Clutch & Gearbox

New Clutch Arms

Following a high number of recent arm failures, we have found it is difficult to correctly adjust the arm pivot point clearance when the engine is on the floor, never mind when the engine is fitted in the car.

One turn on the 1/4" BSF adjustment screw on the arm will change the lever position in the slot on the release bearing from being correctly engaged to just allowing it to flip out of the slot to bend and break!

So for those fitting new pivots/levers (or adjusting their old levers) please be vigilant. Assuming the engine/gearbox/clutch is all in the car, then look into the bell housing timing opening (with good lighting) so you can see and be sure a finger is aligned with a slot in the release bearing - with your fingers around the arm tip, you can feel the 1st arm into a bearing slot, tighten up the adjustment screw until it gets tight, rotate the engine for 120 degrees and repeat for the other two arms. When all 3 arms are tightly adjusted into the 3 slots, use a short screwdriver to turn the adjustment screw backwards and forwards - you can feel when it is tight, then rotate the screw backwards(undo) by 45 degrees or 1/4 turn and tighten up the locknut. Repeat for the other two arms. Then operate the clutch foot pedal - you should feel about 1" of pedal movement before the pedal becomes hard and ready to operate - indicating all is set up correctly.

Minor Update!

Before any adjustments are made, ENSURE the release bearing, its housing, and pedal are all into the fully retracted position. Having rechecked a recent attempt, I found the housing was catching on the aluminium "nose" of the bell housing. I pulled the clutch lever right back and the bearing/housing moved back another 1/8" allowing the lever tips to come out of the slots!!.