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Theoretical question about Triumph clutches....

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Sarastro

Sarastro

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I realize that this is water over the dam--WAY over the dam--but I suspect that I can get a definitive answer here, anyway. So what if it's 40 years too late to be useful?

Back in my wild and profligate youth, I had a Triumph TR4A, 65 or 66, can't remember which. I got it new. Drove it 50,000 miles and put five (count 'em!) clutches into it. The main (but not the only) problem was the front oil seal in the transmission. I'd put in a clutch, drive a few thousand miles, and it would start slipping and chattering. Take it apart, find transmission oil flung all over the inside of the bell housing and contaminating the clutch disk. Replace the clutch (the whole thing: disk, plate, release bearing), and of course the transmission oil seal, and repeat the cycle.

So, my question: is this characteristic of the beast, or was I just unlucky? If the latter, how would you fix things so the front transmission seal doesn't start leaking in a few thousand miles? Maybe grind, machine, or polish the shaft where the seal contacts it?

The answer may have some practical bearing, as I may succumb to the urge to get another TR4 someday. Thanks in advance for your comments.
 
Though TR4A's-6's have a bad reputation as to the life of their clutches , your experience was extreme. I've rebuilt countless gearboxes and installed umpteen clutches in my days at the Leyland dealer and beyond. The gearboxes do not typically have a front seal problem. It sounds as if your tranny had a venting problem or perhaps a marred sealing surface on the first motion shaft. There were some lousy clutch set-ups sold in the eighties. I would only install Laycock (long gone) or Borg and Beck. The cross-shaft clutch operating design is a problem just waiting to happen.

Alan T
 
Sounds like you had some play in the input shaft bearing of the trans, causing premature wear to the seal. Ot Like was said above, if the trans vent was plugged, the pressure has to go somewhere. Most likley the input or output seals.
 
Thanks. I have to admit, I didn't make any serious checks of the transmission--just replaced the seal, put in a new clutch, and that was that. I was 18 at the time, and not too sophisticated about thinking through a problem, looking for the main problem instead of just fixing the symptoms.

Interestingly, the transmission was repaired early, during the warranty period. So, it's entirely possible that it wasn't put back together quite right.

As I remember, I did use Borg & Beck clutches for at least some of the rebuilds. No problem with them, for the most part, the oil contamination was the problem, and that'll wreck anything. Only one clutch failure was unrelated to the oil contamination problem--something in the plate just broke, leaving me stranded in a bad part of Conshohoken, PA. When I got back with a tow truck, some shady-looking people were walking slowly past the car, checking it out. Lucky I lost only the clutch!
 
Fayette St? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
When they repaired the transmission on the warrantee, maybe they didn't put a sleeve over the spline to protect the seal and they may have cut into the rubber causing the leak. And if you did it the same way (or who-ever did it) the leak would be hard to contain. I have used masking tape, duct tape or a plastic milk bag over the splines to keep the sharp corners of the splines on the input shaft from cutting the front transmission seal when sliding the seal into place. Once in place, I removed the tape etc.
 
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