Somethings given up...ideas please?
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi All,

Well after 4 yours and finally finding a bit of time to get the Mini back on the road its been rather short lived! MOT went great, car fully serviced and running well but i know it was lean so took it to get a tune up on the rolling road.

Anyhow it seemed to do pretty well, it was lean so needed a lot of work to the needle and got good power for a pretty standard 1293 NA just an SW5 cam, air filter and exhaust above standardspec!

Anyhow on the last run something gave up on the clutch which means i now cant get any gears and had to get the car home stuck in 1st (luckily i dont live far away!)

Symptoms are that master and slave appear to be working fine and the arm is moving and hitting the stops. All gears can be selected when engine is off no problem! As soon as its running it no gears can be selected and something sounds like its rattling round in the clutch housing when at tick over! Dissapears on revs. At one point the clutch did seem to work for a second but then gave up again!

Will pull it out over the next few weeks and take a look but before I do any guesses on likely causes?

Thanks
Andy

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Edited by Andy500 on 17th Jul, 2018.

No point guessing really, pop the wok off and have a look first of all. Sounds like something release bearing related perhaps.

Yeah, the rattle stops when i depress the clutch as well! Can i pull the wok off without lifting the engine out? Cant remember as its been about 10 years since i last took one off!

Yes, disconnect the exhaust and clutch side steady (and front /rear lower clutch side steadies), engine mount bolts, and jack her up. Watch for radiator contacting inner wing. If you didn’t notch the bottom two PITA bolt holes in the wok, do so before re-installing, so you can wind the bolts in until they have a 11mm gap, and you can drop the Wok down in there. Absolutely the best thing you can do is to drill a few 20-25mm holes in the side of the subframe that aligns with the PITA bolts; easiest way is to make a paper template on the inside of frame referencing engine mount holes, then move to outside and drill thru with a hole saw or cone/step drill.

Edited by TurboDave16V on 17th Jul, 2018.

Good advice, thanks for the help TurboDave...my jobs for the weekend sorted then!

Ball on the end of the clutch arm bent/come off maybe? Not getting enough travel to disengage?

I'd check that first

Ball fallen off then end of the clutch arm?

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Primary Gear seized on crank?

Mine did this after being stood for a long time.

If you can, try putting it gear and pressing the clutch in then starting it. It might free it off. This worked for me but only for a short period and it ended needing a new brass bearing machining.

Also had the ball snap off the arm too so went back to and old shitty one I had as i think there is a poor batch of new ones kicking about.

Edited by MikeRace on 19th Jul, 2018.

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

I did try starting in gear with clutch in but it just drives the car forward! That’s how about had to get it home! Starting in gear! I took the slave cylinder etc off earlier and the plunger does seem rather loose so may be the ball, it moves quite a lot very easily is that normal? it’s like there’s nothing on the other end of it!
Will try together wok off this weekend and take a look too

Sounds like it is the ball. Easy to check.
It’s never a bad thing to have a spare arm on-hand, and as someone mentioned, the ones from back in the day are definitely a lot better than the ones made a few years ago. I’m not sure about current production ones however, but the verto arm I got recently seems ok (but there is a lot less load on the shorter arms).

Edited by TurboDave16V on 20th Jul, 2018.

So, finally got the wok and clutch off today and the problem is pretty obvious! It looks like one of the bolts that holds the pressure plate together has backed it self out and then caught one of the springs on the friction plate, ripped it to its and ripped the remaining threads out of the pressure plate! Hopefully pics will upload and this was how it came apart! 3 of the remaining bolts in the pressure plate could also be loosened by hand so I guess it was a poor build! It’s disappointing as the engine etc was put together by a very well known builders!
So good news is it looks like it just needs a clutch plate and pressure plate. What’s the best one to get? It’s not a stupid power engine. The flywheel and housing are off an injection by the looks and all in very good condition still. Current pressure plate has a green spot on.
Cheers
Andy

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