Anyone experience a broken crosshaft pin....

[karls59tr]

while driving? How far did you have to push the pedal to engage the clutch? Any other symptoms? Trying to diagnose a clutch issue on my TR3.

 

[CJD]

Oh yeah! PO just added a longer push-rod to the slave servo. It worked fine, and no telling how long. I discovered it when I broke down the clutch. It broke at an angle, so the fork still moved with the shaft. I hear this type failure is common.

John

 

[martx-5]

Very common. Most guys add insurance by drilling a hole through the fork and shaft and adding a nut and bolt.

Edit: Here's a picture...

 

[karls59tr]

Actually I Installed a bolt in the crossshaft years ago and never had any problems. Recently the the clutch pedal will go halfway to the floor before the clutch engages. Bleeding the slave cyl has been unsucessfull. I've tried everything. I was wondering if anyone had experienced the taper pin breaking "while they were driving" and what the clutch pedal did when it happened. Can't see the bolt braking! Slave isn't leaking. I'll have to pull the trans to see what's going on inside I guess.

 

[karls59tr]

Well I'm almost certain I have a broken crosshaft. I can move the shaft up and down a significant amount. Years ago when I added the extra bolt I followed the instructions in the BS Shaller book which was to tap out the original taper bore and install a 3/8" Gr.8 bolt rather than use the method pictured above that martx-5 shows. I think my fix worked well for a time but maybe the extra tension from the new slave spring was enough to weaken the reduced amount of metal on the crosshaft around the larger bolt? Next fix will be like the one in the pic. Had to happen in the Fall the best time to drive an LBC. :-(

 

[Geo Hahn]

I think I have been driving a TR3A with a broken pin for more than 30 years. So long as I omit the return spring on the slave/pushrod/shaft everything works fine. Someday I'll be in there for something else and then I'll know for sure and take care of it.

On my TR4 I had a chance to examine the pin when I had the gearbox out for a pressure plate problem. It had a decided bow in it. Guess that is one advantage of a non-hardened pin. It got replace of course and the extra bolt added (in fact, that is it in the above pic).

 

[TR3driver]

When mine broke, I had to pump the pedal 3-4 times to get the clutch to release. It would continue to work without pumping, as long as I remembered to hold the pedal slightly depressed (to keep the valve in the MC closed). If I released the pedal, then I would have to pump it up again.

I drove that way for many months, then finally replaced the pin.

But the obvious symptom is that it is impossible to adjust the slave free play to spec.

If you can move the shaft "up and down", then I think you have a different problem. Possibly the bushings are shot, or more likely the shaft broke.