Clutch adjustment

[wemooz]

There have been many questions and answers about clutch problems and I am just the latest one. I have a 428CJ with a Richmond gear 5 speed in my ERA 290 together with the regular ERA master and slave cylinder setup. When my car is cold, it shifts well. When it gets hot, it shifts with difficulty. When it gets very hot, it cannot be shifted into any gear unless the engine is stopped. The problem seems almost clearly that there is insufficient clearance between the flywheel and the driven clutch disc. I need to correct this, but I simply hate laying under the car, so I want to get the best advice before I start to get my hands dirty and do things that do not work. If it is a case of bleeding the hydraulic cylinders, I need to know if the front end should be higher than the rear or vice versa. If it might be something else, I need to know what to check so that I have the right tools with me under the car. Any and all advice will be very gratefully appreciated.

[DanEC]

I can't answer your question but I can give you a lesson learned tip on "Bleeding the clutch System on an ERA for Idiots Guide" (of which I am on occassion one). The cylinder in the end of the slave cylinder with the bleeder port and the hose connection can rotate 360 deg. When bleeding the slave be sure cylinder is rotated so the bleeder port is at the top and air isn't trapped.

How much free travel do you have in the system before the clutch starts to take up resistance? Possibly you need to adjust the rod length - longer.

[patrickt]

Wemooz, if you don't mind spending a little bit of dough first, buy one of these New Cool Tool - DeWalt DC410 Inspection Camera - Quick Review with Pics and Video and then zip tie the camera end pointing right at your clutch fork/slave interface. Use the wireless screen to watch it a little bit, as you are driving in a safe parking lot, until you're sure as to its appearance when it is working properly. Then get the car nice and hot and watch it via the screen as it misbehaves. That will almost assuredly diagnose it for you. You can even snap shots of it, videos too, and post them here. I did that in the thread for the fork/slave interface, in fact. Just do the same thing.

[jhv48]

IF your master and slave cylinders are BOTH below the clutch fluid reservoir, you can do a gravity bleed.

Basically, all you do is remove the lid from the fluid reservoir, crawl under the car and open the slave bleeder valve and let the fluid drip into a catch can. Stay close and refill the reservoir as it gets low. You don't want it to run completely dry or you could introduce air into the master cylinder.
Once you have filled up the reservoir a couple of times, all the old fluid will have been cycled out. Tighten the bleeder valve, top off the reservoir and go for a drive.

This is how I have bled my SPF tons of times. Very simple.

Hopefully this cures the problem. It's by far the easiest thing to check. Sounds like a little moisture in the line.