I posted a while back about pros/cons of hydraulic clutches, in particular a concentric clutch. I have this morning (6.30am) bought a gearbox with one. question is, is there anything i need to do to set it up. It is a tilton slave cylinder and has come from a type 9 box that was attached to a pinto.

It has the release bearing etc, but will it need spacing out or anything or will the clutch pedal just take up the slack?

I have the bellhousing and will be putting this on my other gearbox to fit to my 8v vauxhall engine.

heres a piccy:



thanks,

Ned.

ned

you will only find this out by a trial fit. dont assume the piston has enough movement to take up any slack either have a space machined to fit between the bearing and the piston or between the gearbox and the mounting flange.

but you won't know till you do a trial fit.

timf,

thanks, so i put it all together, bolt up the bellhousing and then look through the clutch fork slot in the bellhousing to see if there is a gap or do i need to connect up a hydraulic circuit to a pedal and see what the pressure feels like?

cheers,

Ned.

ps I thought £40 for the gearbox, clutch bits and prop was a good deal?

you should be airming for the bearing to be just about touching the fingers on the clutch without any pressure in the system.

the concentric clutch sells for about £150 with all the adaptors for the gearbox so good deal.

....remembering that as the clutch plate wears, the fingers of the pressure plate come further out......

The thrust bearing will most likely touch the diaphragm spring all the time but the beauty of the hydraulics is that the fluid is displaced back into the master cylinder giving a self adjusting effect. Don't put it too close or you will lose this facility.

yours, Pete.

Wow, shopping for bits at 6-30 AM !! Now that's keen.

The system has obviously been setup for a Ford engine and as such will be spaced correctly in that application. However, as you are changing to Vauxall the dimensions will need checking. Beware that there is limited throw in the cylinder before the piston comes out and leaks the fluid!

I trial fitted the hydaulic clutch at the weekend with the friction plate and everything in place. I have about 2-3mm of clearance between the clutch cover fingers and the release bearing which i think is about right.

here's a couple of pics:




thanks,

ned.

Your welcome

The method I used was this:-

Push the slave cylinder piston back to the start of its travel.
Measure the travel of the piston on the slave cylinder before it pops out of its bore.
Fit an old, worn out clutch plate and cover.
Bolt up the gearbox to the engine, and measure the gap between release bearing and the "fingers" on the clutch cover.
Repeat, using a new clutch plate and cover.
Using this info, work out what thickness the spacer needs to be between bellhousing and the mounting flange on the slave cylinder.
Also you should consider using a clutch pedal stop to make sure you don't don't pop the piston out during use, or else it's an engine-out job!

You might be lucky and find that your Tilton is already in the right place, but as Stu16v points out you really do need need to check that it'll still be OK with a worn clutch plate.

Cheers,

Eddy