Friday 21 March 2014

Gertie's Clutch Issues resolved

The recent trip to The Netherlands and sitting in the awful stop start traffic of the Antwerp ring road inspired me to finally resolve a clutch issue that I knew I had with Gertie. 
For a long time there has been excessive play when the clutch hasn't been engaged and when it is engaged the piston is almost coming out the end of the slave cylinder. 
I suspected that the taper pin that holds the clutch fork onto the cross shaft inside the bell housing was broken and this was causing my problem. Although if it was this, then I'm amazed that the clutch would still function properly at all. After various other investigations proved fruitless evidence was still pointing towards the taper pin and after a few days of pondering I decided to take the plunge and remove the gearbox.
Initial viewings of the taper pin, cross shaft and clutch fork showed that all seem to be well and everything was operating and turning as it should. However, when I unbolted the taper pin I found the below......
In a way I was quite relieved as this meant that removing the gearbox hadn't been a waste of time. Removing the cross shaft from the clutch fork took some time and effort, so there must have just been enough of the pin sticking out of the cross shaft to still operate the clutch. 
Once removed the new cross shaft bearings were fitted and the new taper pin installed. I also fitted a new clutch release bearing as the old one had become a bit 'chatty'.
With the gearbox back in and all bolted up I then had to wait for the return of my reconditioned starter motor a few days later.
 The starter motor was then collected from Danbury auto electrics and fitted that night and a very short test drive proved that the clutch is now nice and smooth with no nasty 'clicky' noises or 'notchy' movements. So all seems good.
Looks like we are back on schedule for the HCR after all! Happy Days! 

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