Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax morgan aero clutches

FWIW, the nice guys at Williams rang back after investigating my clutch comments to say that the clutch in this case was perhaps at the extreme end of the normal range because of mileage / wear but nevertheless was normal. They put the over centre feel down to the floor pivotted pedals. I put it down to bad design.

For me it remains unacceptable by a big margin.

Depends on perspective Howard.

I learnt on a Beetle and have had other floor hinged cars so adjust to it. If you had not driven these before I can see why you would form this opinion.

The first time I drove S1 and S2 I was surprised by the variation of clutches. Turned out S1 had a different gearbox to S2 which biased my impressions between them as well.

My specific S2 felt similar to how I understand your description and it took a little human adjustment but now I am fine with it. Anyone who has a go in it finds it a bit difficult at first as well. When you combine that with the traditional revs "hang" from 1st to 2nd it is the most annoying feature on the ar as far as I am concerned (creaks, leaks and fettling opportunities excluded).

It helps if you adjust the seats closer to the pedals so you can use your leg and not your ankle for more of the push but then you chew steering wheel and possibly airbag. The limited seat run on the Mog is quite limiting for this. This is the reason SWMBO is unable to drive the S2. It would be good if the pedal box was adjustable but I guess this is a fairly extensive set of changes in that tiny footwell. Still at £80-90k you would think driving position would be high on the agenda.

There's no doubt that bottom hinged pedals initially take some getting used to.

For what it's worth, when I purchased my 2005 Aero, my wife complained the clutch made it undrivable. After going through and flushing all the fluids, including the clutch, it made a WORLD of difference. The old clutch fluid had never been changed and had the consistency of petroleum jelly. The clutch now operates as smoothly as a standard BMW (unsurprisingly).

I never understand why, when brake fluid should be changed at a maximum of 3 years (preferably 2 on my cars) the clutch fluid (it's the same hydraulic fluid) isn't done at the same time, or for many more years?

Isn't it because it doesn't tolerate the same levels of heat?

But it's still hygroscopic Dave.
I know it's not a safety critical item, but surely there should be some guidance on changing?

On this very subject I just read a post over in PH where an owner said he had been told by Morgan on a test ride, that the clutch spring was kept hard to prevent drivers damaging the clutch. The root cause being the absence of a left foot rest and the driver therefore sitting with his foot, permanently on the clutch pedal.

He was talking about a drive in a Plus 4 but I wonder if the attitude had carried over to the Aero?

Graham

Reading this thread I just realised than in the nine years I owned my S1 Aero I didn't change the clutch fluid once, though I did change the brake fluid every 3 years.

Since both the master cylinder and slave cylinder are used consistently through the same travel every time you're not going to get any sitting corrosion in the bores of the cylinders that could damage seals, but yes as you say Graham the fluid will still degrade as it gradually absorbs water so it would be wise to replace at some point. Every 8 years?

On a totally different car (a 2010 2.0TDI Skoda Yeti) but similar theme I had a bizarre problem with the car that I bought it 2nd hand with full Skoda service history. After driving a couple of hours on a motorway the clutch would no longer operate. After a lot of head scratching turned out the the clutch fluid circuit (taken off the brake master cylinder) had never been flushed. Heat build up on the clutch circuit meant the fluid boiled and hey presto no clutch! A flush of the system with new fluid cured the problem.

Cheers