What to look for when inspection hard pedal feel?

I have had a stiff clutch for the entire length that I have onwed my car, (since '97). I just thought it was a HD clutch. Wrong. Deff. a stocker. Well, about 3000 miles ago, it burnt up. I installed a Spec Stage II. When I put it in, the pedal feel was great. But when I went through the break in period, (500 miles in one night) it slowly started to get stiff. Like in the first 100 miles. I mean real stiff. Well, wouldn't you know, 3000 miles later, I burnt up that clutch. This time, the burnt clutch was completly my fault, with a poorly adjusted aftermarket quad.

Now I am replacing every part associated with this clutch. The aluminum bearing retainer has some stepped grooves wore. But when I changed the first clutch, they were no near this bad. So I'm thinking this could possibly have caused the stiff clutch, but I'm not sure, because the grooves were not this bad before, yet the pedal was hard. The cable is a stocker, and moves freely. No binding, heat markings, or fraying. It is still getting replaced with another Ford stocker. I am thinking possibly clutch fork/pivot ball. What should I look for with this?

Also, when I took the bellhousing off the last time, one of the mounting ears broke. It is only the top half, but this whole situation has me looking at every part with suspicion. Could this have anything to do with this. I mean, all the botls line up and torque fine, no binding. Also the ear is still sitting right with the dowel pin on both sides.

Here are a few pics of the bearing retainer. Any ideas?

TTT

BTW: I did search. Not much on the pivot ball situation.

Everything is getting replaced but the flywheel. That will be getting resurfaced, although it may not need it. I will let the machinist make that call. I am leaning towards a resurface though. The pressure plate looks great. The fingers all look good, not uneven or broken. The mating surface side has some heat marks on it. Nothing sever, but you can see it was slipping. The clutch has a lot of matterial on it, but it looks glazed to me. I already have a Cobra clutch kit from D & D. The pilot bushing is getting replaced with a roller also. I inspected the pivot ball and clutch fork today. The pivot ball has some wear on the top and side, (which is to be ezpected) but I do NOT know how much wear is normal. I will try to get a pic soon. There is what also appears to be normal wear on the clutch fork. Like I said earlier, everything is getting replaced.

After the clutch was first installed, it grabbed close to the top. But I was obviously too much of a rookie to know that it was too high. After it started slipping, I moved to the closest hook to the firewall on my UPR quadrant. This arrangment was grabbing too close to the floor, but I ran out of adj. on my UPR FWA. I was running the stock cable. I orignally thought that it was stretched, causing me to run out of adj., but when I compared it to the new Ford cable, they look to be the same length. So who knows.

All I know, is that this stiff clutch is driving me nuts. I need it fixed right this time.

9 Deuce GT said:

Well, wouldn't you know, 3000 miles later, I burnt up that clutch. This time, the burnt clutch was completly my fault, with a poorly adjusted aftermarket quad.

Click to expand...

The glazed/burnt clutch was deff. my fault. I'm more concerned with why I seem to keep getting a stiff pedal. Is it pivot ball/clutch fork related? Or is it the bearing retainer? WTF is it?

The cable is fine, but it is still getting replaced along with everything else. I am just trying to understand WTF is going on here. It is driving me crazy.