Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Clutch 1979 4/4 - Ford Cross-Flow

Hi,
My dad's 79' 4 seater clutch has started to play up when engaging reverse gear, its a bit noisy and will engage when the revs are matched.

The other gears will operate as normal.

The car has a standard 4 speed Ford box.

I have adjusted the clutch cable however this does not resolve the issue?

Is there a simple fix or does it need a new clutch? Also if it is a clutch, what is involved in the change..

The car is currently No.2 Highest mileage morgan in the club at approx 330,000..

Thanks,
Will

The question is how many miles since it last had a new clutch? I suspect in 330 miles it has a few. I replaced mine in my 81 4/4 at 80K miles.

To replace it, you will have to pull the engine. I have a few pics and a parts list if you want it. I sourced the parts in the US, but you could easily find them in the UK.

It had the engine rebuilt about 60k ago..

If you could send pics and parts list that would be amazing, my email is william.culbert@gmail.com

Any simple cheap fixes it could be other than the cost of replacing the clutch?

Thanks,
Will

Also can you do any damage by continuing to use it as it is..

Will

Docs on the way.

Docs on the way. Re other issues. You should feel the clutch slipping. When it's worn too far, it will slip and not disengage cleanly. If the only issue is difficulty when engaging Reverse, it may be more of a transmission issue than a clutch issue. Does it do it all the time, e.g. when the gear box is warm after some use?

Hi Will

A car with 330k miles may well need a new clutch !

But I had a '78 4/4 that I mistakenly thought needed a new clutch, when all it needed was to be adjusted properly !

On this car the engine/gearbox combo is Ford Escort Mk.2, and the clutch cable needs to have ALL free-play adjusted out at the bell-housing to give the correct free-play at the pedal.

If you can pull the clutch cable outer, with little effort, forward at the bell-housing end, you have free-play that needs adjusting out for correct free-play at the pedal.

You may be in for a very pleasant surprise !

Best of luck
Andrew Green
Glorious Devon
2002 Plus 8 (but had '78 4/4 for 15 years)

Woes in engaging reverse gear can indicate a dragging or out of adjustment clutch. Reverse is a bit harder to engage than the forward gears as there is no syncromesh on reverse and there is on all forward gears.

A worn out clutch will generally start slipping, although other faults can occur.

You might be lucky when you next replace the clutch but there are rather a lot of combinations of possible bits, and a reasonable chance of a replacement part not being correct. As a result, not advised as a Saturday afternoon, Sunday job, but one best done in normal working hours.

Oh, and make sure you've got the hoist for long enough as for some reason, I always find putting the gearbox back on a 4/4 curiously difficult despite aligning the clutch properly.

Don't forget the spigot bearing in the end of the crankshaft. This can get dirty and cause friction thus turning the gearbox shaft and crunchy changes.

sr

While I had one fail at about 2000 miles, normally the spigot bush will safely do the life of at least two clutches. But it is a very cheap component, whose replacement takes the same labour as a clutch replacement, so any doubt, do it!

Failure of mine was total, one piece crank and gear-box input shaft and with the engine running, you could not select any gear. Got about 200 miles warning but didn't know what it was. All worked, but holding the clutch pedal down produced a rustling sound like dry leaves were being stirred.