Triumph Repair: stuck spitfire clutch, clutch slave cylinder, clutch pedal

Question
I saw your answer to the fellow with the "stuck" clutch. I have a similar problem, but need a little more info. I have rebuilt the clutch master and slave cylinders, and both appear to be functioning. However, when I depress the clutch pedal (and it "feels" right), it does not disengage the gears. That is, the car remains in gear. When I remove the clutch slave cylinder altogether (as you suggested), it's the same. The car is still "in gear." I can shift the gears easily when the engine is not running--the gearshift moves fine. Are the splines rusted to the shaft? How can I loosen this?
Thanks,
Charlie

Answer
Hi Charlie,
I don't remember saying anything about removing the slave cylinder for a stuck clutch.
While it is possible that rust on the shaft can make the clutch stick and not release freely, All the ones I found were the disk stuck to the flywheel due to corrosion on the face of the flywheel due to setting for several months to several years.
I was able to brake about 50% of them loose by starting the engine and warming it up then shut it down and aim the car down a straight road with little to no traffic and no stop signs or lights. Then start the engine in 1st gear. Speed up to about the speed you would shift into 2nd and level off on the throttle so there is no decel load or accel load and pull the gear lever into neutral and quickly set the engine RPM at a lower amount that it would be if you were in 2nd gear. Then pull it into 2nd. If you do it correctly there will be no gear clash, just a slight jerk forward or aft. If you do it perfect, you will feel no jerk at all. Proceed to 3rd the same way and on to 4th the same way and when you get into 4th run the RPM up to about 3500 RPM and then hold the clutch pedal down all the way and open and close the throttle many times as you hold the clutch pedal down.
The reason you are using 4th gear is because the max load on a clutch is in the highest gear and the reason you are using 3500 RPM is because that is where you have the max torque form the engine.
If this does not work you need to pull the clutch out to fix it.
let me know how you do.
Howard