Fitting a Superclutch to a Vx - moved from Wanted

[Paul Deslandes]

As ECR says, the internal hydraulics seem to be a constant cause of grief and you have to remove the engine to do anything. At least this way you can remove the cylinder with only minor loss of skin off the hands and, if all else fails, can go back to cable operation = all without removing the engine.

 

I have a Pace dry sump rather than the Titan belltank so I'm marginally less congested in that area. Even so its pretty cramped and I'm considering whether to fit the clutch slave cylinder before putting the engine back in or removing the induction so I can get at it and do it with the engine in situ.

 

 

[Harry Flatters]

I dumped the internal (bellhousing) clutch slave cylinder after having to remove the engine 3 times due to leaks. It as an elegant solution but just too impractical from a servicing point of view.

 

*arrowright*Harry Flatters *arrowright*

AKA Steve Mell - EO and Su77on Se7ener

[captain chaos]

Ok I hear what you say..but (touchwood) the superclutch unit I have has been very good for me, no problems at all and all I have is an hydraulic line into the top of the std bellhousing. I too had the integral caterham dry sump system which too had seal issues which is why I made the change to this unit.

[Paul Gibb]

I'm quite happy with a superclutch supplied hydraulic slave situated within the wet sump bellhousing (mind you I do check & change the seals regularly) and have been running with it for several years with no problems

 

L7 FUN

[Gambo]

I also used a superclutch slave cylinder. It failed me once in 4 years. So not too unreliable, but then I only ever did about 1000miles a year.

[captain chaos]

i wonder if running the unit inside the std bellhousing on the nose of the gearbox (therefore no hot oil actually in the casting) helps the seals to run for longer. My unit is spaced atleast 3 or 4 inches from the gearbox so I bet it is a lot cooler.

[Harry Flatters]

Difficult to know why one internal slave is more reliable than another . I do know that on mine I used to get a lot of aluminium pick-up from the piston moving on the sleeve because the clutch fluid would turn grey (aluminium suspension) very quickly even after changing the fluid.

 

When I asked SBD about this they said TADTS, so it may be unrelated to my problems.

 

*arrowright*Harry Flatters *arrowright*

AKA Steve Mell - EO and Su77on Se7ener

[Paul Deslandes]

Interestingly the CNC cylinder is anodised inside and out so the surface is a lot harder than 'raw' aluminium.

 

 

[DaveK]

On the hydraulic concentric slave cylinder, Super clutch advise the use of a basic dot 4 fluid not dot 5.1 as this is too "dry" which causes the seals to wear.

 

I used one on the vx with 4kg flywheel / clutch assembly with the stiffest clutch springs available and it still drove like a road car.

 

Dave

[captain chaos]

Good point that Dave as I'm just about to put some fluid in mine....

[Harry Flatters]

Super clutch advise the use of a basic dot 4 fluid...

Did that Dave, and it made the square root of naff-all difference ☹️.

 

My final conclusion was that theis particular concentric slave cylinder (from Burtons) was just under engineered for a high stress installation. If the cylinder bore had been 'hard' anodised, then the seal / aluminium pick-up problem would have been pretty much eliminated.

 

If I was having these problems today, I would try getting the aluminium components anodised before chucking out the solution entirely. But, at the end of the day, it is still a high maintenance solution if things do go wrong.

 

*arrowright*Harry Flatters *arrowright*

AKA Steve Mell - EO and Su77on Se7ener

[Paul Deslandes]

Clutch now installed and running .

 

After fierce initial bite, its now bedded in and drives almost like a standard clutch. The overall mechanical advantage, including the fork and the hydraulics, is approximately 4.25:1, i.e. the master cylinder rod moves 4.25mm for 1mm of crb travel. Although this results in a lot of pedal travel it does mean the clutch is very drivable and not at all heavy in traffic. The only way to vary it would be to increase the size of the master cylinder from 5/8 to 0.7 or 0.75 inch which would reduce the MA to about 3.4 and 3:1 respectivley.

 

Thanks to ECR for measuring the fork after I'd stupidly put the whole thing back together without doing so, and to Steve for the idea of using the external pull type slave (and to Daren for selling me his cylinder) *thumbup*

 

 

[k80rum]

Glad to read everything's together and working as it should be Paul

 

Darren E

 

K80RUM Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

 

[ECR]

Not yet quite finished but the Quartermaster 5 1/2" pro clutch is now installed. In the absence of any detailed Quartermaster installation notes I am following the instructions for the Superclutch version (they originaly supplied the unit).

I am staying with my cable setup and Superclutch insist that a pull back spring be fitted to the clutch arm to maintain a 1mm (approx) running clearance. I fabricated an angle bracket and fixed it to the top of the gearbox using one of the existing M6 lid fastenings ( I have an Alloy gear case) and then shortened and re bent the (now removed) clutch pedal return spring and slotted it through the arm and back to the bracket.

At that stage any adjustment to the cable simply raised the clutch pedal rather than moving the arm towards the clutch so I welded a stop to the clutch pedal (after the fashion of the stop on the accelerator pedal which stops it moving too far up) and this has worked well. The clutch pedal, whilst not light, is not too bad and I can now experiment by moving the cable fixing point down the pedal to lighten it further.

It all looks as if it might work, and I can change a cable faster than you can change seals in an hydraulic cylinder 😬

 

 

Ex Chairman Roger

 

Edited by - ECR on 25 Aug 2008 21:02:58

 

Edited by - ECR on 25 Aug 2008 21:04:47

 

Edited by - ECR on 25 Aug 2008 21:37:59