item 1
re. Will's Spit unobtainium distrib bushing.
Will, there are basicly three kinds of machine shops in this wide world.
The first kind will do only the simple standard machining to do a basic
rebuild on your uncle Georges 1970 Valiant. These are sometimes found in
the back room of auto parts stores. They almost never have general purpose
machine tools, or anyone with the training to use them. If they have any
tricky jobs they sub them out. Many of these don't have a general purpose
lathe needed to turn you a custom bushing, just a simplified one for brake
drums, disks and such.
The second kind are heavy duty race machineshops or car restoration
machineshops. These frequently look like dark holes. These have the tools
and the know how to make a custom bushing or almost any thing else.
They may or may not have the interest. These are the guys you want if
they are willing.
The third is a general purpose machine shop that generaly has nothing to
do with automotive machining. These guys make prototype widgets for industry.
They have the machines and know how to make you a perfect bushing. But you
will have to supply the dimensions to the nearest.0005 of an inch. And
you or your automotive machine shop will be the ones who press it into the
block and ream it, if it distorts.
I don't know where you are located but you probably have at least a few
examples of each flavor within a reasonable distance.
If you havn't yet spent a lot of time and money on your present block it may
be simpler and cheaper to look for another block. Good luck either way.
Item 2
re. stuck TR clutch
The first thing to establish is whether the clutch fork is moving far enough
to disengage the disk. Use the hole on the lever that is closest to the pivot.
If they changed the clutch master cylinder at the time the new clutch was
installed, did they get one with the right bore size. (I've made this
mistake myself) Those master cylinders ar available in several bore sizes
and they all look the same on the outside. Some have the size marked on
the side of the reservoir, but not all. A Spitfire master will not put out
the volume needed for a TR6 clutch.
One advantage of a hydraulic clutch is that if you pump the petal fast you
can pump it up.
If you have established that the throw out lever is moving far enough and
the problem is still there, it may be that the clutch disk has stuck to the
flywheel. I don't know how this all started or how long the car had sat
between the time the clutch had first been assembled and the time you first
tried to drive the car. I have experianced situations where a light coat
of rust formed on the freshly cut flywheel surface while the clutch was
presses to it. The clutch would not disengage until we started the car in
first gear and drove it for a block or so with the clutch depressed.
I hope any of this helps/Dick
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