Evening all,

I recently bought a Fisher Fury with a 2L Silvertop Zetec, lovely car to drive apart from the clutch being incredibly heavy, so heavy that I've not yet managed a single standing start without wheelspin or lots of kangarooing / stalling. I had a Tiger Super 6 years ago with an identical drivetrain, and it was never this heavy.

I hoped the clutch cable was old and sticky, but I removed it and its fine, the inner moves very easily. So I've stripped it all down and removed the engine and at the same time I'm doing the usual belts, waterpump etc.. painting a few rusty bits, stuff like that.

The clutch that was on it was hard to identify, but after a lot of phoning around and tracking part numbers from it, it seems to have come from a newer Focus or Fiesta, so I was hoping that's the cause of it being heavy, with the springs weighted for a hydraulic system. The only unknown was the flywheel. Judging from images I found it looked to me like a standard 1.8 zetec flywheel.

So I got a 2L Pinto clutch from Burton power, assuming it would fit....but nope - the 3 locating dowels fit into the Pinto cover plate line up just fine, but the flywheel bolt holes are about 5mm further around the flywheel, and a little bit wider diameter, perhaps 1 or 2mm.

So I'm a bit stuck now - I've been searching around for 1.8 flywheels but so far not managed to find anywhere to get one from. Can anyone recommend somewhere that can supply either a standard 1.8 flywheel or a decent lightweight one ?

thanks
James

Clutch looks fine, heavy pedal & on/off feel on an organic clutch sounds like the master cylinder may have a to big bore, check the master cylinder matches the slave

Its going to be a cable clutch but the principle is the same you just move the leverage point of the cable on the pedal to make it heavier or lighter.

I think I drilled two or three holes in the pedal to give me some adjustment.


You can get your flywheel re drilled for the pinto clutch.

Yes its cable clutch, so no cylinder to check. I can't move the pivot point as its already pulling the cable from the very bottom of the pedal.

Ideally I just want to source a 1.8 flywheel from somewhere.

Try a new cable. A worn cable usually wears a groove on the inside of any bend in the routing. When loaded the inner cable pulls into the groove and sticks. If you disconnect and try it, it'll feel fine as there's on tension.

Thanks, I will check it again when curved and under tension - previously I just tested it when it was out the car and straight.


[Edited on 24/10/15 by jameskett]

Another vote for a cable , cheapest option . If you look at the Burtonpower web site they list the various lengths of Ford cables, it maybe you have too tight a bend? Another suggestion, us the search facility on here to check for known working clutch options

A bad cable will often feel like its hard to push down but less pressure on the return or notchy in one or both directions.

It was difficult to tell whether the pedal return was notchy or was so heavy that my leg muscles were having problems releasing it smoothly. Pressing the pedal down was very very heavy too.

I do have a new Capri clutch cable so I might shorten that slightly to match the old cable (the pedal end doesn't allow enough free cable to protrude), but I will try to test the old cable again in a similar bend radius to how it was in the car, and load the end with something heavy, and see if it feels bad. If so I might take a punt on just the new cable and put the engine back in the car with the original clutch. Wish I'd realized about the load and radius making it more likely to stick when I looked at it originally, hindsight is a wonderful thing. On the plus side it does have a new spigot bearing, new belts and pumps, and a shiny coat of silver paint

I live quite near AGRA Engineering in Dundee, they might be able to redrill the flywheel to match the pinto coverplate, I'll give them a call tomorrow.

[Edited on 25/10/15 by jameskett]

I had exactly the same problem with my clutch pedal, i eventually (5 cables later) found the perfect cable for smooth operation.

Part numbers on my cable FKC 1097
QCC 1148
Or BB11148c

All 3 above part numbers relate to the same cable just different makes.

I hope this helps.

I thought I'd investigate whether it was the cable at fault, so I made a mockup of the Fury pedal box, mounted the clutch pedal in it, then positioned it relative to the engine / gearbox roughly the same as it is in the car. I tried the old cable, which was really heavy and notchy, and then I tried the new cable (after I'd cut the outer cover down to the right length) , but even that was really really heavy, not much different to the old cable.

https://www.btcloud.bt.com/?shareObject=f4756c88-be98-f0d6-a8b4-4094 7fdea959


https://www.btcloud.bt.com/?shareObject=5a019341-76f4-a8a8-8a9c-7ed5f89d8962



Also tried it with the cable straight in case that would make any difference, which it didn't:

https://www.btcloud.bt.com/?shareObject=5d9fc5e2-865f-0615-14d8-b5e0e6dcdd97



Here's the flywheel (and the old clutch), in case anyone can identify it. Looking at the back it looked like a standard 1.8 Mondeo flywheel to me, but I guess its not.

https://www.btcloud.bt.com/?shareObject=28c4231b-cdb5-360e-03ae-a1432011923f



[Edited on 25/10/15 by jameskett]