CLUTCH CHANGE?

[BOBCAM]

My clutch only seems to take up the drive when the pedal is very high from the floor is this a sign my clutch is going there is no slip however if it needs replacing i understand its an engine out job which i could do but my garage is to small to get a hoist in so where can i get it done at a good price fairly local to me (Thame Oxfordshire) and what sought of money approx
Thanks Bob

[stuarthardy]

If its not slipping then it might just be a worn thrust bearing. Unfortunately, it still means the engine has to come out so you might as well change the whole clutch while you're on.

You'd be surprised how many people don't change the thrust bearing when they change the clutch.

Regards

[ecosselynx]

Hi

You might want to check the adjustment first.

[sweller]

You might want to check the adjustment first.

Does that 1.5mm at the operating rod make that much difference or have I missed a point of adjustment?

I only say as I have a relatively new clutch plate, release bearing, pressure plate and flexible hose (couple of thousand miles) and the biting point for mine is also fairly high up the pedal travel.

[piman]

Hello Simon,

it is critical that there is some clearance as otherwise the thrust bearing will be pressing on the clutch and will wear the thrust unnecessarily. However I would think that with no clearance the take up point will be lower. With an excessive clearance the take up will be higher but I imagine that the clutch pedal will feel 'soft' initially if that is the case?

Alec

[stuarthardy]

Dead right Alec, I've recently spent a while adjusting and re-adjusting the clutch push rod on my E-Type and yes it is critical. Although everything is brand new you can still feel the clutch dragging if you don't get it right.

As the thrust bearing wears then you need to adjust (lengthen) the push rod to compensate for it. There should be a return spring on the slave cylinder to help the piston return to its rest point and so this can add feel to the pedal when operating the clutch. If the spring is missing then that might be the cause of the problem as the push rod will almost certainly be the wrong length as well.

Simon, could you get the car ready to lift the engine with it reversed into the garage then push it out enough to get the hoist over it then push it back in again when the engine is pulled? I've done this plenty of times in my younger days. if you can get the engine on a trolley or a proper stand then you have engine mobility too.

Regards

[sweller]

Simon, could you get the car ready to lift the engine with it reversed into the garage then push it out enough to get the hoist over it then push it back in again when the engine is pulled? I've done this plenty of times in my younger days. if you can get the engine on a trolley or a proper stand then you have engine mobility too.

I don't need to pull the engine (certainly hope not!) but that's how I've done it in the bangernomic's past.

However, when I recently needed to swap a poorly engine for a good engine but the hoist/crane I had wouldn't have had the necessary height to get engine, gearbox and overdrive out. I stripped the engine of ancillaries, tied up the exhaust and towed it to the local "under the arches" place, he swapped the blocks over for £200 and, towed it back and I refitted the ancillaries, interior etc at my leisure.

The time consuming part (with attendant labour charges) are the ancillaries etc. The local one man band also helped with the towing and moving the engines about so £200 for the swap was a bit of a bargain.

[Martec]

Not sure if it is of any help, but there were two types of clutch slave cylinders. Mine had the old short cylinder - knackered, and I could only get the later long barrelled one (hydrostatic) at the time.

From the manual the original short one had the spring on the outside and the push rod is adjusted to give the bite point half way up on the peddle. The later long cylinder is set up but by pulling the lever back and the push rod forward and adjusted(with the bolt removed) so there is 3/4" between the hole centre. I assume so there is room for wear of the clutch as the hydraulics are now self adjusting.

I made the mistake of fitting the spring to this later cylinder which caused problems and got told off again.

Best of luck

Brian

[stuarthardy]

Oops! Sorry Simon, I should have addressed my last message to Bob.

To be honest I don't know a lot about Mk2's and I certainly don't know whether you can pull the engine out without the gearbox. You can't on an E-Type and I haven't needed to do it on my 420 so I don't know about that either.

Regards

[piman]

Hello Stuart,

the official way is take out the engine and gearbox from below, after removing the front suspension.
I had one, many years ago, that had the alternative butchers treatment, cut the floor out around the gearbox so as to do a clutch change in situ. The butchers didn't re weld the floor back of course.

Alec

[stuarthardy]

Alec,

Real sweet modification. Just add a plastic gearbox cover as per E-Type and hey presto! It sometimes scares me what people will do to a car either not knowing or not caring what effect it may have on the safety of the car and its occupants.

Quite how they pass the MOT is another question and the DVLA has just relaxed the laws on MOT's for pre-1960 vehicles. Frightening.

Regards