jackmac Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Hi all, Have recently had the engine out of my defender. When it was out, flywheel etc was all removed so clutch had to be refitted, a new spigot bush was fitted, new master and slave cylinders both fitted. I went to take it out for a test drive tonight, and I can't get it into a gear. Engine off it goes in fine, but running I can't do it. Clearly the clutch is not disengaging. It seems to have bled OK, no bubbles at all and the pedal feels firm and normal. I know one cause of this could be the input shaft dragging on the spigot, we noticed when putting the engine back in that it seemed extremely tight and had a bit of a struggle to get it all back together. Could it be caused by ill adjustment of the clutch master cylinder push rod? I'm not sure that I got that bit right, and ended up with the lock nuts as far towards the end of the push rod as they could go. I'll check the push rod adjustment tomorrow, but what else should I be looking at? Meant to be taking it to an event on Saturday so the pressure's on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L835 Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Mine did exactly the same thing. For an unknown reason the master cylinder decide to fail while the clutch was being changed. No fluid leaks and it seemed to be working, but a change of cylinder and all was well. I know you changed yours, but was it ok or out of a blue box?! Just a thought! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackmac Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Nothing out of a blue box on my truck! Both cylinders were Lucas TRW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Just shooting from the hip, but have you put in the correct slave cylinder? - I've just replaced one on a 300tdi disco and it was a pig to bleed, took me ages to get past an air lock. - also not entirely sure of how that wee tin can works next to it but I'm let to believe its some kind of damper, are they on the Defender too? - could that be trashed? If you're not loosing fluid, it does point to either an air lock or faulty master cylinder (even though new). Other than that something's amiss with your clutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackmac Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Definitely the right part yes, don't think I have the tin can thing. I'm hoping it is an airlock, even though the pedal feels good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzar Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 It's not a td5, is it? I dimly recall there being an issue regarding the orientation of the plate on td5 - it looks right the wrong way around. G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 I was going to suggest the clutch plate orientation. It has to go in the right way around or its hub will be pressed against the flywheel to crank bolts. This applies to Tdi engines as well as almost all others - I have just fitted a new clutch on my 300Tdi and the plate was certainly sided on that. A tight spigot bush is unlikely, though not impossible - it should be fairly tight to press the gearbox pinion into it because the pinion has to line up perfectly with the spigot bush and clutch splines to go in, which would mean aligning the transmission and engine perfectly for a smooth insertion. The other common problem is in bleeding the clutch fluid - you need to have the car nose up to get the air to the bleed nipple end of the slave, rather than allowing it to sit against the piston. I have also seen people fit the cylinder inverted so the bleed is at the bottom and the pipe at the top... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 each clutch friction plate should have the words stamped, or printed "Flywheel Side" or the letters "FS" obviously you dont want to pull the box again straight away, i would suggest removing the slave cylinder or just connection and seeing if you can do a simple pressure test on it, you should be able to fit some kind of a guage to it, and depress the clutch and set it firm with something solid (legs get weak over time and back off) the pressure should read the same it should not drop over time if it does you have a faulty master, if not it points to either the slave or something mechanical. slave is easy to check, peel back the rubber dust shield and check for wetness, athough being that bad i would imagine its soaking both sides of the dust cover. if not loosing fluid its unlikely to be a leak or a slave cylinder fault. there are internal seals in the master which if fail could just circulate the pressurised fluid back to reservoir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackmac Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Good news everyone! Seems to be fixing itself. I tried starting it in low 1st with the clutch down, and low and behold it didn't move. Doing that a few times and rocking back and forth and I seem to have a clutch again. Bite point is very high on the pedal, and there's somewhere between 5 and 10mm play at the very top of the pedal so everything seems about right! Not sure what the problem was, I think it might have been spigot related. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Doubtful as you'd still have problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonb Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Good news everyone! Seems to be fixing itself. I tried starting it in low 1st with the clutch down, and low and behold it didn't move. Doing that a few times and rocking back and forth and I seem to have a clutch again. Bite point is very high on the pedal, and there's somewhere between 5 and 10mm play at the very top of the pedal so everything seems about right! Not sure what the problem was, I think it might have been spigot related. Reset the clutch pedal/master cyl pushrod adjustment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
101sean Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Clutches can be a bugger to bleed, I usually get them bled enough to just about work and rest of the air works it's way out. Just done the clutch in my Lightweight, there were no markings for flywheel side on the OEM replacement, there was on the old. Got caught out once on a 98 Renault Trafic clutch I was changing with my bro in law. We took the old off and laid it down as is because there were no markings on the genuine new one. I picked the new plate up the right way round, swung round to the lift, offered it up and fitted it. It wasn't until we dropped the vehicle off the lift and it wouldn't go in to gear we realised that I'd inadvertently turned it round! At that point we locked the shed door and walked away, book time on a Trafic clutch was 9 hours......... Ripped it out following day, done job so often now we can do it 3 hours but I'm now allergic to Renaults! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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