Selecting first or second gear after the car has warmed up (5 or so miles) becomes increasingly difficult and is almost impossible after say 15 or so miles.

It's fine when it's cold. Getting it into gear requires little effort and only around 25% - 30% of the total clutch travel

To get it into gear I have to really slam it. I can feel the car creeping forward if I try to just push it into gear will the clutch pedal to the floor.

It's als a bit clunky changing from 1st to second when it's warmed up.

Any suggestions as to what might be causing this?

sounds like the clutch not releasing,did you use a cheap recon unit?

I didn't change the clutch, it looked in pretty good condition when I stripped it down.

If the car is rolling when I select first or second it engages quite easily.

How would temperature affect the clutch release?

cheapo clutches warp when they get hot,if the gearbox oil and spigot bush are ok must be clutch.
try warming the clutch by slipping it with the brake on,that way box will still be cold,if it still difficult then its deffo clutch

Cheers Conrod, I'll give that a try and feedback.

Some one else, off forum, suggested that the problem might be the clutch springs weakening when hot and so not releasing properly.

Your test should at least trace the fault down to either the clutch or the gearbox.

BTW, where would I find the spigot bush ???

[Edited on 29/6/04 by MK7]

spigot bush/bearing is what holds/supports the end of the gearbox input shaft in the end of the crankshaft.

Ned.

Cheers Ned

Interesting,i have experianced the same thing with my pinto to type 9 box.
I have a new clutch in but i was thinking maybe the cable isnt set up properly,the thought of pulling it all apart to put another clutch in is not making me happy

Mine did it but it was the adjustment. It was a swine to get reverse with the engine running. Nephew had a problem with his in Sierra 1.8cvh. The release bearing ate through the diaphragm spring. There are apparently 2 different types and he had the wrong one.

quote:

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Originally posted by Peteff
The release bearing ate through the diaphragm spring. There are apparently 2 different types and he had the wrong one.

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When it came to setting up my clutch I hand tightened the nut at the clutch lever end so that the barrel nipple didn't fall out of the retaining hole then I used a spanner to add a couple of turns of tension to the cable.

I suppose this could mean that the clutch release bearing is constantly engaged coudn't it.

Anyone have a recommended set up procedure for the clutch?

there should be a couple of mm free play on the clutch lever,the bearing shouldnt be pressing on the cover

spanners out again then

I had a feeling the setup of the cable was a bit doubtfull

thanks conrodski

ditto

well i've had a fiddle and its a lot better

The only problem i had was that without the slack taken up on the cable i had very little pedal travel,i've cured this by puting spacers on the cable as it enters the chassis from eng bay.
Loads of pedal travel and much smoother clutch now,i'll pop a pic of spacers on tomorow night

I'll give mine a test over the weekend (weather permitting) and report my findings here.

I think I've got plenty of travel on the clutch as I'd previously extended the tube through which the clutch cable enters the bulkead.

Fingers crossed

Yup i extended my tube as well,newer chassis have this as a modification i think.

It seems i just needed another 6mm

[Edited on 2/7/04 by bob]

Not pretty but it works
Rescued attachment Dscn0149.jpg

Hmmm....

I adjusted the clutch to have plenty of slack and found that it ran much better. The clutch started to bite at the end of the pedal travel rather than at the beginning. After a few miles (30 or so) I felt that the bite was getting further along the travel and became concerned that there might not be enough travel to operate the clutch, although this never actually happened.

So I removed some of the slack by adjusting the clutch lever end of things which moved the biting point to about midway through the travel. The problem with selecting gears came back but not as quickly as before.

I'm going to let the clutch out a bit, back to where I was above and see if this works without running out of travel.

I'm at the same stage as yourself,its much better but i'm concerned about loosing pedal travel

I'll have another fettle thurs when i'm off shift and report back

Spoke with my local grease monkey this afternoon about this. His suggestion is...

Take the rubber clutch lever cover off the gearbox / bell housing.

Spay degreasing fluid through the opening onto the splined shaft to make as gunge free as possible. He suggested cleaning it off with an air hose but I'll have to pass on that.

Once the shaft is clean, spray some WD40 onto the splined area then operate the clutch, repeat this a few times.

The WD40 won't affect the clutch friction as is should burn off.

The suspicion is that the clutch plate is not fully releasing from the flywheel because there is gunge on the shaft. Clutch friction material (dust) may have accumulated on the shaft due to grease etc while the engine / gearbox / clutch were being assembled. If the clutch plate can't separate properly from the fly wheel then this'll cause the kind of problem we've been experiencing.

I'm going to give this a go this weekend...

A problem with using the Sierra clutch mechanism is that you tend to loose some of the pedal travel with how the pedals are mounted, you can overcome this by fitting a granada quadrant (CPR6) this pulls the cable more for the same amount of pedal movement. You'll see the difference in the depth of the channel where the cable runs, on the 'standard' Sierra quadrant (45mm) it's deep into the quadrant, on the Granada one (55mm), it's only just underneath the ratchet teeth.
Cost is around £5 from your local car accesory shop (NOT Uncle Henry's!)

Jimbo,

thanks for the input. The MK pedal set doesn't use a quadrant just the pedal revolving on a bush.

I'm pretty sure I'm getting enough travel judging by where the bite is and the amount of travel beyond that.

Thanks anyway

Has anyone come up with a good solution?
Cheers John