clutch release arm

[barrington]

just going to fit clutch slave cylinder ard the arm had come of the clip in the bell housing any ideas on getting it back in to the clip without taking the bloody engine out cheers

[GV]

There's process which includes cutting a chunk out of the bell housing to get access. Do a search via the rover boys and see what comes up.

[barrington]

cheers i just sorted it cut hole in the bottom of the bell housing good job i did as one of the sliders for the bearing had come of sorted now but got another problem trying to bleed the clutch but no luck i have fitted a new slave and master cylinders.are there different lenght rods for the arm cheers

[Danny Hoffman]

Hi,

Have you fitted the slave cylinder with the bleed nipple at the top? If not you will have trouble bleeding it

Danny

[barrington]

will try that tomorrow fingers crossed cheers

[adam quantrill]

Use the rod off the old master - easily changed over - the replacements are usually shorter.

Bleeding should be incredibly easy - the slave holds virtually nothing when pushed in. However I did have a problem with a new master I bought - when new it wouldn't let fluid into the system so I had to reverse bleed it from the bottom. After a few weeks use it now bleeds fine.

[barrington]

Working tonight so won't get to look until tomorrow the shaft is new as there were lots of bits missing when I got the car as a project

[hallsie]

Itll be ready in 3 weeks then??!!??

Plan 'B' will be available this saturday if not..


Stu

[Avroflyer]

Related query!
I want to remove the bottom cover plate from the front of the bell housing to investigate an oil leak but it looks like the clutch slave cylinder has to come off to do that. If so, it sounds like the actuator shaft can come adrift with big headache resulting - can anyone advise a novice? I've not been inside the clutch slave cylinder area or bell housing on NEO yet - last one was a Morris Minor about 35 years ago!
Tasmin 400SE
Cheers
AF

[barrington]

Yes you have to remove slave first just do it carefully as when my son removed it to change the bolts as they were too long the dust cover was tight on the shaft and pulled the arm off the pivot and the bearing that's why I had to cut a hole in the bell housing

[barrington]

[quote=hallsie]Itll be ready in 3 weeks then??!!??

Plan 'B' will be available this saturday if not..


Plan theres no plan it may be ready for next year if I'm lucky will properly go to wedge fest in my sons supercharged roller skate and let him scare the s--t out of me

[barrington]

[quote=hallsie]Itll be ready in 3 weeks then??!!??

Plan 'B' will be available this saturday if not..


Plan theres no plan it may be ready for next year if I'm lucky will properly go to wedge fest in my sons supercharged roller skate and let him scare the s--t out of me

[Avroflyer]

Thanks B
So if you carefully unbolt and withdraw the slave cylinder, does the input shaft stay attached to the release arm or the slave cylinder? Is it really tricky?

[carsy]

The rod will stay attached to the arm / fork not the slave cylinder. As soon as you take the slave off get your finger over the piston otherwise it will pop out and cover you in fluid.

[Avroflyer]

Good tip Carsy, thanks. I guess it's some string or an elastic band around the length of the slave to keep the piston in whilst it is detached?

[adam quantrill]

I've not found that to be a problem but I suppose some pistons are looser than others. Don't be tempted to fiddle with - especially pull - the release arm rod while the slave is off. As long as you follow that rule then you won't have a problem.

BTW you probably won't be able to see much regarding the oil leak, and even if it's the rear seal, the fix for this is usually to sort out the vacuum scavenging from the breather to the inlet be it carb or throttle body for EFi

[Avroflyer]

Thanks Adam. I thought the leak was from the sump gasket especially having ascertained that the engine was significantly overfilled (see below), but having removed all but the four corner bolts and loosened those, the sump seems securely stuck on. But your earlier comments about oil drips from the hole in the slave bulge in the bell housing pointing to the rear crankshaft seal, got me thinking. It's also coming from between the bottom bell housing cover plate and the bell housing itself. Remove the two 10mm bottom bolts and prise away the plate and an oil drop appears and grows.

Also when I dropped the oil I got over 5 litres out of the sump alone, not including the oil filter. The book says four and three quarter litres total! Furthermore the dipstick was only showing halfway up but I usually have it to the top, so would overfilling it by a litre or more have caused the leak? The car has been laid up for about 8 months and it was when I blocked it up about three inches nose-up recently, that it started off the leak again. That was without running the engine.

I'll check the breather as you suggest - is that the grey cylinder (about 3" tall and 1.5" dia.) at the top of the RH rocker box cover with a rubber pipe to the intake plenum at the other side of the engine?

I sure appreciate the tips - I'm still new to this beast and am scared to remove stuff in case something else shifts! But I guess that's pretty obvious...

[adam quantrill]

Yes the big cylinder. It unscrews so take it off, pull out the gauze and wash the crud off with petrol, then stuff it back in. Next blow down the black pipe attached to the breather to make sure it's clear - if it feels blocked it must be cleaned out. Petrol is my solvent of choice here too.

Next is the gallery into the plenum that the pipe plugs onto. This goes round a corner and is usually the worst culprit. In the past I have blown some cotton through the hole into the plenum, then pulled through sone string, then tied a bit of rag onto the string in the middle and pulled it back through back and forth a few tens of times. All soaked in - guess what - petrol!

Also it does sound like your sump level might be too high - perhaps the disptick is too short for some reason? I would let a bit out and run it nearer half-to-low level. If you come to BBWF you could try sticking someone elses dipstick in (oooh err....)

[Avroflyer]

Thanks Adam. I haven't refilled it yet so I was just going to put in the 4.75 litres and see where it ends up on the dipstick. I suppose I might have a problem here with pump drainout with the sump being empty for weeks...

A bit confused over poking the cotton and rag into the plenum through the gallery - that would mean taking off the air filter intake to gain access to inside the plenum, yes?

Cheers again - the advice is very reassuring. Hope to make Wedgefest - it's car-being-ready dependent!

John

Edited by Avroflyer on Friday 8th June 10:31