Question:
I have a problem with my Westfield. It seems like the car is riding the clutch when you put your foot down. It drives fine at normal speed, but when you floor it you just get engine revs. I have a SBD Standard size lighten flywheel, (the one with posts, a SBD Organic clutch and a SBD hydraulic clutch kit. Some one suggested that as I have been using the car the clutch has worn down so now the spacer in the hydraulic clutch is no longer the right size. So the fingers of the clutch cover do not have the space to come away fully. So do I need to remove the engine and get the spacer removed? Can you offer any advice to me? I have tried bleeding the clutch and it did not help.
Answer:
It sounds as if you are half right. When the assembly was fitted, no account was taken to allow for clutch wear. You must dry fit the clutch cover with no clutch plate fitted, then slide the gearbox with the complete slave assembly and spacer fitted to the gearbox. You should then slide the gearbox onto the back of the engine. Now because the spacer is likely to be too long, you should be able to measure a gap between the block and bellhousing face. Say for example, it was 10mm, the spacer should be shortened by 11mm. This means that when the clutch is fully worn the slave cylinder/release bearing can never apply pressure to the clutch fingers. The extra mm is just a safety margin I always use.
Never leave the spacer out altogether, because the clutch slave only has a certain amount of travel. If you were to leave the spacer out completely, the chances are you could fire the hydraulic slave so far out that all the fluid could leak away.
Category:
Gearbox & Clutch