Floating gears on a 13 speed, question

Once in a great while that clutch will go to the floor and stay there. Other ways to shift a manual comes into play just enough to limp it into the shop. I had one fail on me at Gap PA and there was lo and behold of all the luck in that tiny burg a clutch shop right there at the light. So I did not have to fight too much to get it into gear (Shut engine off, put into gear, start up in gear and soon she fires have her into the next one up. just enough to crab into there.) although it had a air starter and I did suspect that if I did that more than two times there is no air back into the air start tank. Even then I was considering a workaround to get air into it if I had to.

 

One thing to ALWAYS remember is if you put the clutch pedal all the way to the floor then you are on the clutch brake and if the tractor rolls even 6" while you are on the clutch brake you can snap the ears off. If you have never seen a clutch brake go down to the truck shop and have them pull one off the shelf for you, take a look at it, and you will understand how fragile they are

 

Explain how rolling snaps the ears off the clutch brake

 

Your clutch brake wraps around your main shaft, the ears are "meshed" into the main shaft. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but if the truck is in gear the clutch brake is attempting to stop the truck when it is only designed to stop the main shaft in the trans, allot of difference in rolling mass. But I'm just a diy, bym so I could be wrong....?

 

From what I've seen, usually the friction material just gets stripped off, leaving a bare metal plate with little friction. I suppose if one jammed the clutch hard enough, you could strip one out, but I've never seen that.

 

I don't know about that. I applied 500+ horses and 1800 foot pounds torque to a dropped clutch on a rockwell 9 starting off the line at max rpm in highrange 5th. She smoked like crazy pouring from that box down there until about a 1/3 of a mile when we got into top gear and really got into the top end in racing. The rig was only three months old at the time. Not really supposed to race a big truck in them days... but it was fun.

 

I have personally replaced or helped replace many with the ears broke off, or one ear broke off. I have never actually seen one that is wore out with no friction material left. But I'm pretty green so maybe eventually I will run across one like that

 

I have been around trucks my entire life. Was doing clutch jobs at 14. I'm 42 and haven't seen the ears broke off. I have seen the friction material gone a lot. If you have ever tried to get a one piece brake off the shaft without pulling the trans you would know just how fragile they ain't lol. I'm not saying the ears can't break off, only I have never seen it. But I'm green as they come myself.

 

You have allot more years experience than I, only thing I would say is maybe different ends of the industry, I'm in the Oilfield and have been for 5 years... Trucks get hammered pretty hard out here

 

It just occurred to me I said "ears" maybe you are thinking I mean something else, what I should have been saying is "tabs" the small tabs on the inside of the brake that hold onto the trans shaft. You have never seen those break?