And kept going... my new motor that is

Had good oil pressure before I started it and is maintaining it and no oil leaks that I can see.

But I got clutch problems.
When I put the clutch pedal to the floor the engine drops a few revs and if I start to select a gear the revs drop some more.

I have the flew and by brain hurts when I try to think about it.

Any clues?

Tim

Congratulations
Now to your clutch - the clutch adjustment has to exactly right or the clutch won't work. Not enough adjustment and it wont work and too much adjustment and it wont work. What you need to do is to sit down and read (or re-read) the manual on this. Then get your mother/father/sister/brother/wife or GF to read it and then get them to explain to you what they think it says.

The manual is a trifle confusing and once you see it done the first time its easy ever after. It all revolves around the clearance distance, at rest, between the clutch housing and the two large nuts on the throw out bearing shaft.

You do need to be quite sure you assemble the clutch correctly and that the clutch plate is in the right way around.

Dont rush it, get over your "flew" first before you worry about the car, not worth stuffing it at this stage.

OK,

Like I said I can't think so I just fiddled.
The slave cylinder is pushing the arm in and out ok (Lots of movement).
I did read somewhere to remove the spring then pull the lever thingy until
it makes contact with the thrust plate. Then adjust the little bolt so there's a
little bit of clearance at this point. When I do this the clutch kinda works but
soon as I start to release the clutch she wants to go.

Well that's as far as I got so I'll go and tell everbody to read about the mini clutch.

sounds like the arm (stop/rest) adjustment. If the gap is too big you won't be able to select gears. Back off the big nut/s in the centre of the hat before you try adjusting this as they may stop you fully disengaging clutch (if clutch is new or engine rebuilt).

I adjust by pulling out arm by hand (with spring removed) and turn adjuster by hand till it's flush, then screw back in about 2 flats (1/3rd of a turn) when I don't have feelers handy.

After adjusting, I put car in gear (engine stopped) and push clutch in, then make sure I can push the car. If not then maybe work the clutch a few times to push the piston forward. I sometimes bleed the clutch a bit to get it moving.

Try again and if car rolls then I let clutch out a little to find friction point & check if this is where I think it should be.

If this is ok then it's time to re-set the big nut stop in the centre of the hat...

Cheers

Daniel

_________________
Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

thanks for the pm mate,

Are you able to put the clutch in and select a gear when the engine is running? If you can't, your clutch could be siezed like mine was. is this the case?

DOZ,
Thanks I'll try in the morning.

AUSSIE,
It wouldn't go into gear at first but I managed to adjust it enough to enable gear selection but the clutch engaged as soon as I lifted my foot. Either it was in or it was out, no travel to speak of.

Did a search through the forum and found people with similar clutch problems.

I found something to try to get extra travel, which is to remove the pin at the top of the arm. Put the pin back in and let plunger arm coming out of the slave cylinder rest against the outside of the pin which gives an extra 1/4" travel. When I did this the clutch pedal felt normal and I was able to select 2nd, 3rd, 4th and reverse quite easily. I am unable to select 1st with the engine running, does it require more clutch movement than other gears?

I'm going to try bleeding the clutch in case this is why I'm not getting enough travel.

Other than that I think all the pins are worn and the ball at the end of the lever looks worn on one side I'm presuming it is symetrical when new?

Strangely though it all worked before the rebuild.

In this case the arm is bent or the ball end of it is worn or the socket in which it goes is worn. The straighter the arm is in the static position (with the foot off the pedal) the less movement it has.

ie. you want the arm to be closer to the slave cylinder for the best travel, this is becasue it travels in an arc and this gives it a 'rising rate' which makes travel longer.

I have seen people bend the arm over to the correct angle in a vice. This means bent on the ball end. This will work for a couple of weeks as it has already lost it's strength so will just bend back again.

I have also seen people weld extra length to the pushrod, this also is an incorrect fix as it shortens the effective stroke of the clutch as described above.

Have a look at the ball end and see the wear and also look into the socket and check wear also.

The worst scenario is to have all these things worn and bent, the clutch even correctly adjusted will not work well.



It makes no difference which gear you select from the clutch point of view, however you may have difficulty for some other reason (worn gearbox) and the first gear is harder to select anyway.

Daniel

_________________
Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

This is my clutch lever, is it meant to be bent or has somebody done this to get more travel?


This pic shows the wear on the ball, is it excesive?


Are the new ones straight, if so will I need a new push rod?

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arm has been bent between top and adjuster pad, it's not meant to be, should look like this



or this

http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx?pid=32882


You can see yours is bent in two places, one easy to see the other not so obvious but I'll explain if I can.

On the right of your pic where the ball is draw an imaginary line through the centre of the ball to the centre of the pivot and combine this with another line through the centre of the arm itself. Look at the angle either side of main pivot and you can see it's getting close to a straight line.

It should be more angled like the ones shown but has bent to this point from either age/use or from the big nut stop being incorrectly adjusted.

They have bent the top to compensate but the bottom will only bend more, it's already lost it's strength.

the wear is another problem and you can sometimes repair by welding and filing but given it's bent already this would probably be a waste of time. Look into the plunger hole where the ball fits and you'll find it's worn too.

Daniel

_________________
Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

Well I better get a newby.

Thanks for your help

_________________

Got a new clutch lever and clevis pins but it still hasn't fixed the problem,
I'm getting frustrated now what else could be wrong?

_________________

Did the clutch get overhauled with the new engine

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"Show me the Mini!"

Put a new secondhand clutch kit in it and new thrust bearing.
Someone mentioned that you can put the clutch plate in the wrong way round but I'm sure I found it could only go in one way.

This is how I've adjusted the clutch so far:

1. Remove the slave cylinder spring.

2. Pulled the arm out away from the engine until the bearing made contact with the pressure plate.

3. Wound out the stop bolt to meet the arm then backed it off to give 0.5mm clearance.

4. I have completely wound out the other stop nuts on the bearing carrier making them redundent.

The pedal feels good like I'm getting plenty of solid travel but its still not disengaging the clutch enough to select 1st easy and the clutch engages as soon as start to lift my foot.

Can anyone measure the movement of their carrier bearing when they opperate their clutch? I will check mine to see how it compares.

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The little annoying things of british cars

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Roundies Rule !!!