Stiff clutch

[rbryant]

Does anyone else get this problem, where the clutch gets heavier and heavier over a long journey ... I was driving back from New Forest to Bromley today, and the M25 was very slow, and the effort just builds and builds. Plus the gearchange gets stiffer when hot as apparently many do, so towards the end of the journey it all gets to be very hard work.

Plus I now have left leg muscles like Schwartznegger while the right is puny and I can only walk in circles.

I guess I need a new clutch and some better gearbox oil? It is a 1999 450 and has done 45,000 miles on the original clutch, 32,000 in my care.

[V8 Animal]

rbryant said:

Does anyone else get this problem, where the clutch gets heavier and heavier over a long journey ... I was driving back from New Forest to Bromley today, and the M25 was very slow, and the effort just builds and builds. Plus the gearchange gets stiffer when hot as apparently many do, so towards the end of the journey it all gets to be very hard work.

Plus I now have left leg muscles like Schwartznegger while the right is puny and I can only walk in circles.

I guess I need a new clutch and some better gearbox oil? It is a 1999 450 and has done 45,000 miles on the original clutch, 32,000 in my care.

Mines heay aswell i hate traffic i take it out of gear asap.
I think they all do that sir TADTS.
V8 Animal

[CaptiV8ted]

Mine too. I've been worrying that my clutch may be past its best. I bloody hope not. I was hoping to just use the car for a while without shelling out loads of £££££-except for fuel

It is stupidly heavy though. Shirley you shouldn't be pushing yourself out of your seat to change gear

[blueyonder]

Mines heavy too....97' with 32k on the clock! During the world record attempt at Rockingham we were crawling around the circuit and my foot and leg were aching like hell!!

I think they all have pretty heavy clutches compared to our modern daily hacks

[kevin63]

The problem with the Chimaera and Griff clutch is the actuating arm, the arm which is pressed steel pivots on a steel ball, this has a tendancy to wear through and can become stiff, and in extreme cases burst through, you can see it from under the car if you have a bellhousing with a access hole in the bottom of it, I found out a little grease in the cup worked wonders, and the clutch action was smoother, it can be tricky to get the grease around the pivot area, but if you fancy taking off the slave cylinder (which is easy) then this will allow you to get grease in the cup of the arm and on top of the ball pivot, copper grease would be a good thing to use or high temp grease.

[pzero64]

kevin63 said:

the arm which is pressed steel pivots on a steel ball, this has a tendancy to wear through and can become stiff, and in extreme cases burst through

My clutch was really stiff. Clutch lever arm failed resulting in new lever arm plus clutch. When I picked the car up from the garage I nearly put my foot through the floor the first time I used it, it's so light now.

[WazzaL]

rbryant said:

Plus I now have left leg muscles like Schwartznegger while the right is puny and I can only walk in circles.

If you spend so much driving, it must be the only exercise you get. In which case, it probably is a good thing..

Mine is stiff as well, so I may have to try that greasing idea.

[blueyonder]

kevin63 said:

The problem with the Chimaera and Griff clutch is the actuating arm, the arm which is pressed steel pivots on a steel ball, this has a tendancy to wear through and can become stiff, and in extreme cases burst through, you can see it from under the car if you have a bellhousing with a access hole in the bottom of it, I found out a little grease in the cup worked wonders, and the clutch action was smoother, it can be tricky to get the grease around the pivot area, but if you fancy taking off the slave cylinder (which is easy) then this will allow you to get grease in the cup of the arm and on top of the ball pivot, copper grease would be a good thing to use or high temp grease.

Any chance of any pics to show us non-mechanics where we need to look to get the grease in?

Cheers

[kevin63]

Sorry, I have a Cerbera now for all my sins, and that's different.

[BLUETHUNDER]

rbryant said:

Does anyone else get this problem, where the clutch gets heavier and heavier over a long journey ... I was driving back from New Forest to Bromley today, and the M25 was very slow, and the effort just builds and builds. Plus the gearchange gets stiffer when hot as apparently many do, so towards the end of the journey it all gets to be very hard work.

Plus I now have left leg muscles like Schwartznegger while the right is puny and I can only walk in circles.

I guess I need a new clutch and some better gearbox oil? It is a 1999 450 and has done 45,000 miles on the original clutch, 32,000 in my care.

It seems like the cable with the ball on the end is about to come through the fork.This happened to me.You will know when its gone,because you wont be able to move the pedal a bit.

[rbryant]

Hmm - maybe I shouldn't drive it - the clutch is stupidly heavy and doesn't go to the floor anymore, and only just releases enough to change gear, and I mean only just. I take it that if the ball goes through the fork the car is undriveable yes? Booked it for Austec to do their stuff next week.

[kevin63]

When mine went, the pedal went further down and got stiff, then the gears got harder to get, then after a while the pedal was on the floor and no gears were avalible.

[BLUETHUNDER]

rbryant said:

Hmm - maybe I shouldn't drive it - the clutch is stupidly heavy and doesn't go to the floor anymore, and only just releases enough to change gear, and I mean only just. I take it that if the ball goes through the fork the car is undriveable yes? Booked it for Austec to do their stuff next week.

When the fork goes the pedal stays at the top.No matter how hard you try to depress the clutch it wont move.