Beej

Steve, did you respond to this thread?

Sorry Peter - didn't pick this up till this morning. I have been quoted a very wide range of values which is why I would rather somebody made me a firm offer. The engine is in Southampton.

As it turns out you are (almost) spot on.. clutch fluid from my (second) leaky slave cylinder - being 4 paddle, the vibrations through the prop are making the diff jump up and down!

Thanks Arnie - working on the assumption that the spherical joints are knackered, that explains why tightening the nut makes no difference whatsoever. New joints then.. is this a cross referencable part or do I order them from redline? Cheers

Thanks guys.. a mm of movement seems like quite a lot to me and it may be that I am within that limit but, assuming I'm not, how is it adjusted? As i said, the big nylock nut underneath didn't appear to want to move. Cheers.

House is on the market so i need to get shot of some spares.. does anyone want a Lotus twin cam. Don't get too excited, its a stromberg head, standard spec engine rebuilt some years ago but not yet set up and run - ie you will have to do the cam timing and valve clearances. The stromberg head isn't everyone's favourite but if you are not too purist and you want a twincam, why not convert it to injection? make me an offer.

whilst on the subject of diffs.. can anyone tell me why my diff makes the most horrendous juddering on take up of the clutch at anything less than 3500 rpm. The car has an AP LSD, straight cut box and recently fitted rigid plate clutch so there is no room for play or springiness anywhere in the drive train. may be its just a feature of such an uncompromised set up but traffic is fun! Not. The problem is, I can't tell if the diff is making any untoward noises cos the whine from the 'box drowns everything else out! Certainly once you are up and moving, there are no driving problems. Its just almost impossible to engage 1st or reverse without dramatically flaring revs and slipping the clutch - not a good thing to do with cerametallic apparently?

what nobody knows? or is it so bleedin obvious that I'm a schmuck for posting the question? hmmm.

Can anyone tell me what the correct amount of lift is at the lower trunnion (for want of a better description) on the front upright (hub carrier) - this is on a 1998 registered (but dating from 1993) Vx race car. Grabbing the wheel, or better still the cycle wing stays, and lifting sharply shows there to be considerable movement at the lower swivel joint. How much should there be and how do i adjust it? There is a great big nut underneath but it doesn't seem to move much. I should say it didn't stop the car from posting some impressive lap times at Goodwood last week so it can't be that serious a problem.. can it? Cheers Mark

boing.. please, anyone? The factory want £330 odd for these wheels but i can get them for £250 if the spec is as given above?

boing.. please, anyone? The factory want £330 odd for these wheels but i can get them for £250 if the spec is as given above?

can anyone confirm that the correct spec for KN Minator Wheels is standard ford 4 stud pcd with an offset of ET24? Many thanks

I'll see your seat squab and raise you 2 perfect MGB door trims been in the utility room since the day we moved in (nearly 8 years)..

you are so right.. anyone want a couple of Lotus twin cams, bullit box, race cam for a Rover V8, 4 barrel Holley, MGB wing mirrors and headrests, triumph hub bearings, brakes, Mk3 clutch etc etc etc? I was sure I would use them one day..

Now i really regret not checking the clutch when I had the engine out first time... its knackered. 2 of the coverplate side springs were broken (hence the swarf) and two mounting lugs were cracked right through (but you would never know unless you took it off) - hence it was only half releasing. Meanwhile the cerametallic plate was down to the rivets!!! How does that happen in 4000 miles? The reason for posting this is that Helix have been really helpful - they can supply an uprated coverplate and either a solid or sprung driven AP 4 paddle ceremetallic driven plate. They say that their version of the sprung plate will NOT let go but I have played safe and gone for solid. So.. I just hope the box, diff and drive shafts are up to it?

good point re testing the master cylinder - I'll try that first, just in case its something weird going on with the master cylinder. The slave came as a complete unit with all new seals and external O rings. There is no loss of fluid and no problem with bleeding the system. The "feel" of the clutch pedal is that everything is working as it should BUT I can't easily select a gear (ie disengage the driven plate from the pressure plate/flywheel). So, if I rule out the master cylinder it has to be a mechanical problem with the clutch itself. I just talked myself into pulling the engine out again didn't I.

