Clutch pivot ball....which one???

[LannyL81]

Received my new LuK clutch kit today and I had ordered a replacment pivot ball at the sametime (just in case). Compared the old pivot ball to the new one and the new one is about 1/4" taller. Now I know that the L82's had a different pivot ball than the L48's, but which one is correct for my L81? I cannot go by what came out of the car since the clutch had been changed by a previous owner.

Would the taller pivot ball give me more throw-out bearing travel or reduce the pedal effort? Is the pivot ball the reason why I could not get the RAM clutch to dis-engage all along??

Questions...questions....more and more questions......

Thanks,
LannyL81

 

[glenkov48]

I bellieve the taller ball is to compensate for surfacing the flywheel. Otherwise, you sometimes have problems with adjustment.

 

[black_81_vette]

The L-82 had the longer stud the 81 used the shorter one.

 

[LannyL81]

Any ideas as to why the L82 engine required the taller pivot stud? Did GM using a different clutch pressure plate on the L82? Just curious about this. I put the taller one in with the LuK clutch and it works SUPER. I also believe that this was the reason why I could not get the RAM PowerGrip clutch to work...it needs the taller pivot stud. I was very tempted to install the RAM clutch again to find out for sure...but decided not to and used the LuK clutch instead.

LannyL81

 

[black_81_vette]

the only reason I know of is that the pressure plate was a different desighn IE, hieght difference from the standard clutch set up.