Morris Minor Owners Club

Hoping someone can give me a few pointers here.Car is a 59 with an abandoned conversion from saloon to convertible.Previous owner was halfway through then a house move made him loosely throw everything together so he could move the car.It has a 1275 midget engine and box.I replaced the midget hydraulic type clutch fork with a 1098 minor manual one and associated linkages.The pedal operation is EXTREMELY hard.Clutch does engage and disengage but very fiercely and you need thighs like Tessa Sanderson to push the pedal down,unfortunately mine are more like Olive Oyls!Will try and take some pics shortly but in the meantime can anyone point me to a good exploded diagram of the linkage.I must have got something wrong.My Haynes manual isnt very clear and doesnt show all the parts involved.
TIA
Mick

You can keep the pictures of your thighs for elsewhere, this is a family friendly forum .
Have a look on the Moss site, they have good diagrams.
With the 1275 clutch it may help to lengthen the operating arm but it's going to be a bit involved to do.

Here you go;
http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/Shop/ViewP ... exID=17074

Cheers Marky great!

This is interesting. There have been other reports of the 1275 diaphragm clutch being heavy when combined with the Minor mechanical linkage. We have this is our 1380 and it is a very easy operation. It is in conjuction with a Toyota 5-spd gearbox, but the clutch cover is standard 1275 Midget, and the linkage all standard Minor.

Is the linkage cross-shaft well greased? Also the pedal cross-shaft well lubricated? Nothing stiff or tight anywhere? Over-strong return spring?

Where are you in the country?

Unfortunately North Yorks.Theres nothing needing lubricating as most of it is new.Spring possibly?More likely something fitted upside down LOL.Just off to take pics.

Pics[frame][/frame]

[frame][/frame]

[frame][/frame]

I hope these help in some way.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Thanks.Its the rough position of it all I could do with to see if I have maybe got something the wrong way round.

I had the same problem with both a midget and Marina diaphragm clutch. You need a smaller action to release a diaphragm clutch. I presume that your pedal is unable to fully extend to the floor?

What we did was to extend one of the 'forks' on the 'relay shaft' (no.14 in the parts data). This is the 'fork' that is attached (by the two relay plates, part no.19) to the pedal.

What you are aiming to achieve, by extending it, is to make the pedal travel farther to do the same action as before. Like a longer lever (which it is), it spreads out the load required.

I can't tell you exactly how long it was in cm but, it was extended so that the fork was now parallel to the bottom of the chassis leg.

I presume, as things currently stand, is that you only have to push the pedal half way down, before it disengages the clutch. Which requires a great deal of effort.

So -at a guess - do you effectively double the length of the lever?

I found a 2009 link to a post on here by Mike Perry that said the lever you mention should be extended by one inch and then redrill the hole?

What you could do is extend the lever and put various holes in it - at different lengths - and then try them till it fells just right! Then report back with the result.

Longer arm with extra holes sounds a good idea in principle to experiment with.I wonder though if the extra holes along with the extra length may weaken the arm somewhat.Theres quite a bit of force exerted on that arm?Might see if I can buy an old shaft to mess around with.

How is it without the spring?
Hard to tell from the picture but it looks stronger than would be needed just to return the pedal which is all it has to do.

If it's all new, then it definitely needs greasing thoroughly. From the pictures it has been assembled as it should be, nothing upside down!

I would really like to get to the bottom of this though, as 'our' clutch goes right to the floor, and needs quite a lot of the travel to disengage cleanly. There have been no mods to the linkage, unless the first owner did them between 1958 and 1965, when my mother bought the car! Does your pedal go to the floor?

Mike Perry suggests increasing the length of the arm on the cross-shaft nearest to the chassis rail by 1", which would give a significant increase in leverage, and also pedal movement, which would not work for us! Well worth a try, and I would very very interested to hear about the results.

I'll go out shortly and have another look.Will try with spring off although it came in a kit with adjusting rod etc specifically for the car from Tom Roy.With no gearbox cover the pedals 2" higher than the brake pedal.I presume if the cover was on the square plate on the pedal would hit the cover and stop the pedal coming so high up?Glad to hear it appears to be assembled correctly anyway.I can get the pedal to the floor but need a lie down afterwards to get my strength back ;-).

Run up and down stairs at least 10 times a day............