The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

My 1300 has been sitting for years, occasionally being shunted around the workshop and only driven about 20 miles once in the past 15 or so years, about four years ago when no slippage was reported. It has had a new clutch at some point, not sure when. I doubt very much that the plate is worn. Could this length of inactivity have resulted in the friction surfaces suffering and leading to slippage ?. Is it worth trying to adjust the mechanism or just go ahead and replace the clutch ?. It has only done 28k miles with one owner but the fact that it had a clutch before would suggest a heavy left foot perhaps.

There is an adjustment bracket on the nearside of the gearbox try that first

Yes I was aware of the adjustment, just not sure if it is likely to improve things or not. If I'm in that far I'm as well replacing the clutch I think.

could it be that the clutch mechanism is sticking and therefore not engaging as it should? the only other possibility is oil on the clutch plate causing it to slip.

Unlikely to be the mechanism I think as it only slips in 4th when accelerating plus there's no slack in the pedal to suggest it isn't disengaging fully. I'm pretty sure it's linked to the years of sitting around, probably surface corrosion that isn't cleaning up sufficiently. When you take up drive you can hear a sort of swishing from the clutch that sounds like the surfaces are glazed or corroded, might be normal though.

If theres no slack in the pedal it may suggest the clutch is not fully releasing. Try and slacken the linkage to gain some free play at the pedal and lower the biting point. As clutches wear the pressure plate fingers push towards the release bearing and at some point cannot clamp any harder and this can lead to slippage.

Tony

A swishing noise is not unusual, KAC does it all the time.
Take the cover off, push the slave right back in, and set the release bearing a bout 2 mm from the clutch cover fingers.

Let us know what happens

It was on the rivets. There was no clearance on the release bearing so no wonder it's worn.

Clutch replaced. A joy to work on these cars, brilliant design enabling clutch change in a couple of hours, including tea breaks !