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Scottie, just spotted this, my bet on your clutch will be on the master cylinder seals.
However, despite the foresight of the access hatch, it won't be easy to remove/replace the clutch master cylinder, I would NOT recommend replacing the seals. In my experience replacing brake/clutch seals has been not worth the trouble. OK may be cheaper but when access is such a bitch I would go for a one time fix of replacement, whichI have just done myself because although my clutch was working perfectly, it was weeping fluid down the bulkhead, a sure sign of impending failure.
With the Triumph master cylinder being made of aluminium, combined with a steel piston the result is usually scoring and corrosion of the bore, replacing the rubber seals won't fix that.
Probably a good idea to look at the slave cylinder first but if the fluid level is OK, then I would suspect the fluid is bypassing the master cylinder piston, or it's sucking air on the up-stroke.
This is a byproduct of the car being relatively inactive over a long period, not just during a build, it can happen whenever a car is laid up for long periods, rubber can go soft, or hard, neither change is good.
In my experience oldish hyraulics don't like being left unused for even a few weeks.
Any suspended solids sink to the lowest point and gum up the seals.
I would buy 5 litres of brake fluid and give the brakes and clutch a really good bleed.
It's looking great!!
Took a few cockpit detail shots of a D-type today in Coventry motofest - not sure if they are much use now to you but I can post them up tomorrow if you want
Thank you all for the feedback, what you have written sort of echoes a lot of my own thoughts about it, I think I was rather hoping for an expert to say, " tighten the X screw a bit and it will be all like new" Don't we all pray for something like that?
The clutch still actually works, there are no leaks, and the fluid is not getting past the master cylinder seal, and pumping does not make any difference.
A friend of mine that helped me establish that little lot, thinks I am being paranoid, and there is nothing wrong with the system at all!
I have had so many setbacks on this build, he may well be right.
I will get the two new cylinders and some fluid, and tackle this at a later stage. All the time the car is on my patch and not the road, it is not a huge problem.
I would definitely replace the fluid, both in the clutch and brakes, it should be replaced every two years anyway, irrespective of use. It may LOOK OK but it absorbs water and deteriorates over time. Either use DOT 4 or DOT 5.1. [COLOR="red"]NOT DOT 5, which is silicone based and not compatible with glycol based fluids.[/COLOR]
Thanks for that info Ed, you always amaze me with your in-depth technical knowledge! You seem to be so well-informed.
I will take your advice and get some of that stuff.
One good thing about this forum is the fact that if one reads other peoples threads, one can learn from other people, and thus avoid making the same mistakes.
Mr Towed kindly posted his experiences during, or just after, his build and told of getting caught in the rain before he'd had chance to fit his under bonnet rain splash panels / wheel arch panels, and how he was rewarded by a battery-box full of water amongst other things.
So today I started work on mine. As access to anything seems to be such a big problem on this car, and not having chosen a flip-front, any splash panels I fit under the wheel arches must be removable for access to other things.
I plan to put in anchor points for and aft, and attach the panels with self tappers, so I can remove them for any maintenance.
I had intended to stick the anchors in with fibre-glass paste, like I have just about everything else, but having spoken to WCA, I will use Sikaflex, as he told me a horror-story about fibre glassing that he did on the underside of his bonnet.
Having painted his car very nicely, he decided to re-inforce the underside of the bonnet as it was a bit too flexy, so he went ahead and did the usual resin,matting and build up to make it stiffer.
During the drying/curing process, maybe due to the heat build-up or the contracting forces, his bonnet developed "fluting" wrecking the paint in the process. You would have to look very closely to see it, which I did, as its not very obvious, and I would not have noticed if he'd not pointed it out.
Anyhow, not wishing to have the same problem, I decided to stick my panels to the underside of the wing with Sikaflex, which should not have the heating problem.
So today I got the first of four anchor points in place.
To these I will screw on the splash panels, and hopefully not get a battery-box full of water.
but having spoken to WCA, I will use Sikaflex, as he told me a horror-story about fibre glassing that he did on the underside of his bonnet
I think that was largely caused by him being a cock and slapping too many layers on too quickly but not worth risking it after all your sanding and mopping
Yeah, there was a company down near Exeter that used to make the fibre-glass bodies, but when they went bust I lost my £2500 deposit, or I'd be driving one now.
I still have the rebuilt engine, gearbox and all the bits I never used!
To state the bleedin obvious there should be a matching mould somewhere, more precious/valuable than the shell, which seems to have suffered from handling abuse.
Well, I'm not a good judge of these things, but £5,000 seems an awful lot of money for a few bits of hollow section and some damaged fibreglass panels.
We are talking an awful lot of work and expense, the chassis may not be up to snuff for an IVA and I would guess £15 to £20,000 wouldn't go far if you were going to fit a proper engine and transmission and all the trimmings. Even for somebody as resourceful as Scottie.
If I were to go for it, I would use the fibreglass panels as a buck for some rolled aluminium panels. The fibreglass stuff could of course be sold on again. Just kicking ideas about...
