I have a '54 Wasp that I recently dumped (way too much) money into for a transmission rebuild. Now I get the car back from a local shop that deals with older vehicles and am having the same problem: starts up in neutral just fine, but after warming up the clutch seems to do nothing. I can be driving in 1st, when attempting to shift 2nd it grinds and will not leave neutral or even go back into 1st. So my only solution is to stop the car in traffic, turn the ignition off and that seems to free up the shifter. So I put it into first and start the ignition and just gas it forward from there. So basically the car is now parked, un-drivable in my opinion.
I plan on taking it back to tranny shop this week.
Thoughts? Diagnosis? Suggestions?
Eric, what did you have done to the transmission? Who did the work? Did you add clutch fluid to the clutch?
the transmission was serviced and completely rebuilt along with the rear end. It was done by a local transmission shop known for classic car work, Del Amo. After the same problems occurred 2 days after getting the car home I asked about the clutch and it was not replaced his clutch "guy" said it did not look bad but didn't know anything about these kind of clutches and did not want to get into it. I do no believe any fluid was added but I can ask.
The shop owner is very open to me bringing the car back in, but now I am thinking maybe nothing was ever wrong with the trans at all.
if he knew nothing about the Hudson clutch, which is a "wet" clutch, he should have read a manual concerning it. The clutch may be toast now.
How uncommon are they? Do they come in other makes?
Thank you for the link, makes a lot more sense now. Drove the car around the block last night, shifts fine but once it warms up the clutch stops working and will not disengage. Does this sound typical of it running dry? Would a simple flush & fill fix this? Do you need to pull the tranny to fill the wet clutch?
Thanks in advance for your help. 🙂
Eric--
I beg you, do not drive the car any more until you know for a fact that the clutch has the proper amount of fluid in it.
You are going to burn it up if it doesnt. They are not cheap to fix and you can't just go to the parts store and buy one.
Be sure and check the transmission fluid as well.
I tried the link and got to the board, but could not join -
"That email is not available." "That username is not available."
What's up? How did I offend the gods of that board? What do I need to do to get in?
Clutch is obviously not releasing. How much free play is there at the top of the clutch pedal?
There is probably about an inch or so of free play. The clutch does release, until it gets warm (drive it more than 10 min)
First thing is to check the clutch fluid level (which, unfortunately, you can only do by draining it, to see how much was in the clutch).
Here is how to do it. It is maybe a 15 minute job. You would be well advised to have some new clutch fluid on hand so you can refill with the correct amount. You can order new fluid from Doug Wildrick in Indiana but to save time you can substitute automatic transmission fluid and replace it later with the real thing. (The same way you drained and refilled with the ATF).
Don't bother to take it back to the shop to do this procedure, since they are apparently ignorant of the Hudson clutch. And it will take extra time to drive there. If you have a shred of mechanical ability you can do this with only a socket wrench, a rag, and a shallow pan (to catch about 6 oz. of used oil).
1. Car in neutral, brakes on, ignition off. However, if you have a battery kill switch, this must to turned to ON. You need power to the starter.
2. Open hood and find inspection window on the driver's side of the engine.
3. Remove solenoid rear cap, tap button (remote starter) lightly so flywheel revolves until one of the two hex plugs appears in the inspection window next to the starter. (If you have a solenoid with no remote button in the back, you could possibly remove the spark plugs and turn the motor by hand. If you have the original accessory hand-crank, so much the better!)
4. Place a pan on garage floor directly under the flywheel cover, to catch the old Hudsonite you'll drain. There is a little elongated drain slot at the bottom of the half-round cover.
5. Unscrew & remove plug in flywheel, trying NOT to drop the plug down into flywheel cover below. (One method is to stuff rags around the plug so that, if dropped, it will fall into the rags. Remember to remove the rags after this operation, however!) If you drop the plug, no biggie. You'll have to get under the car and remove the flywheel cover (2 bolts), takes about 3 minutes.
6. Tap solenoid button again, or hand-rotate flywheel, until the stamped "star" appears in the inspection hole. This indicates that the open hole (from which you just removed the plug) is at the 6 o'clock position, and the Hudsonite is draining out into the pan. Or onto the garage floor, if you forgot to place the pan under the car....
7. After a minute or two, tap solenoid button again until the open hole again appears in the inspection window. Old oil is now drained. (You can measure what drains out into the pan to calculate how much has leaked since the last refill.)
8. Insert 6 oz. of Hudsonite or ATF in the hole. If rags are to be inserted (to catch plug), insert them now. Then replace plug in flywheel and tighten. Remove rags.
9. Job done. Replace solenoid cap on starter so you don't lose it.
Did this clutch work properly before the transmission job? I am curious about this problem because years ago we rebuilt hundreds of Hudson clutches and saw all sorts of problems> Rod Hudson
Jon, thank you for the procedure. I work on a lot of my other cars so this should not be a problem. Plus a Hudson friend of mine is sending me a bottle of Hudsonite so I should be able to try this next week. I will let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed.
Rod, no the clutch did not work properly before the transmission job. In fact, it had the exact same problem. Do you think the clutch is toast? I have heard different opinions, going to check the fluid as first step..
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