Why won't 98 clutch slide/engage after removal

[Rford]

98 cart running fine. Timing belt broke.

Removed drive clutch. Prior to repair, cart working fine.

When I replaced the clutch, it was stuck a little bit closed, about an inch. Seemed jammed. Couldn't pop it open.

Started car, drive clutch would not close. Took it off again. Could not move back and forth, open and close. Had to use a puller to get the cover off the shaft. It was clear the problem was the cover was too tight on the shaft. I used a brake hone on the cover ==it has a bushing in it that looks like brass==that got it to slide a bit on the shaft but only about an inch, so the clutch halves will not close. The shaft appears to be slightly tapered so it stops the cover after about an inch.

It seems as though the tapered shaft is keeping if from closing.

I did pound on the removal nut/tool some, but not violently. It was hard to remove, but I can't imagine I could have put a taper in the clutch center shaft.

I've cleaned it up, and the cover will only slides an inch by hand and will not come close to closing entirely. I've searched on line an have not found this problem.

What's up with this thing?

[Rford]

I went out and actually measured to see if there was a taper on the shaft and there is. About .001 which is why the clutch cover can't slide more than about an inch. I'm stumped as to how this happened or what I'm doing wrong. If anyone has a clutch sitting around, I'd be grateful if you would check to see if the shaft is tapered on yours. I'm afraid I'll have to stop into the local golf cart shop for some assistance, but at least I've got one close.

[sccowboy]

Can you put up some good pics?

[Rford]

Here's some photos. It shows how far onto the shaft the cover will go before hanging up.

I'm thinking I'll get the hone out and hone the bushing in the cover plate so if will slide completely. That will make it "loose" when the clutch is disengaged, at idle, but it might get me running again. I can always buy a replacement if I mess it up and don't see much else to do at this point.

Again, its clearly a problem with the clearance between the cover and the shaft and apparently I messed it up taking it off but I can not figure out how....

[Rford]

Here's another -- the sheaves are fully closed here, but the cover (which is unbolted) is hung up about 1 1/2 inches short of where it needs to be. While I was starting to think I'd maybe mushroomed the bushing while taking off the clutch, I'm still confused by the .001 taper in the shaft. If that taper is not supposed to be there, that's the problem.

I've also noticed that the taper starts right where the bushing would stop if the clutch was fully engaged.

[sccowboy]

You may consider taking it to a reputable machine shop and having them check the whole shaft and bores and dress it back up if needed.

[Rford]

Originally Posted by sccowboy

You may consider taking it to a reputable machine shop and having them check the whole shaft and bores and dress it back up if needed.

I decided to go "shade tree" on it...I took a small brake hone, wrapped it in 80 grit sandpaper, and honed the cover bushing until it slid on the shaft. After thinking it over, the clutch cover plate doesn't really do anything other than hold the dust cover on. The working end of the clutch is in the weights and inner workings. After taking off enough of the bushing material to make it fit I used the hone itself w/o the sand paper to polish it off. Slapped it together, put it on, and it works just fine. I'm happy, didn't spend $200-400 on a new one and while I don't know how I messed it up in the first place, the fix was easy enough once I just figured I'd attack the problem and make it fit...

Overall, not a bad project, the toughest part was getting the frozen clutch off the shaft.

[sccowboy]

Glad you got it straight