Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Stuck clutch
The clutch on the X3 engine was stuck together. This was rather annoying as I had hoped that as the 'runner' it wouldn't need much doing to make it usuable.
In theory all that needed to be done was to strip the clutch, clean the parts and on reassembly all would be well. The big problem was that the clutch screws were seized. The 'Blue Book' mentions making a tool by filing a slot in a 14mm screwdriver. Such bit screwdrivers are rare. My first tool was far too bendy and failed. Then I cut this out of a 14mm sump plug tool.
This worked great. Actually it worked so well that 1 of the studs was extracted as the nut was seized. With it in the vice that could be undone and the stud was undamaged.
Another stud would turn but not remove so obviously the thread was stripped. I extracted that by MIG welding a piece of 6mm studding to the nut & stud and than making a wooden frame against which a nut could be used to gradually unscrew the stub. Worked a treat! Luckily the stud was stripped and not the clutch inner, so that could be cleaned with a 7mm tap.
A 500 clutch stud was obtained and then turned down to give the right shoulder length. It seems that there are at least 3 lengths of these things, the X3 engine having them of intermediate length between 3.5 and 500 items.
After cleaning and reassembly with a few new screws from NLM it all worked fine.
The clutch on the X3 engine was stuck together. This was rather annoying as I had hoped that as the 'runner' it wouldn't need much doing to make it usuable.
In theory all that needed to be done was to strip the clutch, clean the parts and on reassembly all would be well. The big problem was that the clutch screws were seized. The 'Blue Book' mentions making a tool by filing a slot in a 14mm screwdriver. Such bit screwdrivers are rare. My first tool was far too bendy and failed. Then I cut this out of a 14mm sump plug tool.
This worked great. Actually it worked so well that 1 of the studs was extracted as the nut was seized. With it in the vice that could be undone and the stud was undamaged.
Another stud would turn but not remove so obviously the thread was stripped. I extracted that by MIG welding a piece of 6mm studding to the nut & stud and than making a wooden frame against which a nut could be used to gradually unscrew the stub. Worked a treat! Luckily the stud was stripped and not the clutch inner, so that could be cleaned with a 7mm tap.
A 500 clutch stud was obtained and then turned down to give the right shoulder length. It seems that there are at least 3 lengths of these things, the X3 engine having them of intermediate length between 3.5 and 500 items.
After cleaning and reassembly with a few new screws from NLM it all worked fine.
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