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TexasKnucklehead
Jedi Knight
Offline
I’ll try to make this a Readers digest version, but it’s a long story.
Recently I decided my clutch isn’t working properly. If the car has been sitting for a few days, it seems to work fine when I back down the driveway, but sometime down the road, I have trouble getting into first when stopped in traffic. Selecting reverse isn’t an option. But the next day, it all seems fine. My point being is that my clutch problem may have been quick coming or gradually becoming an issue –I don’t know, but it wasn’t a “bang” sudden problem.
Before doing anything, I measured the amount of travel (with clutch pedal pressed in versus out) at the lever at the transmission. I had exactly ½” of movement and my expert club member insisted it should be 5/8” minimum. I couldn’t help but notice that when the clutch was fully depressed, the slave piston moved so far that it was nearly out of the slave cylinder(pic attached). The only way this could happen is if the angular relationship between the clutch operating fork and the lever had been altered. (-As in the taper pin broke.) And I remembered that only a few thousand miles ago, I had the transmission out for a broken tooth and found that the taper pin had been replaced with a non-hardened bolt, and it was broken. I drilled, tapped and installed a hardened bolt, but I can’t be certain the exact positioning was retained. I didn’t want to pull the transmission again, and remembered that since last installed, the boot on the clutch slave kept popping off. Still, I decided the piston needed moved back inside the slave a little. I had a TR6 years ago with clutch problems and replaced the adjustable slave push rod with a non-adjustable one. Knowing that I never throw anything away, I found that adjustable push rod (that didn’t fix that issue) in the bottom of a drawer. Fully extending it, it’s about ¾” longer than the stock one, and installed, the piston stays well inside the slave during operation and allows the boot to stay in place. But I still had only ½” of travel.
I searched BCF and found only one reference to “clutch travel”, and though it had no closure, it mentioned checking the pedal for wear. After removing the old Spark-o-Matic speaker box, I could see the clutch pedal had at least an inch of free movement before the push rod touched the piston in the master cylinder. Closer examination, I found the clevis at the pedal had become worn and was oblong. The ‘push rod assembly’ is not available without purchasing the entire master cylinder, but I never throw anything away. I happened to have a fork end from the TR3 project that takes a threaded rod (TR3/4 master and slave push rods use the same fork end). Then I took an old push rod, threaded it farther and cut it to length to make an adjustable master cylinder push rod. With this new push rod (pic attached), I can easily get ¾” of travel at the slave lever, but I backed it out to 5/8”.
Anyway, my clutch seems to be working fine now. The repair didn’t cost much and I didn’t have to remove the transmission again. The car has over 96,000 miles, and I think it’s ready to go farther. –But I didn’t throw away any of the old parts.
Recently I decided my clutch isn’t working properly. If the car has been sitting for a few days, it seems to work fine when I back down the driveway, but sometime down the road, I have trouble getting into first when stopped in traffic. Selecting reverse isn’t an option. But the next day, it all seems fine. My point being is that my clutch problem may have been quick coming or gradually becoming an issue –I don’t know, but it wasn’t a “bang” sudden problem.
Before doing anything, I measured the amount of travel (with clutch pedal pressed in versus out) at the lever at the transmission. I had exactly ½” of movement and my expert club member insisted it should be 5/8” minimum. I couldn’t help but notice that when the clutch was fully depressed, the slave piston moved so far that it was nearly out of the slave cylinder(pic attached). The only way this could happen is if the angular relationship between the clutch operating fork and the lever had been altered. (-As in the taper pin broke.) And I remembered that only a few thousand miles ago, I had the transmission out for a broken tooth and found that the taper pin had been replaced with a non-hardened bolt, and it was broken. I drilled, tapped and installed a hardened bolt, but I can’t be certain the exact positioning was retained. I didn’t want to pull the transmission again, and remembered that since last installed, the boot on the clutch slave kept popping off. Still, I decided the piston needed moved back inside the slave a little. I had a TR6 years ago with clutch problems and replaced the adjustable slave push rod with a non-adjustable one. Knowing that I never throw anything away, I found that adjustable push rod (that didn’t fix that issue) in the bottom of a drawer. Fully extending it, it’s about ¾” longer than the stock one, and installed, the piston stays well inside the slave during operation and allows the boot to stay in place. But I still had only ½” of travel.
I searched BCF and found only one reference to “clutch travel”, and though it had no closure, it mentioned checking the pedal for wear. After removing the old Spark-o-Matic speaker box, I could see the clutch pedal had at least an inch of free movement before the push rod touched the piston in the master cylinder. Closer examination, I found the clevis at the pedal had become worn and was oblong. The ‘push rod assembly’ is not available without purchasing the entire master cylinder, but I never throw anything away. I happened to have a fork end from the TR3 project that takes a threaded rod (TR3/4 master and slave push rods use the same fork end). Then I took an old push rod, threaded it farther and cut it to length to make an adjustable master cylinder push rod. With this new push rod (pic attached), I can easily get ¾” of travel at the slave lever, but I backed it out to 5/8”.
Anyway, my clutch seems to be working fine now. The repair didn’t cost much and I didn’t have to remove the transmission again. The car has over 96,000 miles, and I think it’s ready to go farther. –But I didn’t throw away any of the old parts.
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