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Car Forum / MINI / October 2003clutch engaging problem
hello world, I've got a mini 1100 special and the clutch has been problematic for a while now,despite having been fitted in only May of this year.New clutch arm was fitted 6 weeks ago,new slave cylinder has just been fitted,new clevis pin at bottom of master cylinder connecting to the pedal, again has just been fitted. Yet still i'm stranded on the road when i stop and then try to engage 1st gear,it doesn't crunch, it just does not want to budge,sometimes for 10 or 15 secs.All the gears feel really reluctant to engage with 1st being the worst. Reverse however is the only one that refuses to engage without crunching, unless i stick it in reverse before i start the engine, but then it's stuck and won't dis-engage. Common sense tells me that whatever is wrong must be inside the flywheel housing with the clutch itself.Does this sound familiar to anyone? If so please let me know your thoughts. Any reply is gratefully received, Thanks, Brian And brian was sitting next to Elvis in the spaceship, which I thought was kinda strange, but then they turned to me and said: > Common sense tells me that whatever is wrong must be inside > the flywheel housing with the clutch itself.Does this sound familiar > to anyone? If so please let me know your thoughts. Any reply is > gratefully received, Thanks, Try to eliminate problems with the hydraulics before you blame anything inside the clutch housing.  Signature(-AD-) <uniqueid 'at' lineone.net> http://website.lineone.net/~uniqueid/ 'A not-annoying version of Steve Jobs' - Captain Busternaut. > hello world, > I've got a mini 1100 special and the clutch has been [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > gratefully received, Thanks, > Brian I had this problem on my 1275gt. It didnt want to select any gears. No crunching as such, just a refusal to go into gear at all. It turned out that it was an air lock in the slave cylinder. The only way we could bleed it 100% was to push the piston in the slave cylinder right back as far as it would go, then bleed it normally. That gave much better results than just bleeding it normally, dont know why?! By the way, I fitted a 1-pc braided hose and it gave the clutch much more feel. hope this helps in any way chris > hello world, > I've got a mini 1100 special and the clutch has been [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > gratefully received, Thanks, > Brian Hi Brian You don't mention replacing the hose. These can fail internally. Are you actually getting the clutch arm to move when you depress the pedal? And is it coming back quickly when you release the pedal? If it returns slowly, it might be the hose. Also, check the gearlever. Undo the screws holding the gaiter to the floor and then twist the lever cup off to lift out the gearlever. Check the slot in the side of the main pivot ball. It should have perfectly parallel sides. If it is worn at each end it can cause gear engagement problems. SignatureRgds Steve steve@dsnclassics.co.uk www.dsnclassics.co.uk > > hello world, > > I've got a mini 1100 special and the clutch has been [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > in the side of the main pivot ball. It should have perfectly parallel sides. > If it is worn at each end it can cause gear engagement problems. Thanks for the swift replies gents, i had a look inside the flywheel housing today and noticed the 'A' mark on the diaphram was not in line with the marks on the flywheel and pressure plate.Have repositioned it correctly now,but ran out of daylight so will torque the bolts properly tomorrow.As well as this,whilst removing the bolts from around the housing, i noticed that 2 bolts were missing at the back and have since purchased new ones. I was also advised today to remove the clutch arm from the housing, place it in a vice and give it a few solid taps on the top end to bend it towards the slave piston rod in order to gain more 'throw'.This would apparently cure the problems i'm having engaging and dis-engaging gears. However as well as this,thanks to your kind words of advice, i will try and locate,purchase and fit a new hose and also check the gearlever for wear. It's reassuring to know there are people like yourselves out there who are willing to offer advice and be genuinely helpful. After 6 months and too much money to mention, i have no more pennies to count and therefore i'll be back out tomorrow to do the job myself. Have had very little luck with mechanics. Nobody seems to like or be competent enough working on a mini too old(mine's 1980)and i'm wondering if maybe you or anyone else can recommend a decent,honest mechanic in the London area with a good knowledge of working with mini's? Anyhow, early start tomorrow to beat the bad weather so better sign off. Once again your answers have been and will continue to be gratefully received,cheers and all the best, Brian >(Snip) > I was also advised today to remove the clutch arm from the >housing, place it in a vice and give it a few solid taps on the top >end to bend it towards the slave piston rod in order to gain more >'throw'.This would apparently cure the problems i'm having engaging >and dis-engaging gears. Now there's a coincidence..... I had my mini MoT'd on Thursday and had to have a bit of welding done. The guy who did the welding specialised in minis in the past and whilst talking to him he also mentioned the same clutch 'modification'. I had never heard of it before. He assured me it was a Leyland/Rover recommendation - heat up the arm in the middle until it is cherry red, then