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Enjoy.
And now on to the next item on the list….the clutch.
I drove this project briefly when first acquired several years ago and the clutch was very “aggressive” for lack of a better word. Shifted smoothly and all, but when starting from a dead stop, the clutch would grab hard at the slightest release of the clutch pedal, which led me to believe that it has some sort of racing clutch installed. What I didn’t do prior to disassembling everything is check to see if maybe limited travel of the slave cylinder was the source of the problem. However, it seems like if that were the case, I might have heard some grinding of gears when shifting, but there wasn’t.
I pulled the clutch off this morning and honestly, it looks pretty standard. There are a couple part numbers, but the folks at Phoenix Friction couldn’t find anything based on the numbers. They have the 07-008 kit in stock which is their standard street kit, but I’d rather not purchase something if it’s basically identical to what is sitting on my work bench right now.
So my question to the group is can anyone tell me if this is a standard street clutch or is it indeed a racing clutch? The last pic has a closeup of the part numbers on the cover plate, but I haven’t been able to find anything on the web that tells me about it.
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Yes. A high friction flywheel or pressure plate can cause a grabby clutch. Done been there, done that.From what I can see the presure plate surface coud use some polishing.
Team Blitz has a new pressure plate in stock last time I was in contact (a few weeks ago).
Yes. A high friction flywheel or pressure plate can cause a grabby clutch. Done been there, done that.
Bill
You should use something like a Mothers metal polish or Simichrome. Clear coating can change the look of polished parts.One question I have - should I go over the stainless parts with wax or some sort of clear coat, or would that cause other problems?
Series Alpines are notorious for being "dimensionally variable." If you put your rear axle under a different Series Alpine, the wheels might be centered or even offset the opposite direction. The "technically proper" way to correct the wheel position error would be to relocate the spring perches on the axle housing, but that would be a lot of work to correct a small problem. The practical way to fix the problem is to use a 1/8" wheel shim such as
https://www.amazon.com/WHEEL-CONNEC...0d-8681-952de11974d1&pd_rd_i=B08JLHNBXC&psc=1
on the side with the greater fender clearance and call it good.
The transmission tunnel in a Series Alpine is narrow and having the driveshaft centered in the tunnel is desirable, but driveshaft offset is not a problem unless the driveshaft rubs on the tunnel as the suspension travels. Most axle housings have an offset pinion and the only way to center the pinion shaft is to shorten one side more than the other when the axle housing is narrowed.
My 2 cents worth is that a pedal stop is stop-gap measure that hides a larger problem of a hydraulic mismatch in the pedal system. The correct measure is to install a smaller master cylinder or a larger slave. You not only solve the problem, you gain proper clutch engagement and an easier pedal.
Thanks, Barry. My suspicion was that there was enough slop in the various tolerances that to expect everything to come together perfectly aligned might have been overly optimistic. Leaving everything as as, there is more than enough clearance for the drive shaft to move up and down in the tunnel, so no issue there. The spacers would seem like an easy fix, but I’d need to shim out a total of 3/8” on one side to get things even, which would most likely dictate needing longer wheel studs, which would in turn require pulling the hub, and yada yada yada. If I leave as is, will driveability be effected much? Not building a race car, just a solid daily driver for my wife.