Clutch dis-engage problem

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Wed May 02, 2007 12:12 am

AS you know I am building a westfield SEiGHT. I now have the engine installed and this evening attached the slave clutch cylinder and ez-bled the system. My engine is not at the starting stage yet. I can push the car when in neutral. Put into gear and I cannot push of course. But why cannot push in gear with the clutch pedal depressed. I have the pushrod on the master cylinder pretty much maximum setting, with only three threads left on the end. The pedal is stiff, I have no leaks. When I press the pedal I can hear a small noise and I can feel the slave cylinder piston cover bulging. My release arm pushrod did protrude some 18mm from the bellhousing before I attached the slave cylinder.

What do I do next?

smokeonthewater · Post by **smokeonthewater** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:40 am

I had a problem with my car after it had stood for about 8 years the clutch plates had stuck together & even though the clutch cylinders moved & everything seemed ok the plates didn’t separate.

I sorted mine by jacking the back wheels up and spinning the back wheels and then jumping on the clutch & brakes at the same time. (Don’t know if this is a good thing to do but it worked for my car)
If you have room you could start the car in gear & drive about a bit with the clutch down, keep breaking & accelerating with the clutch down until the plates crack apart.

This could possibly be what’s wrong.

Ed

edit~ p.s sorry ive just noticed that you cant start it yet so neither of the above methods will work. ~edit

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Wed May 02, 2007 1:38 pm

Can someone confirm I have installed the clutch friction plate the right way. At the time it seem to make sense that the clutch is installed with the larger centre bit toward the gearbox. Is this correct?

Post by **katanaman** » Wed May 02, 2007 4:42 pm

I could easy have miss understood your description but it sounds like your plate is round the wrong way. The longest part of the spline in the hub goes to the gear box. the hub will usually touch the flywheel jamming it if its round the wrong way. The plate is usually marked flywheel side on the plate so you get the orientation right.

edit>>>

Just re-read your text and I think you have actually put it in the right way

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Wed May 02, 2007 5:26 pm

katanaman wrote:I could easy have miss understood your description but it sounds like your plate is round the wrong way. The longest part of the spline in the hub goes to the gear box. the hub will usually touch the flywheel jamming it if its round the wrong way. The plate is usually marked flywheel side on the plate so you get the orientation right.

edit>>>

Just re-read your text and I think you have actually put it in the right way

Sorry I got a little frantic and this being all new to me struggling to find the correct terminology.

Basically my clutch did not have writting on it. I have all the luck. The centre part of the clutch with the springs, one side is wider than the other. I put the wider side on the clutch pressure plate, i.e. opposite to flywheel. This made enough sense to me at the time to have felt confortable enought not to check with anyone but since my clutch is not working looking for reasons. Thanks mate.

edit: by the way once I installed the gearbox to the engine. I remove the spark plugs and turned the engine over by hand and even with the gearbox in 3rd it only took 23ft/lbs of torque and that was my basis for being happy to install the engine and gearbox in the car thinking thats a job I'll never have to do again!

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Wed May 02, 2007 6:23 pm

I have just re-bleed the clutch using the 2 man method and saw no air bubbles just to be certain. I have checked all connectors and no leaks.

I have measured precisely how much the lower part of the release arm is moving by at the site of the pushrod and it moves 9mm, I am guessing this translates to about 5mm movement of the release bearing, now that does not sound a lot to me but I have no idea what is should be.

Edit: I have orderd another slave cylinder from somwhere else to see if that sorts the problem.

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Sat May 12, 2007 12:46 am

Installed new slave cylinder and no difference. The pedal travel can only move the master cylinder pushrod 30mm maximum. Master bore is 5/8 and slave bore is 7/8. This in turn means that the slave pushrod would only move 15mm. I am right in thinking that this needs to be 20mm. The only solution I can think off is using a 3/4" master cylinder and that will give me 22mm at the slave cylinder.

russell_ram · Post by **russell_ram** » Sat May 12, 2007 9:38 am

Adam, I think your master dia is too small - pretty sure LR V8 masters are 3/4. Don't see why SD1 etc would be different when the slave dias are the same on both. I have a new one somewhere I'll measue it later. Also have a brand new SD1 slave (you didn't ask that question) - I'll check that too. You also need to consider your clutch pedal ratio compared to an SD1 - if you the point of action of the clutch master is near the pedal pivot then you will have a nice light clutch but you won't stroke the master very far for a given pedal motion, hence no clutch release. What's your pedal box from?

I'm sure one of the SD1 boys on here could have a quick estimate/measure for you to compare with (if they're not all autos).

Russ

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Sat May 12, 2007 2:37 pm

Cheers Russell. After a long week trying to get this working I finally had it working today. Yes you right the LR master is 3/4". The SD1 slaves are 7/8".

Not sure what the pedal ratio is but the Westifleld SEiGHT boys run the standard SD1 slave with the Westfield factory supplied master which is 5/8"

Having taken the original master off it looks a bit worse for wear to me, well the pushrod has been butchered , i.e. length reduced. I suspected this cause some damage.

Anyway today I picked up a LR item and installed and I now have clutch release. whoah!

P.S. I am not sure how the SEiGHT boys obtain clutch release as in theory, mathmatecically the slave could only ever move 15mm and I have been told that 20mm is required. My new setup in theory has a maximum of 22mm.