[ihc] 12" clutches and I'm sick of it already!

[Joel M Brodsky <jmbrodsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Binders,
      It's been about a year and I've been stumped with this 12" clutch
problem.
Summary:
I bought a 12" clutch set, rebuilt from Scout MADness in Lubbock.
Clutch plate, pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing and alignment
tool.  Total: about $400
the first one had a badly heat cracked pressure plate, so I sent it back
and Mark sent me another one.  Rebuilt clutch plate, freshly machined
flywheel.
When I finally got to the project about 8 months ago, I took out my T18
with 11" clutch
and the Dana 20 and put in the 12" clutch, the T19W and the Dana 300 and
thenew
bearings and a greasable collar, which I found to have a grease port that
is
through drilled up to the flange where the bearing mounts (as are the other
three
greasable collars I have, so they ARE designed to grease the throwout
bearing).
Well, I put the whole mess together and the throwout bearing has to push
too
deeply into the pressure plate (here-forward called the 'basket').

What this means is that I can only push the clutch so far before it makes a
lot of noise.  If I push the
clutch too far, the actuator fingers actually contact the spinning clutch
dish (spring covers) and sound
terrible.  So, I have only a small region where I push the clutch in and I
can shift, less clutch, no shift,
and more clutch makes noise.

NOW, I looked last night and the fingers are straight, not curved out in
the center like the actuator fingers are on
an 11" clutch assembly.  So, does this mean that the basket is assembled
with the wrong fingers?
or does it mean that the 12" clutch isn't the same as the 11" clutch in its
acutation?

So, can anyone help?  I'm going to have to pull the whole mess out and
replace the clutch and basket regardless,
but I'm wondering if there is any hope for the $400 assembly as purchased
from Scout MADness.
Has anyone ever heard of this?

It's totally irritating to see a killer 4x4 on 33s with about 6" of lift
just sitting in my driveway with a screwed up
clutch.

Thanks for the help.

I have an 11" assembly that I'm planning to get rebuilt and installed.  I
wanted the more bigger better
12" but it's not worth the hassles so far.

Thanks Gang,

      JoelB