Clutch

[Hobbo]

Hi is there any adjustment on the clutch operating lever on a 1938 Ruby, the clutch goes right down to the floor. Thanks

[David Stepney]

Does it disengage when pushed to the floor? With any Seven clutch, there is only about a quarter of an inch right at the limit of travel between fully out and fully in.

[Dave Mann]

The clutch pedal is clamped to the operating shaft and after releasing the clamp screw it can be repositioned whilst stopping the shaft from turning with a screw driver in the slot in the nearside end.

[Robert Leigh]

It's very easy if you have a right angled screwdriver.

[Austin Nippy]

Good evening everyone,
I had just started writing about my experiences of this when the computer jumped to here. Yesterday, the Nippy clutch had lots of free travel and became virtually impossible to engage a gear when stationary. The only bit of "bite" was when the clutch pedal was hitting the back of the engine.

Today has been a learning curve as I've never had to deal with this before and so here is the "wisdom" of what I've found today.

First the car was jacked up and held on axle stands.

The screw head on the left of the car is not good with a small screwdriver as these tend to just jump out when you start to turn it. A "Z" screwdriver didn't really help at all. The screw head doesn't move very far at all - possibly 5 degrees antic clockwise in my case. Whilst doing this, the pedal hits the floor and the oiler inside the car moves.

The pinch bolt on the pedal was undone fully but this alone did not leave the shaft independent of it. There was a small "plug" of soft metal jammed into a small drilled hole which meant they were stuck fast together even after the bolt was removed totally. Eventually, this was persuaded out of its hole and, once the gunge, mud, oil, grit, whatever was disturbed enough, the pedal moved freely on the shaft.

The bolt was done up tight again and the pedal pushed fully down and held in position by a helpful assistant. The screw was then turned as far as it would go using a 1cm flat impact driver screw head in a 1/4 inch socket which had a 7 inch extension running over the chassis rail. The pinch bolt was then loosened off again using another 1/4 inch drive socket with a 90 degree joint in it to gain suitable access and the pedal returned to its furthest back position whilst holding the screw with the socket.

The pinch bolt was then done up tight and the various tools removed.

The clutch is now back fully up and running and disengages perfectly when stationary with the engine running and is smooth (for an Austin 7) when engaging it into drive mode.

This all sounds simple and, in the end, it was. It just took a couple of hours of trial and error trying to find suitable tools and working out what was going on before it all came together fairly quickly. I have previously understood that this can be quite a troublesome process but this worked fine for my car.

I don't know if any of that helps or makes sense but it worked for me and has the Nippy fully up and running again.
Best wishes,
Nick

[Hobbo]

Hi yes it disengages but nearly right at the end of it's travel, the gears don't crunch. Probably I'm being a little too picky, but think I would like to have a go and adjust thanks for the super help and answers. Mike

[Steve Jones]

You can borrow my right handed screw driver modified for just this job, Mike. Here whenever you want it.

Steve

Edit: Apologies, should have said right angled screwdriver!!

[Cliff Ringrose]

Hello Steve.
Have you also got a left handed screw driver of the sort I was always being sent to fetch when I was an apprentice?
Cliff.

[David Stepney]

Hobbo.

If your clutch disengages fully when fully depressed, I wouldn't worry. My RP clutch goes right to the floor before it is completely free and has given me no problems at all. My clutch was overhauled about 4K miles ago.

[Roger]

I too am having a problem with the clutch lever, not clamping the shaft tight enough to stop it rotating.
I used a spare lever on a shaft and found that the clamp closes up before it grips the shaft.
To fix this I removed the bolt, used a vice to close the gap then hacksawed through the join, removing sufficient metal allowing the lever to now grip the shaft fully.
My next problem is to lift the engine high enough to remove the existing lever and replace it with the modified one.

Roger