Discussion moved to "Hudson" category.

I would simply try draining the fluid, installing new.fluid, verify the free travel, making sure there is not too much, see what happens?.

Remember, use the shop manual to adjust the gate locks.

I tried draining the fluid and replacing with fresh hudsonite fluid with no change, Then I tried filling with transmission fluid and running the engine while pumping the clutch for several weeks, with no results. Drained that and replaced with hudsonite. still no results.
Since the car stays put with it running in gear with the clutch engaged, but I cant put it in g.ear if it is already running. I started to question if it was stuck or not.
should I be trying some of the other suggestions for freeing a stuck clutch?

Thanks Doug and everyone else who might have had this same issue.

Stephen,
Reading your description of your problem, the clutch is dragging, not stuck. It was likely stuck at the beginning of this saga, but is now dragging on the flywheel/pressure plate that's it's "sandwiched" between .Depressing the clutch pedal moves the pressure plate away from the flywheel to release the disc, but not very far, probably, < 1/16" . A disc that was stuck at some point and subsequently "broken loose" may leave pieces of the cork inserts stuck to the mating surfaces, causing the dragging problem. If the clutch pedal is simply depressed (boy.....I can relate to [i]that[/i]) after a period of non-use, it may pull chunks of the corks out of the insert faces. If it isn't too bad, running it and slipping the clutch a bit may polish the cork off of the surfaces but will result in a cork "mud" in the housing. It also may cause further damage to the inserts still in the disc because they will be the part that's scouring the pieces that are stuck to the flywheel/pressure plate. A subsequent flushing will get most of it out but probably not all.
Such dragging may also be indicative of a warped disc or a twisted transmission input shaft but, since it was working normally when last used, it's not likely to be from that.
Frank

guys, I just received a note about a shifting issue that Larry is having with his 53 Hornet.
New clutch, pressure plate and throwout bearing. Worked fine for a few days. He took a video with a scope
thru the side hole of the bellhousing. You can see the shift rod fork move against the throwout bearing collar and
move is about 3/4". Pedal free play was set by the book. He pulled the drain plug to make sure fluid had been added
and drained clutch oil out. Is going to put new bottle of Hudson clutch oil back in.

1. Car starts in neutral
2. When you I push in on the clutch pedal, and try to put car into gear, I grind the selected gear.
If I try starting the car, with clutch pedal pushed to the floor AND in gear, it crawls itself forward. Same as if it had sat for a long period of time with the clutch engaged and clutch plate is stuck to the pressure plate.
Car has been driven max of 5 miles from muffler shop. I count 4 stop lights.

Kerry, Also, what happens if you over tighten the free-travel out?. This can be hard to do on the floor, but on a lift, much easier. You would not want to leave it that way, but it could help giving an answer. While up in the air, how much end play is in the crank?. Can you take a picture of the p/pl. and send it to info@wrphet.com . It could also have mis-matched parts? How well did it work before? If it has a later model flywheel '41 and up, and an early pressure plate, early '41 and earlier, these 2 parts will allow you to assemble it together, allow it to start and run, but do NOT engage properly, especially after running for a couple of minutes. It gets worst as they get hot, until they basically lock-up.

replied! e-mail
Thanks Doug!

Update ---
Larry and Ralph pulled the transmission and clutch assembly
out and one of the clutch plate fingers was flopping, pin must have come loose, broke or some weird thing. The clutch plate
was stuck to the inside lip of the pressure plate. weird !!
Put the new rebuilt assembly (throwout bearing, clutch pressure plate, clutch plate, gasket and Hudson clutch oil, forgot shellac) that I sent him in and he is real pleased with how it is shifting. Very slick.
So it looks like at this point, all is well that ends well.

Stephen,

I think Frank's idea of driving it a bit to see if it improves is a good one. My Packard has behaved this way since I bought it more than sixty years ago! It's not likely that I will get around to taking it apart ...

Per

Stephen,
Thanks for the update. It's always valuable to find out what the culprit was.
Frank