Massive Flat Spot

[Longboarder]

Clutch operation was always a bit Fred Carno on the superspec but most of the problem was down to release bearing and mechanism IIRC.

 

Nigel

[Guest deebee 55]

HaHa what a good question Wanderer sounds bonkers eh!

 

You may know or not the history of this car from one or two posts iv'e put on here but this car sat in someones garden not built for quite a few years , twelve we think or there-abouts , for three of those years it was uncovered (polly tunnel blew away ) so it was totally open to the elements

RH in their wisdom cut a hole in the top of the bell housing to allow for the repositioned starter motor ( i'm sure this is where the poor starting comes from when hot )and the rain, with the back plate on the engine having no drain hole the said bell housing filled up with water ,

 

when i first started the car and depressed the clutch the friction material parted company with the plate ..... there was a tide mark in the gear box telling me there must have been at least a couple of liters of lying water in there for a long time ,

 

yes nigel i'd heard the same about the clutch but apart from what iv'e said it was ok OH and the gearbox was full of automatic transmission fluid , when i say full thats what i mean i took four liters out of it...... oh happy days

 

 

Dave

[alanrichey]

OH and the gearbox was full of automatic transmission fluid , when i say full thats what i mean i took four liters out of it...... oh happy days

 

I forgot to mention this when we met up, but are you sure it was automatic transmission fluid ? Remember we have found out that the MT75 takes a very special fluid (called MT75 ) that is supposed to last the lifetime of the car. I haven't looked at mine, but maybe it looks like auto transmission fluid ?

 

And the clutch woes (apart from being notoriously heavy) manifest themselves as a rattle when you are in neutral with the clutch not depressed. It's very much the luck of the draw, depending on what sort of mood the engineers at RHE were in when they fitted them. Some are very good, some (like mine) rattle as though the whole assembly is ready to break up. But it's been doing that for 16K miles so I just live with it,

Edited November 23, 2016 by alanrichey

[Guest deebee 55]

Hi Alan Hope the hoilday was good ,

you did mention that when we met but i have my doubts as its woefully thin for gear box oil , is it RH who said its for the life time of the car or ford because if it was ford and lets say came out of a sierra which were used as company cars and would be doing very high milage then the phrase life time is very different context to that of a kit car doing on average low milage so i dont think the need to worry to much about the oil is that great if you get my drift

 

on the clutch are you certain the rattle is coming from the clutch because if its happening without the clutch depressed then thats the same as if you were driving in gear , (so does it rattle then ) apart from when your standing still there's no gear selected ... make sense ?

[Guest deebee 55]

Al it looks like you might be right about the oil , i've just been looking at one of the ford sites and it appears the general concensus is to use a fully synth 75/90 for shiftability and quietness but original stuff was red

[alanrichey]

on the clutch are you certain the rattle is coming from the clutch because if its happening without the clutch depressed then thats the same as if you were driving in gear , (so does it rattle then ) apart from when your standing still there's no gear selected ... make sense ?

 

Yes, it's not the clutch itself, but if you search back through the forum you will see it is a combination of the thrust lever, the thrust bearing and the spigot RHE machined (not to very tight tolerances) to mate the engine and gearbox shafts together. And I think I do get the rattle when driving, particularly when accelerating. Although it is difficult to hear over the engine noise.

 

But it has always been assumed that fixing the problem was an engine-out job, but now you have proved it just needs it lowering a bit I might rethink about leaving it alone.

[AndyW]

Dave, did you take any photos inside the bellhousing of your clutch / spigot / release bearing when you dropped your gearbox out? If your clutch is quiet and doesn't rattle, then those of us with SuperSpecs would like to see how yours is put together for when we eventually have to change ours.

[Guest deebee 55]

Hi Andy , sadly i didn't think to take photos i suppose because it was so "standard " in other words exactly as i would have expected very much like any other ford clutch iv'e ever seen ..... the clutch fork was a standard ford jobbie the same as the one held in the no 2 dvd the release bearing was also std ford and fitted well ,

 

the operation was v/smooth , the pressure plate was as i said marked borg and beck 53131 but as i discovered it also fitted to many other cars and was readily available under different numbers as well , the centre plate was the standard issue with the pressure plate under that number ,

 

the first motion shaft looked unmolested and had multi splines the only other component was the spigot bush which was phosphor bronze ,

sorry about the photos i hope that helps . Oh and all was tight and gave' me no reason to think it would rattle , the only time i have found a clutch to rattle is when the "pad"in the centre of the pressure plate becomes loose which doesn't affect the performance but never the less rattles however on this clutch the release bearing pressed straight onto the fingers of the pressure plate .

 

And Al if you decide the noise is to much to bear i would gladly come and spend a day doing the job for or with you if you don't mind lying on you back for a couple of hours (only joking ) not about the job about lying on you back .

i need to get some books back to you , how best ?

Dave

[Gusty]

Nice to hear you got it sorted

[alanrichey]

And Al if you decide the noise is to much to bear i would gladly come and spend a day doing the job for or with you if you don't mind lying on you back for a couple of hours (only joking ) not about the job about lying on you back .

i need to get some books back to you , how best ?

 

Thanks for the offer, I may take you up on it when the weather improves. Unfortunately I think the problem might be the phosphor bronze spigot not being a tight fit and it may need a new one being machined and as far as I know we don't have a template.

 

Don't worry about the books. If not before you can bring them to Stoneleigh.

[Guest deebee 55]

Thanks Al , you know where they are if you need them

 

cheers

[AndyW]

Hi Dave, ah ok never mind. I was just interested to see the spigot that RHE made to mate the Rover output shaft with the Ford MT75 gearbox.

 

My clutch is incredibly heavy, much heavier than Al's, the only other SSpec I've compared it to. So much so that I try to avoid using it and make as many clutchless changes as I can when driving. But it's a real "leg acher" in town or traffic. I've changed the cable since it snapped, and covered the new one with heat protector, and the cable operates easily, so it's not that. Must be the mechanism in some way, but I'm not sure what I can do to improve it.

 

Cheers, Andy

[fry61]

Must be the mechanism in some way, but I'm not sure what I can do to improve it.

 

Cheers, Andy

 

 

SPINACH !!!