Clutch Fork ...Sigh....

[whitenviro]

Well, my new clutch slave cylinder and braided hose worked great. For a total of about 45 miles. We jumped in the car to begin an 800 mile trip to Triumphest, headed south. We made it as far as Tacoma when stepping on the clutch I heard a tick, the suddenly the pedal went to the floor. When I took my foot off and let it up the pedal went hard as a rock and wouldn't go back down.

Pulled into a gas station and looked things over. A couple quick calls and I ended up with jclay on the line helping me figure it out. It looks like the pivot on the clutch fork pivot broke, and was probably why I was having gear grinding problems in the first place.

A flatbed tow back home and quick regroup; now we are on the road to Triumphest, but without a Triumph. Sucks!



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1980 Pageant Blue DHC with removable hardtop.

[Hasbeen]

Much sympathy.

Isn't it frustrating when you have diagnosed the problem, put in lots of effort, & enjoyed the inner glow of a job well done, only to find you have fixed the wrong damn thing.

Hasbeen

[Workshop Help]

AHEM! Please, kind souls, the use of the 'd--n' word and others of that genre are to be used in our polite society as an expressive technical term when working on Triumphs and Ford trucks and when dealing with the built in engineering faults on BMW's.

For example, the BMW E36 318i uses a plastic pivot pin in the bellhousing as a fulcrum for the clutch fork. That's right, plastic in a high mechanical stress point. The throw out bearing is also plastic except for the actual bearing. The thermostat housing and the coolant spigot on the back of the head is plastic and very prone to catastrophic failure from heat warpage over time. These are legitimate examples wherein the use of liberal and verbose 'technical' terms of expression are allowed.

I anticipate using a variety of 'technical' terms tomorrow during replacement of the BMW's front brake rotors.

Mildred Hargis

[Hasbeen]

They have been doing it for years Mildred.

In 1967 my F2 Brabhams hewland gearbox used a VW beetle thrust race. In my usually careful manner I replaced the aging thrust race with a new one coming up to a very important race. As I never actually had the old & the new in hand at the same time. I did not notice they had replaced the solid carbon pad on the thing with a modern nylon pad.

This worked perfectly until I had to start the race. With those dog engagement gears it could take a couple of goes to get into gear when stopped, so we tended to engage first with half a minute or more to spare.

After running for half a minute the heat build up in the thrust race, revving to around 8,000 RPM for a few seconds before the start was too much for the nylon, which started to deform. I managed to hold the car with the brakes, against it's increasing tendency to move off as the clutch became more & more engaged.

I made a brilliant start, when the car simply took of regardless, at just the right time when they dropped the flag. It made no difference in the race, as the clutch did not help you get a gear, if you didn't have the revvs right anyway in those boxes, so clutchless was fine.

The first thing we did however, on the Monday night was turn up a brass pad for the thrust race.

Hasbeen

[FI Spyder]

Ford likes their plastic parts. Even after spending millions striving to improve it's reliability, when they had Jaguar they used plastic body chain tensioners which deteriorated with heat and you either replaced them with later metal ones or replaced your engine later. They had mentioned thermostat plastic housing which you replaced with later metal one. They had plastic water pump impeller that disintegrated until they replaced it with different type of plastic. This on a $60 - $70 thousand dollar cars (talking XK8/XKR).



- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Spectatohead]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by FI Spyder</i>

Ford likes their plastic parts.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

My F-150s clutch stopped working a couple months ago. The peddle stuck to the floor. Upon examination I discovered that the shaft from the master cylinder had broken off at the end where it hooks to the peddle. Metal shaft but plastic eyelet at the end. You have to buy the whole master cylinder to get the shaft. Oh and the master cylinder is plastic too.

Jim Clark
'80 TR8
'97 Maxima 5spd

[busheytrader]

Exactly what happened to me at about 60,000 miles on the clock back in 1991. The pivot pin had worn the metal down in the mating recess of the clutch fork.

It had worn away so much there was no strength left in it and the ball of the pivot pin went through the clutch fork. Hence the clutch pedal went all the way down then became locked solid when returning back up.

The silver lining was that it prompted my V8 implant after buying S&S conversion kit in a box. (I never got the box though)

Unless someone knows better it an engine / gearbox removal job. Its not that difficult, it just takes time if you have the space and resources and it'll give you a chance to look at the state of the rest of the clutch / engine bay at the same time.

Adam





TR7 V8 DHC Jaguar Solent Blue. 9.35cr Range Rover V8, Holley 390cfm, JWR Dual Port, 214 Cam, Lumention, Tubular Manifolds, S/S Single Pipe Exh, 3.08 Rear, 200lb Spax & PolyBushes all round, Anti- Dive, Strut-Top Roller Bearings, Capri Vented Discs & Calipers, Braided Hoses, 4 Speed Rear Cylinders, Uprated Master Cylinder & Servo, AT 14" 5 Spokes or Maestro Turbo 15" Alloys, Cruise Lights, S/S Heater Pipes, Replacement Fuel Tank. No Door Stickers. Mine since July 1986, V8 from 1991 courtesy of S&S V8 conversion and big brake kits.