At the sign of the cat...'69 Mercury Cougar convertible restomod

You may succeed, but the angles will be wrong an quite possibly accelerate wear on the T/O bearing or the thrust face of the pressure plate. Or drag the release lever on the cover.

+1

I'd try a longer push rod first

I spoke with Modern Drive Line today and got some good things to try once it stops raining here and one of my capable assistants gets back home.  They asked me to see if what I'm experiencing may be new clutch components needing a break in and possibly the marcel spring being new and stiff.  They asked me to place car in fourth, depress the clutch pedal and see if I can rotate driveshaft by hand.  If so, take her for a spin.  Should be able to verify later tonight.

TurnerX19 said:

You may succeed, but the angles will be wrong an quite possibly accelerate wear on the T/O bearing or the thrust face of the pressure plate. Or drag the release lever on the cover.

Thanks for your advice.  I'll try the method above then call them back to discuss other things from that point.  They did ask if I purchased a hydraulic release specific clutch.  I'd come across some comments a while back from them stating there were differences in pressure plate design based on release methods ( hydraulic versus mechanical).  

Well that didn't work.   I'll reach out again in the morning and ask what is next.

Clutch slave cylinder travel for full release is spec'd at 1.2".  I'm currently measuring 1.08" best I can tell and clutch isn't releasing. I've maxed pedal adjustment and cranked out slave cylinder rod as far as possible.  

What's the next steps?

After two pedal adjustments followed by two popping the piston out of the slave cylinder followed by tearing the slave off, cracking the bleeder, reseating the piston, adjusting the slave cylinder rod and the pedal travel I think I'm back to where I was yesterday.  I don't expect clutch release with current settings and am thinking trans is coming out to move pivot ball mount forward and inspect clutch for possible damaged pilot bearing (probably not an issue).  
Crap.  Just popped piston out again.  
At this point I'm looking at pulling the trans tomorrow after work and doing a garage thrash to get it out, pull the bell, move pivot ball forward about 0.100" then put it all back together and try again.  Not exciting back should keep me up all night under the car.  

I'm just suprised there is not a hard and fast measurement for you. On my throw out bearing you did two measurements and boom you were done

Sadly no measurements at all with the slave cylinder.  Everything I'm doing now is to try and NOT pull the trans.  

I got the pedals and slave cylinder now in a place where they work smoothly and piston isn't ejected from the bore every time.  So I got that going for me which is nice.  I'm going to do a bit more tweaking on the pedals tomorrow morning early before work.  I'm unbolting then making one half of one rotation on two different rods then reassemble and test.  Persnickety was the descriptor applied to it by the MDL tech guy.  Apt description.

The clutch release quick check MDL detailed-engine off, trans in 4th (1:1), clutch pedal depressed, and grab the driveshaft hasn't worked for me yet.  After tonight's under the stars under the dash extravaganza I can grab a wheel and rotate it under those conditions.  It has some load on it but the clutch is definitely releasing at least somewhat.  I need to try another system bleed-I tried it enough times and think I got the hang of it now-so I'll blast that in the morning as well.  I'll grab my buddies trans jack tomorrow JIC.

Good luck! You got this. Sucks that you may have to pull the trans again, but tbe bright side is that at least its fresh in your mind and will go quicker. 

Sounds like some good progress regardless last night.  It's never good to hear a supplier describe a part as persnickety...

would you consider going to a throwout instead of the slave? you could use everything you have for pedals and you would remove the hindrances of the fork and the unknown adjustments. 

Like I mentioned when we were texting I am considering one.  About $400 and still need to pull the trans out.  Neither are huge deals but I'm frustrated.  MDL says it should work but the shop I spoke with today has said never again as they're too finicky.  If I choose to/have to pull the trans it becomes a choice I have to make then.  Slave cylinder is adjusted as they recommend and still no release.  A few more attempts at pedal tweaks and a bleed and I'm done trying to adjust the stuff.  

Well I pushed it in the garage and let it sit for a while.  After bleeding the brakes in anticipation of a drive I noticed the pedal was slowly dropping while depressed. Damn.  I noticed the Wilwood proportioning valve pressure switch dust boot was wet and the pressure switch was leaking.  Confirmed thread size at 1/8" NPT then pulled the unused switch and installed a Teflon tape wrapped brass pipe plug.  Now I get to add bleed the brakes again to my list.  Tonight I'll start the task of tear down for trans removal while listening to the sweet sweeeet FE sounds of Brent's Galaxie for motivation.  

Oh and I noticed my turn signals are now dead too.  Double damn.  

Good luck on the trans removal!

I pick up my buddies trans jack tomorrow at noon.  Let the holiday weekend fun begin!

I got her back up on the lift tonight.  It's a choreographed sequence as the lift pad extensions require that the car be jacked up slightly due to the car being lowered.  I got the car positioned and lifted on the wheel jacks then brought up the lift.  I dropped the tunnel brace before heading in to make dinner for the family.   Now I'm a few glasses of white wine in-I needed it for making dinner, honest!-and will probably just close up shop tonight.  Back at it tomorrow.  

I removed the driveshaft after draining the transmission fluid (probably not necessary in retrospect) then pulled the driveshaft.   Disconnected all the electrical connections and wiring.   Removed the shifter boot and shift lever and unbolted the trans from the bellhousing.   I removed the trans mount and crossmember fasteners and then the parking brake cables.   I'll drop the trans tonight after dinner.  

Almost!

Opening up. 

Trans tunnel clearance is tight and shifter connection tends to hang up in the tunnel cut-out.  So the process is tweak engine and trans positions up and down while pushing back.  She'll be down soon then I can work on removing the bellhousing.