How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

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elma
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How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by elma »

I have a dilemma here with no decent answer, looking for some opinions to help with the decision.

As of yesterday my cars clutch is defunct. It's been slipping for the 3000 miles I've done in the car and was the reason I bought the car so cheap. It's had a bad day though and is now not really in a safe state for the road. The car can't go over 35mph without slip no matter how gently it is driven and top speed is around 60mph at the redline in 5th.


The red scrap car has a fairly decent clutch, in fact the whole gearbox is better in every way. I am totally broke and so there is no way any parts will be bought at all. Am I wasting my time and energy if I attempt to put the clutch from the red car into the green car? It's either spend a few days doing that and live with the result for a while or give up driving again until such a time that I can afford to repair the clutch correctly.

The car is very important to earning a wage so I'm quite into the idea of bodging a working clutch out of what I have, however I don't want to waste several days just to find out it was a silly idea and I still need a new clutch kit.
Xantidote
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by Xantidote »

Sorry to hear of your conundrum. As I see it, without a car, you can't earn, so getting Mr Green back on the road is rather important. Unless you have other things to do, I'd switch the clutch over as a means to an end, although it does involve quite a bit of work. You'll want to drain, recover and re-use the gearbox oil as budget is tight, and then renew the oil at later date when a little more "flush".

I can't see any reason why the good clutch shouldn't work equally as well after the transplant (I assume they're identical). I think that generally we tend to work on the basis that as the clutch is a consumable item, that it should be replaced whenever the gearbox has been removed, whether worn or not, on the basis that if you don't renew it, then Sod's Law will apply.

Good luck with the decision, and hope you are back on the road before too long.
Martin

1995 Xantia TDLX (deceased :( )
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by RichardW »

You'd keep driving the other one till the clutch went, so I can't see the difference - if you can't afford a new clutch kit at present then swap it over. OK, it will take a good amount of your time, but the actual spend will be nil. I would swap the flywheel over as well though, as the old clutch is 'worn' to the old flywheel.
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elma
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by elma »

Excellent, new old clutch it shall be then. I hadn't thought about the flywheel and thats a good suggestion Richard, the one on green car is probably not in the best of health anyway. Gearbox oil I fortunately have stockpiled so I won't have to reuse. The only question remaining is weather to swap the gearboxes as well, I think I'll answer that when they are both out.

At least it'll keep me busy, I've nearly cleared the house and all the work I have booked presently is installing a motor on Tuesday. I'll do my best to clean up bits of the car and make improvements where I can as I do the work as well which is great as it really needs a bit of tlc in all areas currently.
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by RichardW »

Oh, and mark the clutch and flywheel in relation to one another before you remove it so it goes back in the same place. Not sure about the 1.9TD but it might be worth investing a few quid in new flywheel bolts.
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elma
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by elma »

Will do although I don't understand where I'm marking yet as it's my first clutch. I'll be re reading Jims guide a few times before I touch it so hopefully it should all make sense shortly. I'll be 3d printing an alignment tool unless it's not required when recycling and I'm sure my tools cover it so long as I borrow a second jack.

If I'm lucky I'll have some stainless bolts in my collection which will fit the flywheel, I went through a phase of replacing everything I touched with A4 a few years ago and many are left.

I have a spare clutch cable but I think I shall save that job for afterwards just in case the stiffness is solely due to the worn clutch. Not a great fan of the upside down in the footwell position and will avoid it if at all possible.
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by xantia_v6 »

The flywheel bots are probably special, better to re-use the old ones than something else I would be surprised if they are "stretch" bolts.

The clutch cover can attach to the flywheel at any angle, so mark them relative to each other while dismantling.
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by Ianhw77k »

Is the clutch slipping because it's old, or is there another problem like a leaky crankshaft oil seal?
I'm doing a clutch on an XUD at the moment, and this is my first clutch (on my own). I noticed signs of slight oil leakage on my flywheel so that seal is getting replaced. If you can stretch the budget to a new seal, you could be saving yourself a lot more hassle in future.
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elma
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by elma »

Ianhw77k wrote:Is the clutch slipping because it's old, or is there another problem like a leaky crankshaft oil seal?
More than likely both as the cars on 153,000 and has been used for towing. It has oil leaks from the rocker cover and the sump, probably the oil seal you mentioned is perished. My donor car has a newish rocker gasket so that should help for now.

I will reuse the best flywheel bolts considering their nature and the markings totally make sense now thank you. :)

I guess this all means I'll have to spend about £10-15 in total so I'm fairly happy at the minute.
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by Ianhw77k »

You're doing far better than me. Mine's looking at around £300 now plus lost work.
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Xantidote
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Re: How silly is it to reuse a clutch?

Post by Xantidote »

elma wrote:I will reuse the best flywheel bolts
I'd clean up & degrease the flywheel bolts, and refit them with loctite on the threads.

Glad you're not going to fit stainless bolts - always bothers me using stainless as it can suffer fatigue. Stick with what Citroen fitted :)
Martin

1995 Xantia TDLX (deceased :( )
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