Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[gresham flyer]

Hello,
I have a problem with the clutch arm not moving ,(only slightly) on our Wolseley 1300.
Prior to purchase it had stood in a barn for a while.

I have now got the engine running,fitted a new clutch slave cylinder,and bled the system.

On pressing the clutch pedal there is little movment in the arm.
Is this a common problem with them after sitting around?

The braking system has responded well in bringing itself back into a functioning capacity.

I just need to get the clutch working so that we can use the car.

Any tips on releasing the arm.

Regards
Gresham Flyer

[victor 101]

Hi gresham, have you determined wether the hydraulics are doing their job properly?. drop the clevis pin and see what movement you get when the push rod is disconnected from the clutch fork. If that side is okay then I think your gonna have to pop the bellhousing off and check the shaft isnt siezed in the bellhousing. other than that it looks like you will need to pull the flywheel (special tool needed) and check /change the clutch.

[gresham flyer]

Hello,
Thanks for the advice,I will get on with that forthwith.

I thought it might be something like that,but wanted to check before taking items apart.

I will let you know when the car is working correctly.

Gresham

[Rusty]

G'Day Gresham,
I havn't ever had anything at all to do with "Wolseley" 1300s (never even layd eyes on one), but I did do my aprenticship on Morris 1100s and I suspect they may be simmilar. On the Morrie 1100 the clutch throughout arm is prone to both bending and wearing the end of the arm where it locates in the throughout bearing carrier.

First off, can you feel the clutch pedal hydraulics or does the pedal go straight to the floor with no resistance ?
If it goes straight to the floor with no resistance and no movement at the slave cylinder then either hydraulic failure somewhere or air in the system.
If the pedal goes hard like a brake pedal but very little movement at the arm then here are some things to check.

1/ Does the slave cylinder have a circlip in it to stop the piston moving too far ? On the old Australian production Morrie 1100s "some" of the slaves had a circlip and if the piston moves too far the piston would be stopped by the circlip causing the pedal to go hard.

2/ If the throughout arm is bent it lets the piston in the slave cylinder move too far causing the above problem. It can also be caused by excessive wear on the ball on the end of the throughout arm.

3/ have a look at the stop adjusters on the end of the throughout bearing carrier asembly. (the nuts that stick out the centre of the clutch cover on the throughout bearing carrier ) Some people fiddle with them and if they have been tightened up too far they will bottom out before the clutch is disengaged and if that happens you will also have a bent throughout arm.
Bent arms arn't normaly a problem, you can put them in a vice and straighten them fairly easily.

4/ Check the throughout arm adjuster for clearance. Its a 5/16 bolt that sticks out of the clutch cover and stops the arm returning too far under return spring presure. If the arm is bent or ball badly worn people will take the return spring off the top of the slave cylinder to let the slave take up the slack and it sometimes cant travel far enough to counteract the damage. If there is a lot of clearance between the arm and the bolt, likely bent arm.

I was hoping someone more familiar with UK production might offer some advice as the memories I am trying to recall I havn't used since the 1970s but I worked on dozens of 1100s back then.
Hope you find out what the problem is.

Graham

[peter scott]

[Rusty]

G'Day Peter,
We never had any problems with the "pedal brackets" on 1100s that I can remember, only a lot of trouble with the throw out arm and related bits and pieces.
The trouble with "me" trying to answer questions on UK production is that some of the failings of the original UK design were overcome with a modification on our "local" assembled or manufactured models. Sometimes what gave you blokes grief on the home market wasn't a problem on our "export" versions.

I hope Gresham can figure it out,
Graham