Chris,
I had exactly the same symptoms on Daffy about 6 months ago - pedal feels fine,
but clutch won't disengage.
The problem - one of the 4 little springs in the clutch plate had broken, and
the little bits of broken spring were jamming between the two bits of the
clutch. The solution - new clutch (plus a new gearbox while I was at it -
reverse gear only had a few teeth left, so it made sense to replace it while
it was out).
There may be other reasons why your clutch is jamming, but I suspect they all
lead to the same solution - replace the clutch. If the problem was in the
pedal, the hydraulics, the slave cylinder, its connection to the throwout
bearing, any of these would lead to the clutch pedal feeling different.
In the UK it's not too big a deal, new clutches are about 80 quid and easily
available from the big suppliers - its money you'd rather not spend, but not
the end of the world. In South Africa - who knows? Also, replacing the
Spitfire clutch is not to tricky, with the handy gearbox access from inside
the cockpit meaning you don't need to pull the whole engine/gearbox assembly.
With the TR3 - well, you'd have a better idea than me, I've never even touched
one!
In any case, I'm glad to hear that both you and the car have survived unscathed
from your near-miss!
Richard & Daffy
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