My car, 1931 RM, has been running with this mod for the last 5 years.

I used 3 x 5mm stainless 'rollers' cut from 5mm bolts. They need to fit tightly in the recess, otherwise they can drop out during gearbox fitting operations. Once the gearbox is on, there is little chance of the 'rollers' falling out. Of course the 'rollers' don't actually roll!

I believe this mod is mentioned in the companion.

I have not had any clutch trouble, but my annual mileage is not great.

Location: Bonnie Galloway

I too can recommend this mod for a softer pedal and longer travel. Probably a good idea to bolt the 3 fingers together, hold in the vice and run a round file over them first to get the 5mm hollows uniform.

Location: oz

Ivan,

is your clutch for a three or four speed gearbox?

It is actually a Bantam clutch. The gearbox is an American 3 speed Warner T84 with a special bell housing. However the clutch itself is functionally the same as the early A7 and the 3 levers and posts are interchangeable.
Thanks for the responses, and I'll go ahead with the mod. (Engine out yet again - sigh...)
But there are a couple of other problems as well - a bad oil leak and almost non-existent synchromesh action

Ivan

Location: Wellington, NZ

I have no experience of the bantam but if it is similar to the three speed Austin carrier this may help you:

Ruairidh Dunford

the problem...



This cage has worn through (twice, someone has recut an extra three slots at some point) the slots where the three toggles sit - you can see the depressions.

I have used a homemade ring to repair this problem on many cars over the the last few years...



it sits inside the cage and brings the height of the slots back up to what they should be...



if the ring wears you simply rotate it slightly.



If you cut a slot in the ring you can fit it (with some patience and practise) whilst the gearbox and engine are still in the car once the starter motor is removed - I have done this three times. If the clutch is very worn you can fit more than one ring to take up the play - one car required three!

Thanks Ruairidh. The pressure plate, cover plate, driven plate, fingers, springs etc are all as per A7, except for the female spline on the driven plate. However the throwout bearing system on the Bantam is quite different and does not have the rotating cage thing, just a large flat-faced thrust race that is available locally off the shelf. I'm told that a Ford 6 cylinder of about 1942 uses the same race, so it's grossly oversized for the job it has to do.

Location: Wellington, NZ

Thanks to all for the messages of encouragement. I have now done the modifications to the clutch and have done a static test by pulling on the cross-shaft lever with a spanner. It feels very nice and smooth, and easy to operate - really looking forward to getting it all back in the car. I made an additional change which is to file a flat on each of on the rollers. This spreads the load more evenly on the bottom of the slot in the cover plate. I felt that this would be better in the case of the Bantam, whose clutch cover plate is made of cast iron, whereas I believe the A7 item is steel. My spare Bantam plate has the bottom of one slot broken out. See the 4-in-1 picture which I hope Ruairidh will insert for me.
Anyway, one more benefit of filing the flats is that if one lever is too high, just file a bit more off the roller. (Bit like cutting bits off table legs). I filed them till they were about 2/3 their original thickness.
Also note the strange shape of the cover plate. This probably saves quite a bit of weight, and it would be much cheaper to cast a shape like this than to mill metal away. The plate is functionally interchangeable with an A7 plate of the early thirties, I believe.

Ivan

Location: Wellington, NZ

Here you are Ivan,

It is interesting that two people doing the same job without any communication end up with the same arrangement, in this case Ivan's engine stand is the same as mine, a couple of joist offcuts from a skip with two 3" x 2" cross members. Mine has the addition of some supermarket trolley castors so I can wheel the engine from the cellar workshop to the garage.

Great minds think alike. Actually I believe I have heard of a single word to describe this phenomenon, but can't remember it!

Location: Wellington, NZ

Location: Far West of New Zealand

Well, the clutch is all back together with its little flattened rollers, in the car and the car running again. Clutch works and feels like any other clutch in a modern car - nothing out of the ordinary about it at all. Guess that counts as a success.
Thanks for the replies, and special thanks to the contributor to "Design for Competition", Dick Short. See page 127 of the aforementioned book

Location: Wellington, NZ

Pleased to hear that Ivan.

Location: Bonnie Galloway