Re: Clutch despair

Bent an input shaft - you are kidding arent you ? Can that happen - has anyone done this ? I'm amazed if this can happen.....

Dave Baker seems to offer the best advice - unfortunately it will almost certainly require the gearbox to come out.

Steve

I'm glad you asked that. I was wondering about it too, though it is something we're often warned about. I'd have thought the bearings would give out before the shaft itself suffered any damage.

Generally it's a per-vehicle question. Some boxes are hard to separate without hanging the box weight on the shaft as you slide them apart, some are easy. Some have weak shafts, some don't. If you get the first two, and a babboon mechanic, then you can have problems.

-- Smert' spamionam

Really only evey applied on cars with a really long input shaft -- such as the Moss box on some old Morgan models.

|>>Draging clutches if not down to the release hydraulics/cable are usually |>>down to warped driven plates -- can happen when the gearbox and engine |> are |>>mate up |>>

|> I dont think this is correct, what is your evidence ? |> I have found it tends to happen when the clutch has a few miles on it, say |> about 50k miles on the |> fords I used to have. I've never come across an obviously warped plate. |> |> Steve |> |> | |Come to this ng back when actually you know something about cars, clutch |disc warping only needs to be a few thousanths of an inch to cause |problems not something you can see with the naked eye.

Depends on the design Older big US vehicles had relatively flexible disks sandwiched between heavy iron flywheel/pressure plate. They were wavy right out of the box, which added to the progressiveness of the release. These were VERY tolerant of disc warpage. If they chattered, it was due to hot spots on the flywheel and/or pressure plate, not warpage on the disc. Imports and later US cars with more rigid discs and lighter pressure rings had more problems with runout. Rex in Fort Worth

Hey Dave, you forgot the "I've bought into the lifestyle, I wont admit the car has faults" syndrome :-) Trouble is, I was too tight to pay for the brain-washing course.........

OK, I'll admit that my sample size of bmw clutches is small ( 1 :-) - anyhow, after the hideous ordeal of replacing the clutch without using a pit or car hoist, I can assure you that this clutch will get an easy time and WILL last - I dont think I want to go through that ordeal again :-)

Steve

I will certainly "Come to this ng back when actually you know something about cars" :-) I also use this ng to learn, if I can, about cars - sometimes I actually learn new stuff - after

But seriously, do you think that the discs are flat to a few thou to start with ? I've allways suspected the cover plate/spring assembly as the culpret although I've not done any measurements or experiments.

I ask you again, rather than just attempting to be rude, can you justify your assertion about the cause of clutch drag ? I am genuinely interested and do have quite a technical background.

Steve

Also warped

Interesting - I have always suspected that the geometry change caused by wear of the plate would have this effect. I've never dismantled a diaphram pressure plate, but by drawing a simple diagram I have certainly convinced myself of this affect. You can certainly feel the increase in pedal pressure due to this change. I wonder if the self adjusting pressure plate clutches ( as fitted to the E46 ) will avoid the drag - they certainly do stop the large increase in pedal effort.

Thanks for the info.

Steve