Gents,

Just remove the gearbox (M47) to expose my clutch. with 170kmiles and heavy clutch, I decided to have look in there. I like the trick of accessing the top bolt through the gearstick hole using long extentions. Very neat!
OK turns out the presssure plate is original (92 stamped in) the drive (friction) plate can not be that old the wear is minimal. I guess the PO must have had the clutch changed at some point - or they wear very little (!)

Anyway the pressure plate fingers are badly worn, so are the release bearing and fork. I will be changing out a few bits.

Now my questions:

I removed the speed sensor to check it out and found the wire damaged - insulation split. The two wires inside look ok, but the copper mantle is damaged and exposed. Should I replace this or just tape it up? How sensative is this thing? Can is half work and explain the slight hesitation I have been trouble shooting the last 6 months?

On assembly of the clutch what do I (or rather do not) lubricate with hight temp grease:
-drive shaft splines
-release bearing to fingers
-release bearing to drive shaft
-release bearing to release fork
-fork hinge point

I kinda forgot to look which way the friction plate was fitted. One side is flush, the other has the sping assemly sticking out. The flat side goes to the flywheel right?

I plan to changed out the main seal and got one at the dealer (no cheap part for that one....). It comes with a white plastic ring fitted inside the seal. Is that for installation, so I leave until fitted and then remove? Or should I remove prior to fitting?

Turned out to be a big, but interesting job. To me it is a hobby.

Appriciate your comments

Reg,

Jorn

Looks like you've had the bases covered with Bram's response. One more thing you absolutely, positively should do is replace the pilot bearing in the back end of the crankshaft. It might be a PITA to remove, but a dragging pilot bearing will greatly impair shifting.

While the gearbox is out, drain the old oil and refill with new - Red Line MTL is the good juice. Overfill by about a pint - the top shaft in the M47 doesn't get lubed as well as it should at the normal fluid level. Make sure that both the fill and drain plugs are not overtorqued... coupla years ago I drained the GB oil and then almost stroked out when I couldn't get the FILL plug loose! But that's another story (no, I didn't turn the car on its side). While the plugs are out, blast 'em with brake cleaner to get the metal off the center magnet pin.

Much appriciated.

In fact I did all you proposed, even the Redline MTL (hard to find around here) and the overfill.

In fact I went a bit further and renewed a bunch of nylon bits at the gearlinkage to improve shifting etc.

Many thanks - things are looking good!

>I removed the speed sensor to check it out and found the wire damaged -
>insulation split. The two wires inside look ok, but the copper mantle is damaged
>and exposed. Should I replace this or just

I presume you mean the crankshaft position sensor, the thingy that peeks in through the top of the bellhousing? If you do a neat job you could try to fix it up, but replacement would probably be the better option. This is a hall effect sensor, so it's a fairly low voltage signal, running close to other wiring. It could indeed be the cause of your hesitation.


> On assembly of the clutch what do I (or rather do not) lubricate with hight temp
> grease:
> -drive shaft splines

definitely

> -release bearing to fingers

No. You want firm engagement here, no slipping.

> -release bearing to drive shaft

Yes, definitely.

> -release bearing to release fork

This doesn't move very much, so it's not very important. It usually isn't lubricated.

> -fork hinge point

This runs in a plastic bearing/sleeve type thingy. Not usually lubricated, but I guess it wouldn't hurt.

Bram