VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 '28 clutch problems

Hi folks, the clutch in my '28 was very grabby due to previous owners bad welded repair to the pressure levers.

I've resurfaced the ends of all of the levers and they are all identical height each end now.

The pressure plate (clutch cover) is now assembled and fitted into a spare flywheel with three equally spacers placed equally in place of the friction plate, these spacers are all within .001" of each other.

My problem is that the pivot pins and holes have a bit of wear, which means the throw-out sleeve makes uneven contact, which is exactly the problem I was trying to fix.

Unlike every other non diaphragm clutches I've come across, there is no means of adjusting the levers that I can see apart from making spacer shims to put under the lifting tab bolts.

A tiny shim makes a lot of difference the other end, and proper adjustment is going to be almost impossible to achieve.

Hard to believe these were a throw away part that were factory adjusted for life, can't find any info on this at all.

Someone must have a fix for this, any suggestions gratefully received.

Bernard

Maybe you could use brass shim stock to put around the pins to take up some of the slack. This is what I did on Lurch's distributor retard/advance rod (see pic below).

Cheers, Dean

Good suggestion Dean, and it works in that application, but the forces involved during clutch release would shred brass shim stock almost immediately, the mechanical advantage over foot pressure that the linkage gives is quite amazing.

Is it possible to bore out the holes for oversize pins? Or bush them back to standard and install new pins?

No doubt that's possible but where would I start, not knowing the original C/L of the pin holes in the cover or in the levers?

Some special tooling setup, lost in the mists of time, must have been used to bore the cover holes.

Given the methods used at the time, I can't believe there isn't a quick fix that I haven't spotted yet.

How would service shops back then have tackled a problem like this for a thrifty customer other than order a new clutch cover?

I think the best place to start would be a good reputable machine shop. It's amazing how some with experience can make what seems to us next to impossible a simple job.

Yeah, a trusted machine shop should be able to offer suggestions. Maybe they can put cast iron sleeves in the pin holes and bring them back into specs. Like they do with valve stem holes in heads.

Keep us posted on your solution.


Dean

Thanks chaps, yes bigger pins is one option I've considered .

I have two retired tool room machinists as neighbours, one has a fully equipped workshop, and is capable of making or repairing anything made of metal.

We have talked about this and they are as baffled by the lack of adjustment as I am.

Although it is possible to fit oversize pins, we reckon that the preferred option would be making four simple adjusters, to fit in place if the lifting tabs.

This would be an easier and a better job that I could machine myself, I have a lathe and a shaper.

But why was it made without adjustment?