Fellow Motorheads,
Please forgive me, I am most chagrined. You have found me out. The truth is,
that I have never owned a Spitfire, and assumed that it had a rubber
hydraulic clutch hose, like its big brothers. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea
Culpa. Can we still be friends ? <g>
Julian, Brian, Dave and all the others who thought it, but didn't drop me an
email...I was wrong, I did'nt know what I was talking about. But hey, when
has that ever stopped me ?
So, if the clutch hydraulics are not like a big TR, then they sound the same
as on a GT6. Are they ? I'm sure I'll hear about it if they are not.
In any case the theory should be the same on any Tr, or even a Chevy.
Given that the design of the system works for everyone else's car, we won't
have to consider that. However, if you have replaced any of the cylinders (as
opposed to rebuilding them), did you get the same size cylinder ? They all
look about the same on the outside.
Wear in any of the mechanical connections has a cumulative effect. Check the
clutch pedal, to master cyl link. Is the hole elongated ? How about the pedal
itself, is it loose on its mounts ? How about the clevis itself ? Now lets
look at the other end. The fork, if it is like a GT6, is a heavy stamped
steel affair that rides on a ball, on the bellhousing. Wear itself here is
unlikely, but check these areas. Look for cracks along the raised edges as a
crack here could allow the fork to flex. The throw out bearing end of the
fork should not be exposed to much wear, UNLESS, the pin in the tob collar
has broken away and allowed the tob to spin, causing wear at the end of the
fork. While you are looking at the fork, look at the back side. There should
be a piece of spring steel riveted on. This piece of steel should go BEHIND
the ball that the fork rides on, to sort of capture the ball between itself
and the fork. Often the fork is assembled with this spring on the same side
of the ball as the fork. This allows a considerable amount of space to be
maintained (by spring tension) between the ball and the fork. This space must
be taken up before the fork can move, using some portion of the available
hydraulically induced travel. While you're here, check to see that the
extension that the tob collar rides on, is still firmly attached to the
bellhousing.
Other thoughts that come to mind include: check to see if the engine
crankshaft moves fore and aft more than a few thousands of an inch. If you
find movement here you will need to replace the thrust washers. This causes
clutch problems because the clutch just pushes the crank forward, intead of
removing pressure plate tension. Is the pilot bearing (bushing) in the end of
the crank binding ? Is the clutch plate bent ? (Did you hang the tranny on
the splines of the disc and bend it when you put it in ?) Are the splines on
the input shaft rusty ? Check the pressure plate for even springs (or levers
if it is the three finger type), both when it is bolted up and free. Check
how much travel is left in the slave cylinder. Pull the boot and step on the
pedal to see if the piston (or inner end of the rod is at the mouth edge of
the cylinder. Conversly, at rest, push the rod back into the cylinder and see
how far it will go in. Wear on this rod would be rare, but who's to say some
dpo didn't put a shorter rod in ? If in doubt, as a test, try spacing the
cylinder further away from its mounts ( a couple of washers should work), be
sure to leave at least 1/4" of travel before the rod bottoms out in the
cylinder.
I'm sure I'll think of something else as soon as I send this...
Nick in Nor Cal
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