bend it using a tyre lever, or similar bar of metal. Without further ado he set about it with a welding torch, much to my alarm. I was expecting either the car to burst into flames, or ' Oh Bugger...' as the arm snapped, but he assured me he had done it many times before , and sure enough it did the job. He made a good job of the welding, (and no charge for the 'mod') so if anyone in the Leicester area wants a recommended welder - contact me off list. Tom > Now there's a coincidence..... I had my mini MoT'd on Thursday and had to > have a bit of welding done. The guy who did the welding specialised in minis [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > either the car to burst into flames, or ' Oh Bugger...' as the arm snapped, but > he assured me he had done it many times before , and sure enough it did the job. This was a 'fix' for the early (very early) thin lever arms. They bent. So they would be bent back. However, the later ones were much thicker and didn't suffer the same fate. The problem is really wear of the small ball on the bottom end. The correct solution is to replace the arm, although bending it will hide the fault. SignatureRgds Steve steve@dsnclassics.co.uk www.dsnclassics.co.uk Hi Brian, I was having trouble with my clutch not engaging. I replaced the clevis pins and clutch arm and all is good now. The original clevis pin for the slave rod was badly worn and the ball on the end of the clutch arm was missing about 2mm of the contact face. Going by the information on clutch movement/measurement on the technical pages of minispares a small amout of play here could mean that there was not enough travel left in the clutch arm to drive the throw out bearing...... now that that's good...damn big end bearings... Regards, Barney. > hello world, > I've got a mini 1100 special and the clutch has been [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > gratefully received, Thanks, > Brian > Hi Brian, > I was having trouble with my clutch not engaging. I replaced the [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > > gratefully received, Thanks, > > Brian Thanks to everyone for their kind advice. Finally, the clutch is working now. It WAS a case of bending the clutch arm in towards the slave cylinder and i also removed the slave push rod and (temporarily) have fitted an 8mm socket tightly on to the end and re-inserted it in to the slave.With these two things done, i've got a lot more throw and all the gears now engage properly including reverse which is no longer crunching. i began to fabricate a new,longer push rod today which will be slightly wider and round-ended like the original one.I am fitting a longer push rod,because i realised the rod would go in to the slave cylinder a lot easier if i applied a little extra pressure, thus giving an immediate movement when the piston is moved. Once again, thanks for all your helpful suggestions. All the best, Brian > Thanks to everyone for their kind advice. Finally, the clutch is > working now. It WAS a case of bending the clutch arm in towards the [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > thanks for all your helpful suggestions. All the best, > Brian Why go to all that trouble, Brian? Just replace the lever arm and the problem will be solved properly. SignatureRgds Steve steve@dsnclassics.co.uk www.dsnclassics.co.uk also the part the lever sit's into may need replaceing it also wears makka > > Thanks to everyone for their kind advice. Finally, the clutch is > > working now. It WAS a case of bending the clutch arm in towards the [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > Why go to all that trouble, Brian? Just replace the lever arm and the > problem will be solved properly. > Why go to all that trouble, Brian? Just replace the lever arm and the > problem will be solved properly. Dumb question time, which of the cast iron arm and the steel push-rod ( the thing that goes through the housing and has the arm in it one end, and the release bearing on the other!? ) is the harder material? I know on my GT both are worn to the point where my foot is pushing the pedal into the carpet & I need to do something about them. I've tried to replace the arm but found that the original had been heated and bent to compensat for the lack of travel, and that the slave cylinder was actaully right at the end of it's travel too! So I'm guessing I need to replace the push-rod thingy, or to extend the smaller arm that goes from the arm to the slave cylinder by about 5-10mm... Not really sure what to do, I'd like a nicer clutch pedal though :) Splam, When you changed the clutch arm, did you replace the clevis pins as well? If they are worn there goes a few more mm's of travel. If you put the new clutch arm in and the pins are good (Everything should fit snugly, including the push rod) then perhaps you need to replace the clutch bearing carrier (the one that goes through the housing). L8r, Barney >>Why go to all that trouble, Brian? Just replace the lever arm and the >>problem will be solved properly. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Not really sure what to do, I'd like a nicer clutch pedal though :) Certainly the ball on the end of the arm is heat treated in some way. You can see the colour difference on the new ones. Not sure about the bearing pin though. SignatureRgds Steve steve@dsnclassics.co.uk www.dsnclassics.co.uk > Splam, > When you changed the clutch arm, did you replace the clevis pins [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > > > Not really sure what to do, I'd like a nicer clutch pedal though :) |
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