8n stuck clutch

It happens to my Jubilee all the time. For some reason, the clutch sticks to the pressure plate. To free it, shut off the engine, put the tractor in 3rd gear, depress the clutch and lock it in place and then roll the tractor back and forth until the clutch pops lose. To prevent this annoying problem, I use a short piece of scrap iron to hold the clutch in the depressed position whenever I park it for any length of time. It works like a charm. I asked my Ford New Holland dealer about it but he was baffled. Someday I'm going to break the tractor in half and get to the bottom of it. It's obvious that something is causing the clutch to bind. Either the surface has been contaminated with oil or something else that getts gummy when heated, or the shaft is not being properly lubricated. If anyone knows why Ford clutches stick -- others have mentioned this problem in the past -- I and a lot of others would appreciate a definitive answer. Until then, it's rock 'n roll time -- and sometimes the rockin' and rollin' has to be pretty vigorous to free up the damned clutch.

Good luck.

1) Clutch disk bonded to Flywheel (unlikely if it was run recently)
2) Preasure Plate failed due to Pin falling out. (I just fixed mine for this reason)
3) Input shaft and pilot bearing bound up (Not common)

You could take the starter out and see if you can see anything using a miror. Zane gave me instruction to split the tractor without removing the sheet metal which saved a lot of time. See the archive for details.