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I have been experiencing quite a bit of slippage from the clutch and/or the coupling in my 48. The car has the semi-automatic transmission. The car had been in storage for 10 years. The speedometer indicates 48K and there is a service sticker on the door that indicates an oil change at 46K in 1976. So it has not been driven very much in 42 years. When I first started driving it it seemed that everything was working ok, but it did seem to slip sometimes when pulling up a grade at a speed of about 25. Then suddenly it started slipping a lot at low speeds. I had trouble pulling away from a stop sign. My driveway has a slight slope and I had to get up a run to drive the car into the garage. The slippage is smooth with no chatter. I have driven it about 200 miles.
Pulled the clutch today and the disk, aside from 70 years of accumulated crude, looks new. The surfaces on the pressure plate and coupling look good with only light scoring. Checked the coupling fluid and it is full. So I am scratching my head trying to decide what is wrong.
I read the posts regarding hydraulic fluid to use in the coupling so I am going to change the fluid. The recommended fluid has a non-foaming additive. Is it possible that the fluid was changed by a previous owner to a fluid without the additive. If the fluid foamed, could that cause slippage?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Jim,
If your coupling is full, I don't think that is the issue. Did you check the clutch pedal free-play? It is quite possible for a clutch to wear sufficiently after sitting idle for 42 years to use up the available free-play just from removing rust from the surfaces. The shop manual should give a procedure for adjusting that clutch free-play as well as setting the over-center spring travel to ensure clutch pedal return.
Brent Jacobsen
Owner of a 1952 Desoto Firedome
When I bought the car the clutch was way out of adjustment. There was no free play and the pedal was about 1.5 inch forward of the brake pedal. Removed the clutch and aside from being dirty it appeared to have little wear. Replaced the clutch anyway with new. Adjusting the clutch was difficult, the book wasn't much help. After a few hours it started to make sense. Used the overcenter tool to set the overcenter and now the clutch works perfectly.
The book said to change the fluid every 10K miles so I changed the fluid to ISO 32 that I bought at Home Depot. Also put new 10W in the transmission and replaced two of the wires. Now the car drives really well. It was a LOT of work, but worth it.