Alan, how can I test the master cylinder? I seem to have plenty of peddle pressure and I assumed that I would have poor/no pressure if the master cylinder wasn't functioning properly. A previous contributor seemed to think it was the springs in (presumably) the pressure plate.

err, no. Ok I know I was a complete idiot not to take the clutch apart whilst I had the engine out but it never occurred to me that the slave cylinder wouldn't fix the problem. There was nothing obviously awry from a visual check of the cover plate as bolted up to the flywheel. I feel a complete fool. So, its engine out again huh?

Oh bullocks. The engine went back in saturday afternoon, only to find the new slave cylinder hasn't fixed the problem. Still only got half a clutch - reverse and fourth being the toughest to select, the others are achievable with a firm hand. But here's the weird thing. When it went (which happened just as a tried to slot fourth at Abbotts thus resulting a hairy sideways box full of neutral coming into Quarry!) I found that the fluid in the master cylinder was really low and there was a lot of damp around the bottom of the gearbox front end. The guys who built the car (Taylors Foundry) happened to be there and instantly diagnosed the slave cylinder. It all made perfect sense. I still had reasonable peddle pressure. But it hasn't solved the problem. The only other pointers are; that I have good peddle pressure (so not master cylinder?), the fluid was really cloudy (age?) and I can still get a bit of clutch (?) - even though the clutch plate looked fine. it must be the cover/driven plate musn't it? looks like a might need that upgrade sooner than expected. where do i get an unsprung AP paddle clutch from?

Thanks everyone - just so I'm clear.. that is the "competition" version of the standard Vauxhall cover plate made by LUK but with an AP paddle driven plate (because the standard one has a habit of shredding itself?). Is that right?

thanks for all your advice.. The gear selector rod seal makes perfect sense. There is nothing left of the old gasket so i guess its time to break out the hylomar. I have taken the brave, or foolish, decision to try and bung everything back in the car and get it back on the road ASAP. This is because if the clutch is going to go I want to upgrade it, so i would rather make sure that it has well and truly gone, if you see what I mean. The car is really for track use and evening/weekend blats. However, if, or when, the time comes to change the clutch (the flywheel will get a skimming at the same time) which clutch should I fit? Just to remind you, this is a 190bhp Vx racer on carbs which I fully intend uprating to DTHTBs with engine management and maybe a head/cam/piston change to get up to 230ish bhp. I don't even know what clutch is in there at the moment but it doesn't say AP racing on it! Cheers

Excellent - slave cylinder is out and on the bench awaiting its replacement. I'll give the whole area a clean up while I am at it. It was quite late last night (11.00pm) and I wasn't really looking properly but it suddenly occurred to me that there was no obvious bleed nipple.. is it that fairly large thing sticking out the top/side of the bellhousing? It looks too big? I also didn't realise that there is a paper gasket between the bellhousing and gearbox - how critical is that, I haven't ordered a replacement and I can't see any purpose for it - there is no fluid to seal between the two components? There is a lot of nasty looking metal swarf lying around the back of the block and the clutch cover plate has a nice patina of shiny dents all over it.. I imagine the clutch release bearing let go some time recently and whoever replaced it didn't clean out the crap. (Gary, if you are reading this, can you shed any light on this?). I am slightly concerned about the state of the clutch if there is that much metal flying about but I don't really want to disturb a clutch that is a) in the right place and b) only has 5000 miles on it. I haven't had any problems with it at all.

Thanks for your offer Alan. I have managed to get the engine out (it took another hour and a half -I had no idea it was such a tight fit), now where the hell is that slave cylinder? I presume I have to attack the four large bolts inside the bell housing? help?

thanks Foxy - I just knew it was going to be a b*****d job! Shame too, I was having a lot of fun embarrassing TVRs at the time. Any ideas if the clutch can be converted to cable? Cheers.

Excuse my ignorance. The clutch slave cylinder appears to have gone on my Vauxhall XE (ex)racer. Its inside the bellhousing where I can't see a thing. Can someone tell me if this is a standard part that I can get from a factors? If so, who makes it and what does it originate from? Excuse me if these are really dumb questions but I didn't build the thing and despite 3 hours effort yesterday the engine isn't out yet! (it always takes longer the first time!!)