Hello, my name is Justin, im new to this board, but not exactly new to Chryslers, ive grown up around in and under them. bit of a weird one tho that neither my dad nor i can figure, hopefully someone might have an idea if we screwed up or if something else is wrong.

My dad recently bought from a junkyard a 1980 D100 regular cab, with a sweet running slant 6, but APPARENTLY the clutch was toast, to try to put it into gear resulted in severe grinding, chattering, and all sorts of lovely metal to metal noises. an inspection reviealed the yoke was jammed at an unnatural angle to the tranny.

OK so we went ahead, not too discuraged, and ordered up a rebuild, thru NAPA. we got the complete set, from pilot bearing to A833 OD unit to new ujoints on both ends along with a yoke i dug up in my collection. i installed it myself (first time for me, but guided by my dad and the faithful Chilton Manuals) put the old girl back together, and took it for a drive.

Now this is were it gets interesting. the chatter and noise were gone, but we suddenly found, rather rudely i should think, that when taking off from a standstill, the truck would "jump" as tho a semi would dumping the clutch in a high gear, especially trying tojust let the clutch out in a normal fashion. it would do this voilently enough to crack the windshield, and take our teeth out. we tried a variety of launching techniques (my dad is an old hand with stickshifts), everything from slow as possible let outs to dumping the clutch, no difference. its at the point were to try to take off from a stop while going uphill or with a load will result if not in blown u-joints, then damage to the truck in general. it also does this in second gear mildly, ot to the extent as first. reverse it doesnt seem to do it quite as much. it seems to have no power either (i KNOW a slant has power, iven in stock configuration).

Obviously the truck isnt quite streetable or workable in this condition, and im hoping someone out there would know where/if we screwed up, its a part somewhere along the driveline, or (a guess of mine) too high of a gearing in the rear end (its the stocker unit, 8 1/4 i believe). what makes me think this is that it seems rather gutless, even after a tune up (the usual, air filter, plugs, wires, etc) especially pulling a hill even empty. Did we goof, is it too high of a gearing rear end (i cant see it likely myself) or something we are missing?

Any help Would be greatly appreceated, and ill definitely be here more often as i have a 77 2 door aspen auto that id like to eventually go mustang and vette hunting with. (my main reason is that, who would suspect an Aspen to be a street killer? especially a leaning tower of power, as ive seen them called? )

Have you checked for oil/grease on the flywheel/pressure plate? When does the clutch engage/disengage.

D

I 'm thinking the same thing DI suggested. If you look closely, the disk will have stamped on it something to the effect 'this side flywheel only'. Usually the disk cannot even fit in backwards, without bottoming on the flywheel counterbore and/or the flywheel bolt heads. Also the disk 'marcels', which cushion the clutch engagement, would be facing backwards to normal rotation.
Another possibility, but more remote, is the clutch hub can be bent, which makes for erratic clutch engagement/disengagement. This usually happens when someone allows the trans to hang from the splines unsupported while the trans is not fully inserted into the pilot bshg, and the b/hsg bore. To chk if its bent, put it on the trans splines and spin it and look for runout. If you see any, it's probably too much.

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'66 Cuda 225/4spd
'66 Dart GT convertible 225/auto
'64 Dart GT 340/4spd

thats what we thought at first, however we've put around 300 miles on it, stop and start, deliberately burning the clutch, etc, and neither the motor nor the tranny seem to be using oil of any kind, so we think we can rule it out (unless it can last longer on the plate?)


im about 80% certain the bushing is oilite, its whatever NAPA sells, which is where we get most of our parts from (they are about the only dealer in town). we will double check on this tho.

as far as the disk goes, if my memory recalls it was marked this side to such and such, and i thought they would only fit one way anyway, but again ill have to have it checked (not the easyest job to do with only hand tools and an axle jack, not impossible ((ive proved it)) but difficult.
this is about the only thing i dont think we checked, a case of "well its new so it should be fine" syndrome.

Ill check on these tho, thanx again, and any more ideas greatly apprecieated, Thanx!