I am near the stage where I can bolt the engine to the gearbox but have a quandry as to what to do about the clutch.

engine is crossflow and gearbox is 4 speed box.

I have 2 clutches:
a) curved finger cover, plate thickness 7.6 mm
b) straight finger cover, plate thickness 7.2 mm - I have release bearing for this one.

I do not know thickness of new clutch plate so can't really tell how much life these have.

Also I *think* my release bearing is missing a clip for the clutch arm and I cannot tell if it is worn or not - there is a bit of play but bearings seem to be smooth. From what I can tell, the bearing is different for the 2 types of plate.

As there are so many unknowns, I am thinking of just buying a complete cltuch set - plate, cover and r. bearing so that I won't have to take the engine apart again, whcih may be the case with bad or unmatched components.

cost of this is about £ 73.40 - whicih on the otherhand may be unnecessary if the components are fine.

so what would you do in my case?


(don't want to be taking the engine and all the other bits out again in hurry so would rther pay the cash, maybe recoup by selling off the other stuff ).

[Edited on 2/6/09 by 02GF74]

i,m at a similar stage with my engine & box, i,m putting in a complete new clutch set then i know i won,t need to take it out again,
£80 seems high?? i,ve managed to get a 3 piece kit for my cvh for £45

andy

A new clutch friction plate tends to have about 0.8mm groves in the wearing surface, if their gone then the clutch is worn out. Also the thrust bearings always have tones of play, you just don’t want one that makes any noise when it’s spun, it should also have zero roughness either.

There's nothing stopping you assembling the engine/gearbox and checking the operation before fitting it in the car. Just use a lever to move the arm to disengage the clutch. If you bolt on the engine mounts to the engine and support it you can even run it on the ground, I’ve done this a few times with no problems, just don’t fit the propshaft

[Edited on 2/6/09 by Mr Whippy]