Clutch Hitter

I have just gotten my 1973 Challenger
running. It was a 318 automatic car, now I
have a 340 and 4-speed installed. I bought
most of the parts used at swapmeets and
such, I am on a tight budget.
One problem: The clutch pedal wants
to hang on the floor and not pop back up.
I have a good 3-finger clutch, and all the
adjustments seem fine. Can you point me
in the right direction?

Since you bought mix ’n’ match components
from who-knows-where, there are
lots of possible problem areas. My educated
guess is that the pedal assembly
you bought came from a 440 (or Hemi)
’70–’71 car. These had a very beefy overcenter
spring which reduced the pedal
effort with the strong clutch. I’ll assume
that your Borg and Beck pressure place is
a typical smallblock version, with relatively
pedestrian clamping load. The over-center
spring is likely too strong for the pressure
plate springs, and holds the pedal to
the floor. There were actually 4 different
springs for different combos, these are
the B/E part numbers:
APPLICATION PART NUMBER
340, 383 2950922
SLANT 6 3575119
318 2950921
440, HEMI 2950923
Some of these are incredibly strong—
constructed of 3/8˝ spring wire. One fix is
finding and installing the correct (weaker)
spring. The easy way to do this is to have
an assistant depress the pedal to the floor,
and jam washers between each coil, then
release the pedal. You can hammer washers
between the coils of the “new” spring
to install. To my mind, however, this is
all rubbish. Ditch the spring entirely, and
install a good diaphragm pressure plate.
You’ll be amazed at the improvement.