[TR] Spitfire single rail gearbox clutch mechanism

[Tony Drews]

Check your pilot bushing / bearing too.  My judder (in a TR race car) 
was caused by a worn pilot bushing, I believe.

Regards, Tony

At 05:22 PM 8/17/2016, Stuart Greenwood wrote:
>I rebuilt my single rail gearbox and replaced the clutch 10,000 
>miles ago but I have been experiencing clutch judder for some time 
>now. I was going to replace the clutch and resurface the flywheel 
>later this year but recently I started the engine but when I came to 
>put it in gear I found that the clutch pedal was absolutely solid... 
>it would not move.
>I removed the engine and gearbox and found the release bearing 
>carrier  had jammed on the sleeve that carries it.  It appears that 
>the carrier had traveled too far along the sleeve and cocked 
>over  at an angle and jammed.on the sleeve. Why this happened I 
>don't know because I am using the correct clutch master cylinder and 
>slave cylinder so the movement of the rod that is attached to the 
>operating level should be correct and should not move the bearing 
>carrier too far along the sleeve.
>I noticed that the sleeve could be increased in length by a good 1/4 
>ins since it doesn't reach to the end of the release bearing carrier 
>and this would presumably stop the carrier from cocking on the 
>sleeve. I don't understand why the sleeve is shorter in length than 
>it could be... there doesn't seem to be any problem if the sleeve 
>was made longer. Has anybody done this ?
>How good a fit should the release bearing carrier be on the sleeve? 
>I can wriggle mine about when it is fully back on the sleeve but the 
>movement doesn't feel to be excessive to me.
>The clutch is self adjusting in that the release bearing is always 
>in contact with pressure plate diaphragm finger.  With only 10,000 
>miles on the clutch I don't see how the reduced the thickness of the 
>driven plate would be sufficient to move the release bearing carrier 
>a significant amount on the sleeve or that the diaphragm fingers 
>have bent a little.
>I will check the crankshaft end float to see it that is the problem.
>Any thoughts on this issue would be welcome
>Stuart A Greenwood
>San Diego
>
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