Triumph Repair: triumph clutch, brake master cylinder, clutch system

Question
Hi Jim, last year my water pump went out on my 78 and i replaced it but then when i went to drive it the clutch didnt seem to be working. The water pump broke while I was driving it so I'm not sure how the clutch went out as I haven't driven the car since then. After I replaced the pump the car starts up just fine and runs nicely, I just can't go anywhere! Any ideas what happened?

Answer
Christiana,

The clutch on the Spitfire is hydraulically operated.   That mean that in addition to the brake reservoir there is a smaller aluminum reservoir next to the brake master cylinder that also needs to be filled with brake fluid.  First thing to check is that there is fluid in the reservoir.

Then the question is if when you push on the clutch pedal is there any resistance at all or does it just go to the floor?  If it goes to the floor you're either low on fluid (see paragraph 1) or it's run so low that the system is full of air and needs to be bled.

Worst case (but not uncommon) is that the rubber pieces in the hydraulic system have become too worn and the year of sitting around has finally killed them.  

To either bleed the clutch system or replace the master and slave you'll need to pull the seats, the center console support and the transmission cover.   At that point it's a fairly simple straightforward job.



Cheers,

Jim