Clutch chatters when let out on Pacemaker Convertible

I managed to get the pacemaker conv drivable and took it to the spokane national. It was a great time! Thel hudson people are so much fun to be around.



The 10" wet clutch chatters badly when it is let out so a couple of days ago i pulled the transmission with overdrive. The first thing I noticed was that when I drained the clutch fluid there was only about 1/5 of the amount I had poured into it originally which was the correct 6 oz bottle. I noticed before i removed the clutch cover from the flywheel that the clutch fingers were quite sloppy and would move side to side from 1/16" to 1/8". I was able to compare this with another clutch that is still attached to its flywheel and the movement wasn't near this much. Also from just eyeballing the depth of the fingers they looked to be uneven in height by quite a lot. (I wish I had actually measured them before I took it apart but I didnt). I then took the clutch apart and found that where the fingers pivot at the pressure plate the holes in the fingers are worn, and the pins the fingers pivot on are worn. I was told that you can drill out the holes in the fingers and holes in pressure plate and install a larger pin to eliminate the slop. I'm not sure what type of material to use to make the pin out of. Or maybe there are premade pins available to buy. I know if I made them they would have to be soft enough to drill holes in the ends of them to hold the cotter pins.



I also noticed that at least one of the clutch springs was almost 1/4" shorter than the others. I know its not the right spring but I dont know if it will make a difference in the clutch smoothness when it disengages.



Also the finger retainers have little divets worn across them where the fulcrum point of the fingers pivot on the finger retainers. The hudson repair manual says you can turn the retainers around so that they will pivot on an unworn part but this has already been done and both sides of the retainers are worn.

I have some other finger retainers that are in better shape that i think will work although they are somewhat rusty. They appear to have almost no wear at the pivot point though.



The clutch was rebuilt ,with a resurfaced pressure plate and flywheel.

I used a rebuilt cork clutch that I had had for about 30 years so I intend to buy a new one from Doug Wildrick or Ron Fellows. It also has a rebuilt throwout bearing. I checked the runout of the flywheel while it was attached to the engine by attaching a dial indicator with a magnetic fixture to the back engine plate with the pointer running close to the outer edge of the flywheel and turing the engine over by hand. (the sparkplugs were out). The runout was between .002 and .003" which I think should be ok.



I would like to repair this problem myself if it is feasable. I do have a milling machine and a lathe but I'm not very experienced with them yet but I'm learning. If its not feasable to do it myself I'll just have Doug or Ron fix me up with either repairing these parts or selling me other rebuilt ones.



Any help in getting me through the process would be much appreciated as I really would like to learn how to do it. Thanks. Rob