When I had my '72 K5,I swapped a SM465 into it after the TH350 gave grief,and I went thru 2 Borg-Warner 3 fingered pressure plates in less than a month,in normal city/highway driving..both had one finger fail,and the clutch refused to release...the first time it failed I was at a red light,and a red corvette was in front of me..had my foot holding the clutch pedal to the floor,in second gear,waiting for the light to turn green,when suddenly the truck lurched forward and bumped the vette!..
..thought the guy was going to kill me,but no real damage was done to his car,so he just vented his displeasure and I tried explaining how the clutch must have failed,showed him with the truck in gear and the pedal depressed,it still wanted to move when I cranked it over..........................................................................................................................................................................................................I busted a$$ that weekend installing another B-W rebuilt,had to drive 80 miles to my parents house to do it,rent a tranny jack,and have it buttoned up to drive back to work monday AM...wasn't 3 weeks later when that pressure plate did the same thing,but not as suddenly...at first I had a hard time getting it in gear without clashing,then it eventually dragged so bad I could smell it burning at red lights,and adjusting it made no difference............................................................................................I ended up using a USED 11" centerforce clutch setup a friend had in a camaro that he totaled,that had only 1500 miles on it...never had any troubles with it..I was going to go with a 12" diaphram pressure plate so I could re-use the disc I already had,but I got the whole 11" setup for 50 bucks,so I went with that instead.....................................................................................................I must say the difference in pedal pressure was so great between the 3 finger PP and the Centerforce,that it felt like I'd put a hydraulic clutch in ,I practically dented the floor pan the first time I went to put the pedal down!...we had several of those B-W 3 finger pressure plates go bad in a short time at the parts store I worked at,swore I'd never use another rebuilt Borg-Warner clutch again..........................................................................................................................................................................................................Far as I remeber,they listed 3 different throwout bearings...the N1488 one was the shortest,it was used with most 3 fingered pressure plates...the N1716 one was the "medium" length one used on raised digaphram pressure plates,and there was another number I cant recall that was the longest one,used on flat digaphram pressure plates,mostly on 6 cylinder applications--I think they all had the same outer diameter where the contact the pressure plate but I could be wrong...I only know this because I had to take the Tremec 3 speed out of my 75 2wd Blazer 3 times,before i got the right throwout bearing in it!--the "kit" I bought came with the wrong one,and I couldnt adjust the free play right with the bearing the BCA book listed for the truck...but I had put a Vega saginaw 4 speed in it,maybe that was why I had the problem..
