Clutch movement on my new 31 saloon

[Mk1mickey]

Good Evening all,

I picked up my new 1931 box saloon 4 days ago!

Being a 21 year old, and having learnt to drive in a modern day Corsa, but have owned 50s and 80s cars, the 7 is quite a difference  espicially the clutch. 

The clutch in my car seems to be incredibly bad. It has the 3 speed box out of a 32, and i have now got used to double declutching down. However I cannot cleanly select 1st or reverse without crunching. 

I cannot believe this is correct? 

Further the movement on the pedal is about 1/2 an inch, and doesn't fully disengage. 

Is there any adjustment you can do with the box in the car? Or will this be an engine and box out and inspection?

Kind regards,

Mike

[bob46320]

yep - All sounds about right. Mine always crunches into reverse, sometimes slightly better if I engage first and then reverse. The only things I can suggest are idling speed of your engine set too high, check the oil in the gearbox that it is not too thick a grade. Read down towards the end of the following site where it states that SAE 30 engine oil used to be the correct grade, but I as many others prefer a straight SAE 90. Clutch pedal movement is very small, 1/2" is quite generous. How do you mean, fully disengage - does the clutch slip ? Read the article as it may answer some of your questions.

http://www.austin7club.org/How%20To%2014.htm

BobH

[Ian Williams]

It is possible that the clutch levers are set too low, this can cause the clutch to drag and not release properly. however it is an engine out job to check and correct.

[Mk1mickey]

Thanks for the reply. I don't quite believe the clutch is slipping however this is my best effort at explaining the symptoms:

When I select 1st with the clutch flat against the floor panel, the car wants to move and the engine revs start to die... therefore when coming to a stop and pushing the clutch in, the engine dies without increase in revs. It won't select 1st without much grinding which can't be correct surely.

Ian Williams: when you say the levers are too low, is that the foot pedal itself is to close to the floor panel?

Cheers

[Ian Williams]

No, it is the toggle levers in the clutch I am referring to, the cornwall, bristol and dorset clubs all have good technical sections on their web sites which may give you some more insight into what I am suggesting. The clutch petal on a three speed box is held to the shaft by a cotter so can not be adjusted.

[john williams]

Mike, this is common problem with Austin Seven clutches caused by wear in the clutch release levers/clutch cover. A  "bodge" to temporarily solve the problem; Remove the starter/cover assemble to expose clutch bolts. Slackening all the clutch bolts will allow the cover plate to move away from the fly wheel. Then remove one bolt at a time and inset a 1/4 inch flat washer between the clutch cover and flywheel. A tricky operation as you need to avoid dropping the washer into the clutch. With the 6 washers in place, tighten all the bolts, you should have better clutch movement. There is a chance  that the clutch may now slip under load, as you have reduced clutch spring pressure. This is a temporary job, and if successful, simply delays the time before you remove the engine to do the job properly

[Ian Williams]

http://www.da7c.co.uk/technical_torque_a...lutch.html

Thy reading this to help you understand what you may be dealing with.

[Bryan]

Hi mike, 
As Ian and others have said. Sounds like the toggle leavers will need adjusting and the only way is to remove motor & box from the car. You will most likely need to do one of the two modifications to the flywheel cover plate due to wear from the toggle leavers.  Install grub screws to allow the. Levers to be st right or install a roller under the leaver and set the toggles by bending to correct heights. I did the later last year and it improved the opearation of The clutch a lot.
Bryan

[steve davidson]

Hi Mikey,

From one newbie to another welcome to the world of A7’s.  When I got my car it had already had the washers installed as a work-around.  If you don’t have the time to pull the engine out to either modify the toggles or install new ones the washer trick works.  But remember there is always a trade off for modifying the original design and in this case you reduce the maximum clutch pressure that can be applied, it should not be a problem for you but just remember you can’t keep putting more and more washers in!

I’ve attached a photo that shows the location of these washers, you’ll need to grind off one edge on all of them so as to allow them to sit inside the lip of the flywheel.  Note that in one the photos there are internal tooth lock washers sitting over the ones you need to install, of course these end up on the outside of the gear box not adjacent to the ones you are going to install.  When I’ve done them I tend to hold the washer on the end of a piece of masking tape while I manoeuvre it over the bolt.  This reduces the risk of dropping it down in to the bell housing.

Don’t be scared of pulling the engine out and taking the gearbox off, it’s not nearly as difficult as you might imagine.  In case you do go down this route I’ve attached a photo of the lifting tool I made to lift the engine.  It simply screws in to ports that hold spark plugs 1 and 4.  You’ll need to of course remove plugs 2 and 3 and just make sure that you put something there to stop anything getting in to the cylinders.  The earth tape in the photo was there to make sure I didn’t get too keen and screw it to the point where it hit a piston!

Good luck mate, I know how your feeling!  I’m only new to the caper but I’m pretty familiar with this issue so feel free to message me if you have any dramas.

[Pat Halahan]

Put in a double thrust bearing at the front end and then thew crankshaft will not float as much and cause problems. The double thrust will need a washer to get the dimensions correct. I had the clucth problems until i made this change.