• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Heavy Clutch

Share this page

R

roach

Freshman Member
Country flag
Offline
Im in the process of getting a 58 100-6. I plan to use it daily around the city, but what scares me is how heavy the clutch is. Are there any option out there to lighten up the force required to engage the clutch...like better cables or maybe after market clutch parts? Is this normal or does it have bad cable. How about using racing parts? Any suggestions?

AG
 
Hi AG,
Welcome to the forum, good to have another Healey owner here. I don't have a specific answer. While your clutch is not the lightest to operate, it is usually considered to be reasonable, although not as easy as most newer cars.

You can see a pic of the various parts here:
https://www.mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=28878

There is a clutch master cylinder next to the brake cylinder with it's associated pedal linkage, a hydraulic line to the clutch slave cylinder, the clutch slave cylinder which operates the throwout bearing actuating fork. No cables. A "racing" clutch would be even harder to push.

In general, I would check all pivot points for wear, lubrication, & binding. This would include pedal pivots & lower slave cylinder pivots, & throwout arm pivot. You could access the later by removing the rubber boot.

While it's possible to have binding in the cylinders themselves, this would normally be caused by misalignment of the cylinders with their associated pivot points.

I would expect it to take somewhere between 60 & 80 pounds of force on the pedal to fully operate the clutch. You will probably develop a stronger left leg. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
D
 
Hi Roach, Additionally, It depends on whose clutch assembly you purchased. If it is a Borg & Beck it will generally be very stiff. On the other hand, other aftermarket suppliers seem to have a lower pressure assembly. Fwiw---Keoke
 
Roach
Check the clutch construction. If it has tradition spring it will have a heavy peddel, however if it is a diaphram type then the peddel will be lighter. With the diaphram type the once open the diaphram spring goes over centre and then utilizes minimum pressure to hold it there. Once released it returns and has the same grip for transmitting the HP to the transmission.

Regards, Bob
 
The diaphram type clutch is standard on the BJ8. I bought one thinking I could use it on my BJ7 but because the flywheel is different the pressure plate did not line up. Since I already had my flywheel lightened I decided to stay with the spring type BJ7 clutch.

Dave mentioned checking the pivots. The linkage near the pedal (forked junction with clevis pin at the end of the rod that goes into the master cylinder) can get elongated with use creating a sloppy and inefficient pedal. These can be welded up and machined to get back to the factory tolerances.

Cheers,
John
 
Hi Guys,
I guess that you chaps over the pond are a tad soft from driving all those automatics around. I've been driving on manual shift gear boxes all my life and honestly do not notice the difference between the current cars I drive - Healey 3000, mazda MX5 and the company Ford, just get in and drive it, it's what your left leg is made for.
Bob
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif
 
Thanks for the advice. I will go and check all the pivots and linkages and see if any of them have issues.

Hey Bob…the thing is I want to enjoy this car, not get a work out of it. Eventually I’ll get use to it. I did have a Toyota with heavy clutch due to bad clutch cable, but I got used to it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/canpatriot.GIF
 
[ QUOTE ]
The diaphram type clutch is standard on the BJ8. I bought one thinking I could use it on my BJ7 but because the flywheel is different the pressure plate did not line up. Since I already had my flywheel lightened I decided to stay with the spring type BJ7 clutch.

Cheers,
John

[/ QUOTE ]

John--

After I installed my Smitty's conversion in CA and drove back to MD I installed a BJ8 diaphragm clutch with no problems. It is much lighter in feel than the old BN1 spring-type clutch and I think it is a definite improvement.
 
[ QUOTE ]


After I installed my Smitty's conversion in CA and drove back to MD I installed a BJ8 diaphragm clutch with no problems. It is much lighter in feel than the old BN1 spring-type clutch and I think it is a definite improvement.

[/ QUOTE ]

The BJ7 flywheel however is different. I had delivered the parts to the engine rebuilder for balancing and he called me to say the clutch wouldn't fit. I thought, this is strange because I had asked the parts vendor beforehand if it would fit and he happens to own a BJ7. Anyway, I drove out, took a look and the alignment dowels and hole spacing on the flywheel did not line up at all. A call to Bill Bolton confirmed that you can't use a BJ8 clutch on an "early" BJ7. If you look at the part books/Moss catalog you will see at least 4 different types of clutches used on Healeys. It appears that some of them crossover but I would check with an expert like Bill Bolton before ordering parts or getting your flywheel lightened /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif I learned the hard way and had to sell my clutch parts on the open market to recoup some of the funds.

Cheers,
John
 
Back
Top