Clutch adjustment issues: anyone had to extend the rod?
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi guys, I'm having a few issues setting up my pre verto clutch at the moment. it's been running fine for 4 years or so, but the master cylinder recently died, so I've replaced it with a brand new one, as well as a new pre verto slave (I was running a verto slave before)

Previously, when using the verto slave on the pre verto clutch, I'd found the rod between the slave and clutch arm fractionally too short, so extended it by cutting a thread onto it and adding two locked nuts onto the end.

With the new correct slave, I did away with these two nuts, thinking it should work as designed now.

I've found, that despite adjusting the clutch up properly as per the haynes, the slave is travelling FAR too far out to get the clutch to fully disengage, and the piston is dropping out of the bore at the end of it's travel.

I'm thinking of just putting the nuts back on the end of the rod to extend it a fraction, but surely I shouldn't have to.......

Has anyone else had a similar issue? or could it literally just be down to a worn plate?

Cheers

Nick

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Worn clutch arm and plunger are prime suspects. It doesnt take much

Edited by Sprocket on 7th Feb, 2010.

whip the arm off the wok and see what the ball is like

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

And check that the ball hasn't bent.

We had the same issue on the metro van. Our arm & ball wasn't particularly worn (tried 2), but the rod was about 1.5" too short. We ended up getting a bend put in the arm.

Is it a genuine slave cylinder??

yea genuine arm AP.

My guess is that the guys above are right, and it's the arm that's either worn/bent, along with possibly the plunger.

As a quick fix I'll whack a nut on the end of the rod to extend it a fraction, and order up a new arm/plunger/thrust bearing tomorow

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

I built mine up with all new genuine components and I found the rod still too short

i made a couple of extended rods a while back out of SS, Nick had one iirc i could do a small lot again if anyones interested

I would be interested in that mate

.

Edited by maccamcvey on 7th Feb, 2010.

I've lengthened the rod on numerous occasions.

ah, So perhaps it's not as much of a bodge as I was thinking!

What I did was cut a 3/8ths thread onto the bar, then screwd on two 1/2'' nuts locked against each other, seemed to work OK. I guess I'll just do that again tonight and see what happens.

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

OK, so I went out to the garage tonight to sort this, and I've finally got to the bottom of it all!

I stuck the two nuts on the end of the rod to increase the throw, and the clutch came back just fine, without the piston going too far.

Took it for a drive, and the clutch got progressively worse over 2-3 miles, to the point where I had to drive it home with no clutch- bugger!.

So, then I had a brainwave, and realised that the 3/8ths bolt/nut type things that hold the standard rocker cover on were the same thread I'd cut onto my clutch rod, so I ground down the 5/8ths head to sit neatly inside the piston on the slave, and used that as a new longer extension piece, it worked perfectly:
Not the best pic, but you get the idea. Rod extended by a good inch, and totally adjustable



Jumped in, pressed the clutch, and it felt awesome, better than it's been in a long time.

Pumped it a few more times, and it went totally dead! The arm was moving more than ever, so I figured something had broken:



Problem solved I think! This explains why the clutch got progressively worse over a drive. It felt like a hydro leak, but no fluid anywhere. This explains it all!

New arm will be ordered in the morning :)

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

:)

too strong for your own good you lol

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"