Hi there fellow Morganeers:
I have read several places including documentation for about how to free
seized clutches.
Most common is the jacking up and using the rear brakes in low gear with
engine pulling.
This did not work with my #3254 which had stood unused for 8 years.
I tried several times to brake the disk away from the flywheel and
pressureplate with no luck.
I did not want to take the engine out, both because everything was
working very well (except the stuck clutch) and the problem with taking
out the radiator on cowled rad Morgans.
I came up with a really neat and easy solution for loosing the clutch. I
will write a complete article about this and post to John T. Blair's
pages, but here is the "trick" in simple words:
All +4's and early 4/4's had a propshaft tunnel between the engine and
the gearbox. This enables to remove the gearbox inside the car within
minutes. Between the gearbox and engine there is a propshaft which can
be taken out for inspection.
When struggling with seized clutches, the poblem can vary, the clutch
can be "rustwelded" agains the flywheel and/or pressureplate, or the
disk itself can't be moved along the propshaft due to corrosion.
My car had no corrosion on the propshaft, but I took out it out and
cleaned it using a small amount of CRC-506 for oiling the splines. Then
I put back the propshaft verifiing that it went all the way into the
bushing in the flywheel, I pressed down the clutch pedal fully engaging
the clutch, whiggled the propshaft up/down left/right a little bit, and
the disk loosened from the flywheel with a little snap as easy as
nothing. I assembeled an tried the clutch, and it was working
wonderful.
This whole job including removal of interior and gearbox and assembly
took me two hours. Easy job. :-)
Moss Motors have a solution to jack up the back wheels with a garage
jack and driving in high gear with engine running at aprox. 1500 rpm. A
sudden drop on the jack should make the back wheels touch the ground so
hard, that the clutch would loosen. I did not dare to try this because I
am afraid of my Salibury back axle and Moss gearbox. They are old and
fragile and hard to find parts for. It could have worked, but who knows
if damage would happen. It is pretty rough having the back wheels
running at 30-40 miles pr. hour and give them a sudden stop in a
fraction of a second....
I don't know if my solution is hard to the bearing for the propshaft,
but it seems OK afterwards. Try this on your own risc, but it worked
fine for me. From now on I shall make a small wooden pole to press the
clutch halfway in, releasing the pressure on the disk during winter, or
better, start her up now and then and run the engine engaging the
clutch... :-)
Best Regards to you all,
> _\\///_
> (' O-O ') EMAIL: Harald.Sakshaug@DataPower.NO
> -ooO-(_)-Ooo------- Harald Sakshaug -- 74160652 -----
> URL:
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