For those of you faint of heart, I can vouch that at least on the '74
Midget, clutch bleeding can be accomplished by two people with some time
and a hose. I'm sure it's easier with one of the magic tools, but I
don't have one of those.
While we're on the subject of clutch drag, let me mention one other source
of clutch problems that may not be intuitively obvious at first: the
thrust washers. When I first bought my Midget five years ago (Five years!
And it seems like only yesterday...), it had a severe clutch chatter
problem. Replaced the entire clutch, and now it not only chattered but
dragged a bit as well. I lived with it that way for a few months, then
finally decided to replace it. New clutch, replacement confirmed good
flywheel - still chattered, still dragged just a little. Fast forward to
this last Labor Day. I finally got around to replacing the engine, and
discovered two things: 1. The old engine had roughly 1/8" free play
forward/backward on the crankshaft (I still can't believe it didn't hurt
itself like that), and 2. The new engine's new clutch does NOT chatter or
drag at all.
I think the two things are related: if the clutch is an extra 1/8"
away from the T/O bearing, it might be enough to cause drag, and, like
suspension bushings and brake shimmy, the tiniest runout in the
flywheel/clutch could be magnified significantly by the crankshaft moving
forward and backward, manifesting itself as one wicked grabby/chattering
clutch.
Just one more thing to think about in this whole mess, I guess.
Michael Chaffee
mchaffee@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
CCSO's secretary has officially disavowed any knowledge of my actions.
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