Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Road-race engines and ancillaries - general discussion
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MinorTC
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Joined: April 28th, 2009, 9:30 pm

Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by MinorTC »

I finally managed to get my 2-litre Fiat twin cam-engined Morris Minor on the road, but after only a week of use, the blasted clutch is slipping!

Where's the best value place to obtain a new clutch for one of these, and are the 2-litre ones the same as the 1.6, 1.8, etc.?

Thanks for any advice,
Maurice.
Nobby
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by Nobby »

Guy sells clutches if I remember correctly.
MinorTC
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by MinorTC »

Thanks, Nobby.

The clutch seemed much better today; I think possibly the damp weather recently may have had something to do with it (possibly rain leaking into the clutch via the hole cut in the top of the bellhousing to clear the steering rack...)

Anyway, I ordered a clutch plate off a well-known E-auction site, just in case.

Does anyone know if the clutch can be changed by removing the gearbox, rather than having to take the engine out?
dp
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by dp »

That's a bit of a difficult question to answer given that every T/C-into-Minor installation is slightly different.

On mine, to do what you say I would have to at least loosen or remove the engine mounts (engine on jack) and lower the engine so the bellhousing to engine bolts could be undone and the bellhousing could be moved backwards far enough for the gearbox spline to come out of the crank and clutch.

I have a bolt-on front member on my Minor so to change the clutch I would remove the bumper, front panels, front member, undo engine and gearbox mounts and drop the engine/gearbox onto a skateboard and pull the pair out together. It's a bit time-consuming but not particularly difficult and no need for engine crane.

For me this would be a lot easier than separating in situ and I can do it without removing the Minor's gearbox cover panel. It might different for you but I suspect that trying to remove gearbox alone will be frustrated by the crossmember to which the steering rack is attached.

Remember to drain oil from gearbox before removing propshaft or the oil will spill out of gearbox tail.
MinorTC
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by MinorTC »

Good points there, dp. I'll look into it all, though IIRC my front crossmember is welded in, so an engine crane would be needed. How do you manage to lift the heavy engine/box combination back into place on yours without using a hoist? :/
dp
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by dp »

MinorTC wrote:Good points there, dp. I'll look into it all, though IIRC my front crossmember is welded in, so an engine crane would be needed. How do you manage to lift the heavy engine/box combination back into place on yours without using a hoist? :/
Without the front crossmember I can slide the engine and gearbox into the front of the car on a skateboard. I can physically pull gearbox back onto propshaft and lift up to loosly bolt to position. The engine end I lift up to position by putting a trolley jack under the skateboard and carefully raising. I've the type of mounts that use Ford cortina (pinto?) rubbers set at 45 degrees. I lift the engine slightly higher than mounting position, fit engine mounts to engine then chassis mounts with rubbers in place to chassis and jiggle everything into alignment and tighte up all bolts.

The key really is the bolt in front chassis member. Maybe you can lift up car at front on stands high enough to slide engine under.

Perhaps this illustrates:
Image
MinorTC
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by MinorTC »

Heroic stuff, dp! I had a brief look at my front crossmember today and yes, it appears to be welded in :(

What is more, I discovered that my timing was at TDC so I adjusted it to the correct 10 degrees of advance at 850rpm so the engine is now giving some quite impressive power! Somehow, I don't think that my clutch will last long, though I have a theory/optimistic fallacy that the damp weather may be having something to do with slippage, and that given some decent weather, all will be well...
dp
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by dp »

Probably so obvious you tried it but is the clutch cable completely free when you aren't pushing the clutch pedal down?
MinorTC
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by MinorTC »

Yes, I adjusted the cable both at the clutch arm and at the bulkhead (mine also has the Marina pedal box), to give a biting point roughly half way up the pedal travel.

Previously, the biting point had been just after you lifted your foot off the floor, which led to a few scrunchy gearchanges, though there was, of course, more slack in the cable then.
Last edited by MinorTC on January 27th, 2011, 7:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Guy Croft
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Re: Clutch for 2-litre Fiat twin cam

Post by Guy Croft »

Well done

for engaging in this thread DP!!

It's really great to see folk helping-out others here while the rest of the world is going to ratsh*t.


G
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