Clutch pedal feels fine, but disk stays engaged

I posted this last week, but the text of the post seems not to have registered. This is another try.

Ford 641 gas, four speed, single stage clutch. Last fall my clutch started dragging just a little, now and then. I would shift into neutral, intending to come to a gradual stop on flat ground, but the tractor would keep moving forward under slight power. Lightly braking would stop it easily, without bogging down the engine, and it would stay stationary once in neutral. Then one day, in the middle of work, I pushed in the clutch and the tractor kept going under full power. Had to stall it out with the brakes. I started it up again, grinding trying to get into gear, fully stuck in gear once you got it in, seemed like the clutch had come apart, failed completely. Let it all cool down, came back a couple days later, still no clutch. Came back a week or two after that, unbolted the loader frame, went to back the tractor out from under the loader frame, instinctively pushed in the clutch during the process, and the clutch worked fine! I parked it in a dry barn for the winter, and started looking into it again last week. Couldn't get the clutch to give me any issues testing it out. Worked as normal.

Anyone have any thoughts on what could make a clutch vary like that? I could see if it was rusted stuck, but it had gotten stuck right in the middle of work, after working fine. I hate to put the loader back on without addressing anything, but I hate to tear the tractor in half with the clutch working fine right now! Clutch and engine are just a few years old, but have had significant break in time since the rebuild, few hundred hours hard and light work.

Thanks for any thoughts, Alex
 
First thing to check would be your clutch pedal/linkage adjustment. Too much freeplay would let the pressure plate drag on the disc.
 

Hey Tom, yes you're right I forgot to mention, linkage is in good condition, lubed, not worn, free play adjusted properly. And anyway, it worked fine, then worked poorly, then didn't work at all, now works fine again...
 
Usually in a case like that, it's something like a clutch disc damper spring that has worked its way out of the pocket and got jammed up between the disc and the flywheel. I've seen that before, but only on a disc with high miles, so that part has me a little puzzled.

I think if it was me, I'd pull the starter out and do some investigating with a bore-scope. If you don't have one, they can be had for pretty cheap nowadays.
 
(quoted from post at 18:15:45 04/06/22) Good catch, I didn't see that. The title of the post had me thinking clutch.

Ha, true... I assume I misremembered / misspoke, can't say 100% what the initial symptoms were last fall, but guessing the issue was I'd push in the clutch, and while preparing to shift into N, still be under power. I know I would move a little when I shouldn't have been when stopping on flat ground, it started to worry me when I'd park at a busy stand to stock pumpkins, so I started shutting it down. Don't think I've ever had an issue with neutral not breaking the drivetrain. But yes, good catch.
 
I was going by you saying that the tractor was moving under power when you shifted to neutral. If that was a mis-statement, then I think you have a bad pilot bearing.
 
Leaning towards pilot bearing. If ball bearing was used when put together, they will hang up and make pull its self.
 

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