with clutch to the floor rocking it by hand as hard as we could.. nothing.. i put the rear on stands, started the car in 1st and slammed the brakes.. nothing.. we backed the car up a 25* incline in his yard (im sure the neighbors were PISSED) using the hill we rocked the car.. only to have the rear tires slide down the grass little by little. we found that rocking the car in any gear but 1st the engine just turns over.... so then i said screw the ordinances, we aimed the car at that grass incline..pointed at the neighbors house 50 feet away.. i started the car in 1st gear till it fired up. punched the gas to the hill (20 feet to work with) and slammed the brakes before i hit the edge of the driveway... i did this 5 times... no frekin luck. ran out of day light. .. were not going to pull this trans and replace the clutch in the driveway... the starter was bad enough. to hot to by laying under a rusty pile of rusty rust... were not going to shell out ??? 600$ -1500$ for a dealer to do it... i need some way of breaking this thing loose with what i have... and not breaking the car. anyone have any ideas? oh and the shift fork thingy does move with the clutch... .5 to 1.5 inches or so.. thanks for any help!!!

rmodel65

get under the car unbolt the drive shaft, the shifter in the passenger compartment, remove the clutch rod, support the transmission with a jack unbolt the transmission cross-member get it out of the way and remove the transmission to bell housing bolts. pull the tranny out of the way. remove your stater you just put on, remove the bell housing unbolt the pressure plate and pry it off, pry the clutch off...take the flywheel off and get it resurfaced reinstall with a new clutch and pressure plate and re install all the parts...done...

stangcoupe1970

what he said! it only takes a day or 2 and you wont possibly kill the car in the process.

KMatch

The only thing to break it loose is a shock load, not engine torque. In gear with the rear wheels off the ground clutch on the floor and push it off the jack kind of shock. Drill a hole in the side of the bellhousing and tap the clutch disk through the gap between the clutch cover and flywheel kind of shock provided the clutch cover has this gap which no one knows. I had to run my Dad's backhoe into a telephone pole to break it loose and it worked. Talk about something you don't want to take apart just to pop something loose... You just "MIGHT" get lucky with a prybar through the front u-joint, trans in high gear, clutch on the floor, and jar it (rotating both directions) with the engine off. Similar can be done with the rear wheels off the ground in gear and running by thrashing the gas pedal with actually NO load on the rear wheels. Just stomp and release repeatedly. Think in terms that apply a shock load to the flywheel - all it takes is a slight whack in the right direction at the right time. These are all hack approaches, but the only right way is to replace it.

gjz30075

Rig a way to keep the clutch pedal on the floor and let it sit overnight, maybe two nights. Sounds pretty stuck. You may be at the point of having to dissassemble to get to it.

TexasAxMan

Even if you get it unstuck, I doubt it will work right and need replacing anyway. I think you're wasting a lot of time trying to avoid the inevitable .....

KMatch

Probably, but I've unstuck a few over the years with the only issue being they are likely to re-stick if left sitting at all. Otherwise, they worked fine. They form a bit of a rust bond with the metal they contact and a bit of slipping after breaking it loose cleans this up a some. I'm good at what I do, but I'm also lazy... these conflict!

65vertable

well very busy working and such lately. have to take the wife out for lunch tomorrow.. then hopefully i can get back on the hog so to speak... actually monday when i was doing all of that i used a board to wedge the clutch pedal down... its still like that now. 4-5 days. maybe it will help! the prybar thing in the U-joint sounds easy. and crazy.. il try anything tho.. a part of me wants to swap out the clutch.. and another part wants to murder that part..

65vertable

well worked at it for around 6 hours today.. tried the prybar. thing.. didn't work, tried clutch/brake down turn key in 1st and reverse again and again.. nothing.. tried to convince the father in law that we were just going to have to drive it.. he can't agree to that.. so we decided to replace the damn clutch..... AHHHHRRRGGGGGG... not fun with no lift and 102*F!!! + neither of us have ever done anything like this before... well here we go... removed the hood to get at the top bolts easier, removed damn starter... smashed my finger! i hate that thing!.. oh jacked the car and used 4 stands... and some safety blocks just incase... removed the trans mount... which was loose anyway.. removed the shifter from inside the car.. and saw that there were no washers on the long bottomed out bolts causing it to be VERY floppy..., removed bolts on under side of bellhousing, supported engine via jack/wood removed speedometer cable from trans... was also loose... 3 of the bellhousing bolts were loose.. drained the trans fluid.. O-M-G worst smell ive smelled in my entire life... and i change oil for a living... ive seen burnt gl5 before but this one takes the cake... its 85-90 or 80-90? gl5 right? T-10 trans... how much?, went to dismount trans from engine... that was kinda a pain.. stuck a bit. looking for bolts we forgot and all that.. we had a jack riding under the trans the entire time.. we pulled the trans back as far as we could and could not lower the front. it needed to go back 3 more inches but was hitting the exhaust H pipe.. after 30mins of bitching about that and how i did not want to now cut the exhaust, and looking at the pressure plate with the trans a few inches from it i had the idea of just leaving the trans pushed back, without dropping it.. and just removing the clutch that way... tight squeeze but i got the pressure plate off... yep theres that clutch just sitting on the flywheel.. YAY!!! that was the issue.. well i took a screw driver and a hammer preparing for war with it... one light tap and the thing fell to the ground.... W-T-F. how? everything we did and thats all it took?!?!?! now im thinking something else is wrong? or is this normal?.. well called parts store to price a clutch last week.. just preparing myself.. they asked if it was a 10'' or 11''.. hell i don't know? well i measured it when we got it out.... measures 10.5 inches across... of course.. why wouldn't it? ahuuuggg... the flywheel and pressure plate surfaces look... crappy... im just going to buzz wheel them and call it a day i think.

65vertable

u guys think any size clutch will work or no?? 10-10.5-11