2A Clutch Issues

[ruuskado]

Greetings, first time poster.

I have a 1962 2A 88" SW that I have been working on, and even driving, for the past 15 or so years. Just finished a complete drive-train rebuild and have a clutch issue. Now, this problem started before the rebuild. Going down the highway one day I went to shift as I approached my exit and the clutch pedal goes to the floor, hmmm I say. Pump a few times and get some pressure. Bleed the clutch that day and no air, but no difference either. So, during the rebuild I replaced both hard and soft lines and rebuilt the master and slave cylinders. Still have a soft clutch. A soft pump and the pedal goes to the floor, a harder pump easily disengages the clutch. Have rebled twice. Looking at my notes from the rebuild it appears as if there was some scoring in the slave cylinder bore. Now before I go and buy myself a new slave cylinder and replace that in the cold I thought that I would see what sage advice I could glean from this list of other veterans of the Rover Wars. Oh yeah, I am running the newer CV style master cylinder with the integral reservoir.

Cheers,

Doug

[LaneRover]

Have you checked the linkages down by the transmission? I had a worn pin in one of the linkages that wasted a lot of the movement.

[amcordo]

Same thing happened to me - it was the master cylinder. It wasn't leaking anywhere, but just failed on me. Could be dispite a rebuild it's shot and you need a new one.

[KevinNY]

If there was scoring in the bore of the cylinder you should have stopped right there and thrown it in the trash, the new seal will (has)quickly fail.

[Terrys]

A soft pump and the pedal goes to the floor, a harder pump easily disengages the clutch.

That was all you needed to say. The problem is the master cylinder. If you have scoring in the bore there, the piston cup will slide right over the scoring allowing the fluid to bypass. A good energetic pump forces the cup to fill in the scoring and develope pressure. If it isn't scored (did you hone it when you rebuilt it?) them the rubber cup is either stiff from shelf aging, or it's in backwards. Whatever the hiden reasons, the problem is not lines, or slave.

[ruuskado]

Not the issue here. I neglected to add that I had rebuilt all of the linkages, replaced the cotton seals etc.

D

[ruuskado]

However, there is no scoring in the master cylinder or else I would have mentioned it, the only scoring was in the slave cylinder and I surmise that the same thing is happening down there. I blame an overworked fool of a mechanic, me, working round-the-clock for weeks to meet a deadline as I usually do not let this type of thing slip by.

Either way, a new slave cylinder is next on the docket.

What always puzzled me was that this was not something with a gradual onset as one might expect from scoring developing over time. I can only imagine that some debris dislodged from somewhere in the system and caused a pretty good gouge that one day on the highway.

[Terrys]

If your issue was related to the scored walls in the slave, you would be pi$$ing fluid out the slave. Since you didn't say anything about loosing fluid, I still think you need to be looking at the MC rebuild.

[ruuskado]

No, that is a good point, I do not see any fluid leaking out of the slave, or the M/C for that matter. I agree that the mecahnism being proposed here, fluid leaking around the seal, is the most likely culprit, but should I not be seeing fluid leaking out of the M/C then? Either way, perhaps I will go for the easiest to fix, the M/C first. As it had just been rebuilt and the problem persists, perhaps a replacement is in order.

Thansk for all the input!

D

[NC_Mule]

Sounds like your on the right track.
I chased a weak pedal, no sign of leaks. After pumping 3 or 4 times I noticed the reservior foaming a bit, rebuilt the CV master and all was well.

I read these posted and file away solutions for problems yet to come. So I wanted to post the foaming observation and solution that I had.
pb