Be3 Clutch / Gearbox Problem

[Bassman 1]

Hello,

 

I changed the clutch on my 405 about 4 or 5000 miles ago as it was starting to slip, but didn't change the cable as I couldn't get one at the time (same as the 205 but auto-adjusting). Everything seemed to be ok, but I noticed when the car was warm, that it was sometimes difficult to disengage the clutch and I bought a new cable and fitted it last night.

 

Everything was fine on the drive home and the clutch felt much smoother until I got to work this morning and the clutch pedal went to the floor and stayed there. Popped the bonnet and the cable was fine and still connected, but the clutch lever arm had not sprung back when I had released the clutch pedal.

 

I removed the cable at the lever end and pulled the arm and you can feel something (the bearing?) pop back into place and then all is fine again.

 

I had already called the AA and when the guy arrived we had a play and it did it again. We noticed though that if the release lever arm and shaft was pulled upwards (there was about 1 cm of play vertically when it was released) that it operated fine.

 

The AA guy managed to find a piece of metal bar that he formed into a collar and fitted it around the lever arm to hold it up and it has ben fine since then (for about 300 yards of drving to work and 100 pumps of the pedal)

 

I may be tempted to stick with this , but is there anything I may have done wrong when fitting the clutch that I dislodged yesterday when I changed the cable?

 

I fitted a new bearing when I changed the clutch, but I didn't remove the release arm shaft and fork, perhaps the plastic bearing at the bottom of the shaft has broken causing the shaft to drop?

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

 

Rob

[pug_ham 242 3 Cars]

With the BE3 release bearing it seems possible to be fitted to the arm two ways, one it stay's on great but when turned 180' it falls off very easily.

 

Thats what I've found when swapping gearboxes on my car anyway.

 

Graham.