The V8 Owners Forum -

I can't get my clutch slave cylinder to fit. It appears the pushrod is too long. Ths is really odd because it used to fit.

Here's the history....

Fitted my R380 box to my 3.5L RV8 followed by clutch slave cylinder. No problem.

Found out that the R380 had the wrong input pinion, so dismantled the gearbox / bellhousing and had the correct V8 pinion fitted. Put it all back together and now the slave cylinder will not fit flush with the bell housing - there is about a 17mm gap and I can't push things any further in because the piston has been pushed right back.

When reassembing, I checked and double checked the clutch plate was fitted the right way round and the clutch fork was correct on the pivot post. I can move the pushrod back and forth by hand and the release bearing carrier moves about 5mm between the clutch forks and the gearbox front. So everything looks and feels right until I fit the slave cylinder and the pushrod is going right to the back of the cylinder until it can go no more, but as stated above, there's another 17mm to go.

Without the slave cylinder in place, there's about 55mm of pushrod length sticking out from the face of the bellhousing and lining the slave cylinder up to it clearly shows it's too long.

Totally stuck. So I'm going to have to take the engine / box out of the car again and take it all apart to have a look, but any thoughts on what might be the issue ? It just doesn't add up. Is the slave cylinder piston a cup shape which the pushrod locates in and I've not lined it all up right ? I doubt it. Changing the input pinion won't make a difference because it's the same length, but the splines are shorter. I've not changed the clutch pressure plate, so the forks are going to be in the same place.

I could shorten the pushrod by 17mm, but this doesn't explain why it usd to fit and could this sort of action result in problems during operation ?

Alex

Just a thought but could it be that before your bellhousing wasn't going home properly because the splines were hitting? Now that it is bolting up properly the distance is shorter so the pushrod is too long.

Another thought. Pack the slave out with washers and get the clutch working. If something needs to settle then it will and you can remove the spacers. If it doesn't change then you can go ahead and shorten the push rod. Just saves taking it all apart again.

I managed to get the bellhousing flush with the previous input pinion, just used loads of grunt to get it there. Now it slides home fine with the new pinion. I'll try spacing out the clutch clave cylinder and see if I can get it working.

Alex

I don't know what the thrust bearing looks like in this application but some have been fitted back to front and caused problems

Ian

Got this problem sorted out.
When I had the input pinion changed, they also changed the casting that fits on the front of the box that the pinion passes through. The pivot post mounting point is further away from the face of the box than before, hence the offset.

A shorter pivot post should do the trick.

Alex