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portokali

Member
Hi everyone, I have very odd clutch behavior.
I recently did a VM to 300 TDI swap on a 91 RRC . I replaced the clutch with Powerspec from LOF, new throw out bearing, reinforced fork, 300 TDI rod, pilot bush and slave cylinder. I installed a new clutch line from pioneer. Have bled the clutch and have a nice firm pedal and have tested the slave cylinder is exerting pressure. The rod is sticking out from the bellhousing and is fitted correctly to the slave cylinder.
I have installed a rebuilt r380 and have started the engine. I can see the input shaft spinning regardless of the clutch being depressed or not. I have a hard time selecting gears and when I grab the input shaft I cannot stop it when clutch is depressed. So basically it seems like the clutch is not being released. Everything is installed correctly, clutch plate, pressure plate. The only difference is that I still have the original to the car master cylinder for LT77, and the pioneer line came with a banjo fitting rather than direct but it seems to be working fine at pushing fluid and maybe the pilot bushing is tight. I am pretty stumped. Any advice on how to troubleshoot this to get the clutch to work? Ty!
 
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Could the clutch plate be simply too thick? Or is the input shaft somehow binding in the flywheel? Too long, too thick, problem with the pilot bearing in the flywheel?
Are you sure the existing master cylinder is pushing the slave piston far enough?
Why not see if you can lever the clutch fork further manually and get the clutch to free off?
 
Stanleysteamer said:
Could the clutch plate be simply too thick? Or is the input shaft somehow binding in the flywheel? Too long, too thick, problem with the pilot bearing in the flywheel?
Are you sure the existing master cylinder is pushing the slave piston far enough?
Why not see if you can lever the clutch fork further manually and get the clutch to free off?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestions.
The clutch plate is the 300 TDI one. It's possible the shaft is getting stuck in the pilot bearing. It was pretty tight initially and it was pretty difficult to fit the engine into the bellhousing.
I like the suggestion to push the fork manually, I can try that to eliminate this. I don't want to remove the gearbox but seems like it has to happen
 
portokali said:
Thanks for the suggestions.
The clutch plate is the 300 TDI one. It's possible the shaft is getting stuck in the pilot bearing. It was pretty tight initially and it was pretty difficult to fit the engine into the bellhousing.
I like the suggestion to push the fork manually, I can try that to eliminate this. I don't want to remove the gearbox but seems like it has to happen
Click to expand...
Firstly some clutch reliners or remanufacturers have been known to put linings on which are too thick. I have a car stuck on my drive with exactly the same problem as yours.
Secondly, pushing the clutch manually, and you'll need to lever it with a bar of some sort, will not free the clutch off and eliminate the problem but it will show you if it is possible provided the clutch fork moves further. This will eliminate the problems of whether the thing is stuck on for any reason as stated above, but WILL show that the clutch fork movement under pressure from the pedal and the vacuum is not enough.
How much free movement is there before the clutch fork touches the release bearing?
 
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Stanleysteamer said:
Firstly some clutch reliners or remanufacturers have been known to put linings on which are two thick. I have a car stuck on my drive with exactly the same problem as yours.
Secondly, pushing the clutch manually, and you'll need to lever it with a bar of some sort, will not free the clutch off and eliminate the problem but it will show you if it is possible provided the clutch fork moves further. This will eliminate the problems of whether the thing is stuck on for any reason as stated above, but WILL show that the clutch fork movement under pressure from the pedal and the vacuum is not enough.
How much free movement is there before the clutch fork touches the release bearing?
Click to expand...
Thank for the additional context, that makes sense to me. It would isolate if its an issue with the hydraulics or length of rod vs binding. Will try it, maybe with a c clamp and a piece of wood. I have probably a few cm of free float before the fork touches the release bearing.
 
portokali said:
Thank for the additional context, that makes sense to me. It would isolate if its an issue with the hydraulics or length of rod vs binding. Will try it, maybe with a c clamp and a piece of wood. I have probably a few cm of free float before the fork touches the release bearing.
Click to expand...
"cm" that seems a heck of a lot to me.
Best of luck with all this.
In my case it is a Chesil Speedster Porsche 356a replica fitted with an Autoshift box, so extremely rare, I only know of one other.
It has a "pull" clutch with is unusual for a car. A company up north relined the same clutch plate twice and I had people all over the globe measuring the thickness of the leaves of their clutches to help!
It now is the right thickness but still isn't freeing off. The garage that tried to change the clutch was forced to give up on it, so it sits on my drive awaiting my time and effort.
As my wife no longer wants to drive the car (it is hers) I think I'll change the gearbox back to a normal manual one in order to sell it. But before that I'll give it a good dose of looking at because it did work fine before it started slipping due to wear and a slight ATF leak.

🤞🤞🤞 for both of us!
 
Stanleysteamer said:
"cm" that seems a heck of a lot to me.
Best of luck with all this.
In my case it is a Chesil Speedster Porsche 356a replica fitted with an Autoshift box, so extremely rare, I only know of one other.
It has a "pull" clutch with is unusual for a car. A company up north relined the same clutch plate twice and I had people all over the globe measuring the thickness of the leaves of their clutches to help!
It now is the right thickness but still isn't freeing off. The garage that tried to change the clutch was forced to give up on it, so it sits on my drive awaiting my time and effort.
As my wife no longer wants to drive the car (it is hers) I think I'll change the gearbox back to a normal manual one in order to sell it. But before that I'll give it a good dose of looking at because it did work fine before it started slipping due to wear and a slight ATF leak.

🤞🤞🤞 for both of us!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the help so far. Will probably end up pulling the gearbox and report back. I suspect either the pilot bush too tight or master cylinder not up to the task.
 
LOF clutches are really not the best. The power clutch even more so.
The HD springs are so HD that they transmit every judder and pulse into the gearbox which make it sound like a bag of spanners.
The bronze bearing is a not the best. The fork and the release bearing along with the clips etc are pretty good but the clutch itself is really not an upgrade.

I bought one and fitted it back in May/June - it's comimg out.
I am on my second refurbed R380, it's not the gearbox, it's the clutch.

I will be fitting a Valeo in the next few weeks.
The HD release bearing, bush and modified fork etc are all available seperately

https://www.lrdirect.com/lr009366-clutch-kit?sort=title
 
I think the brit in canada has made the same comment about the stiff springs in the clutch transmitting to the g/box and buggering it up as well
 
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