Chris,
I recently went through absolute HELL trying to sort out the clutch on
my wife's Dolomite 1500! The system is virtually the same as a Spitfire
1500, so this may have some bearing on your problem. The seals failed
and I lost all fluid, so I rebuilt both cylinders and bled the system -
no clutch.
I pressure bled the system - no clutch.
Dismantle the hydraulics and rebuild again, pressure bleed - no clutch!
I was convinced by now that the clutch assembly itself was at fault
(under 1 year old), so I laid the car up until I had the time (and
motivation) to take the gearbox out and check.
When I returned to the job I started thinking laterally. The main pipe
on a Dolomite is flexible plastic, which allowed me to remove the slave
cylinder from its location without disturbing the hydraulic lines. I
held the slave HIGHER than the master, with the bleed nipple at the
highest point. My wife pumped the pedal until the piston was at the end
of it's travel,then I bled the cylinder. Finally, maintaining the same
position, I bled the last of the air out by squeezing the piston
backwards with the bleed nipple open.
During this procedure I got Huge amounts of air out of the system, and
we now have a perfect clutch. I don't know if the Spitfire 1500 has the
same plastic pipe as the Dolomite - I know my MkIV doesn't. The plastic
pipe seems to be a larger bore than the metal pipe fitted to most cars
in the Spitfire family - this seemed to be the cause of my problem, as
the pipe was large enough to allow the air bubbles and fluid to pass one
anpther in the pipe. I've never encountered this sort of problem in any
of the 30+ Triumphs I've owned in the last 10 years.
I hope this is of some help,
Regards,
Bill.
Chris Pappathopoulos wrote:
>
> I finally got my '74 1500 engine put together and running, but my clutch
> isn't working. When I first tried it seemed to have more free play then
> it use to, and it wouldn't disengage. Today I tried bleeding. The first
> pump of the pedal after the bleed screw was closed was not firm at all,
> but after that it seemed solid. I had bled over a bottle through the
> system. My slave cylinder may be leaking slowly, but if it is I think it
> always has been so I don't know if this is the only problem. I plan on
> rebuilding it. Could I possibly have put the clutch disk in backwards?
> What are the symptoms of this. The clutch worked fine when I parked the
> car, but there might have been some fluid slowly dripping out of the
> bell housing weep hole (possible bad slave). Also, how much fluid does
> it normally take to bleed a clutch?
>
> Thanks
> Chris Pappathopoulos
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/ \ William Davies
/ \ Total Triumph Enthusiast
__ __________________ __
/ \ ______ ______ / \ 1959 Herald 948 Coupé Y128
\__/ \ || / \__/ 1959 Herald 948 Coupé
| A \____||____/ A | 1959 Herald 948 Saloon
| = H H = | 1960 Herald 948 Saloon Export
=====U==============U===== 1961 Herald 'S'
\________________________/ 1964 Herald 1200 Saloon
| | | | 1973 Spitfire MkIV
|_| |_| 1959 Standard Atlas Pickup
|