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Section : Clutch
Posted By : Mike Barrett, 01-Jan-2006,
09:22pm
Hi I have a13/60 herlad and have had a problem with the clutch not disengaging. This started just before Christmas when I drove into cambridge (about 3
miles) by the time I was in the Queen Anne car park the clutch would not disengage. Managed to drive the car home by crashing into 2 second gear and
judging the gaps to traffic lights so I did not have stop!
Pulled the gearbox cover off and the slave cylinder is working,. the lever arm is moving and the pivot rod is in place. Was going to pull the gearbox out
to have a look at the clutch but before I do this wanted to check a few other things. I have noticed that the pivot between the cluthc pedal and master
cylinder is badly worn and needs fixing (new pin to start with). But the clutch was working so this wear is not the whole problem!
What I want to do is check that the master and slave cylinder are working correctly. There is no loss of fluid so that rules out a slave cylinder problem
(I think....).
I have had a look at the other topics on clutch problems and the one thing I cant find is the amount of travel the slave cylinder moves when it is
operating the clutch. I want to check this before I have to remove the gearbox.
I had hoped to do this over Christmas but its been tooo cold in Cambridge to work on my car!.
BTW Have checked for the thrust bearing problem but cant see any movement of the front pulley (phew!).
any suggestions very welcome!
Thanks
Mike
PS did raise this on the Herald Yahoo mail group as well.
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Posted By : Steve Cureton, 02-Jan-2006,
07:29pm
Mike
Sounds like you're already aware of the easy and obvious faults so you're on the right track. If both cylinders and the actuating mechanism turn out to
be okay then the most likely cause is contamination of the clutch plate or failure of the pressure plate. The first one is sometimes caused by a small
amount of oil seeping onto the clutch plate and then baking under use until it becomes sticky. You might be able to release it by the usual trick of
starting it in gear with the clutch depressed but this will only be a short fix and it will need replacing soon, but don't forget to find where the oil
has come from or you'll soon be back to square one! Either way it sounds like removal of the gearbox is the way forward.
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Posted By : Chris Taylor,
04-Jan-2006, 12:35pm
Don't want to be a harbinger of doom, but a sudden problem of clutch failing to disengage could be either a break up of the clutch plate or that
the rear crankshaft thrust washer has fallen out. If the latter, sort it out NOW otherwise your block and crank are scrap!
If the clutch does disengage when the pedal is pumped two or three times, I'd suspect the thrust washer, although it could be faulty hydraulics. To
confirm, try pulling/pushing the crankshaft front pulley. Anything other than barely detectable movement (ie you can feel it but not see it) is too
much.
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Posted By : Mike Barrett,
08-Jan-2006, 09:48pm
thanks for the various ideas....
Took the gearbox out today (very...cold) and found that the clutch plate had broken up. One of the rivets had broken (at the penned end) and
fallen out and jammed the pressure plate. Dont know why the rivet had failed the other are loose and the plates are bent. The pressure plate is
damaged due to the rivets and the bent bits of plate hitting pressure plate.
The clutch plate had been replaced just before I had brought the car (about 2 years ago) by Canley Classics(**) and was working fine until it
suddenly started to fail with little warning at all.
At least I have a nice real failure and not some obscure gearbox/clutch/bearing problem/fault!
just hope it warms up a bit for next weekend when I hope to put the gearbox back!
regards
mike
(**) not trying to blame anyone, only mention Canley because I believe they would have done the job propely. I think this was jsut a random
failure. Thought I would tell members what had happened just to share my experiences!
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Posted By : Kevin Rochfort,
08-Jan-2006, 10:32pm
Before you put it all back together, you want to check that the engine backplate is not bent, as this might have been the cause of the
clutch plate failing - especially if you used to get juddering as you pulled away.