di I need to lubricate?

[samco]

I am the point where I am about to refit the engine and gearbox to my restored body but I need a question answered. Upon inspection I found that the clutch fork had a split in it where it sat over the pivot ball in the bell housing on my 5 speed gearbox. Apparently this is a common fault on these gearboxes so I ordered a new onw one which arrived today. Should I lubricate this ball and socket arrangement to prevent premature wear with some form of grease? My concern is that I can find no mention of lubrication in the BL manual and commen sence says to me that as the bell housing will be full of clutch dust, will grease or oil attract the clutch dust and accelerate the wear of the clutch fork socket, or should I leave it dry?

[DaveR]

I am the point where I am about to refit the engine and gearbox to my restored body but I need a question answered. Upon inspection I found that the clutch fork had a split in it where it sat over the pivot ball in the bell housing on my 5 speed gearbox. Apparently this is a common fault on these gearboxes so I ordered a new onw one which arrived today. Should I lubricate this ball and socket arrangement to prevent premature wear with some form of grease? My concern is that I can find no mention of lubrication in the BL manual and commen sence says to me that as the bell housing will be full of clutch dust, will grease or oil attract the clutch dust and accelerate the wear of the clutch fork socket, or should I leave it dry?

 

The Vitesse and 1850 Dolomite have a release arm working on a pivot ball fixed to the bellhousing and on both models splits in the release arm is a common fault. Good or bad lots of the past Standard Triumph engineering did find its way into the TR7.

 

The question was are they lubricated, well the answer is no because the lubrication would only last a short time and there is no way of easily re-applying it. I guess this is why BL did not advice the use of lubrication and relied on the harden surfaces. To be fair to BL the splits only occur after a high mileage. However, as an insurance in the past I have used a small amount of copper slip and after many miles of use, in a Vitesse, there haven't been any problems with dirt or cracks.

 

Just my own findings.

[malcolm]

Been there and got the T-shirt. My fork actually failed on a Kent group TR run a few years ago. Applying a small amount of copper slip seems a sensible idea to me.

 

Malcolm.

Edited December 14, 2007 by malcolm

[DaveR]

Been there and got the T-shirt. My fork actually failed on a Kent group TR run a few years ago. Applying a small amount of copper slip seems a sensible idea to me.

 

Malcolm.

 

Nasty, I have had one on the point of coming through. Luckly in my case I got enough feedback from the clutch pedal all was not well before it completely failed!

 

Wear, after a high mileage, on the locating pins is another problem. It there are no cracks and the retaining fork is ok I then turn the pins through 180 degree to the un-worn part.

 

As far as I know it first appeared in 1962 when the 1600 Vitesse was introduced. I was told the main reason for its use was the lack of room between the chassis and the bellhousing. Its fixed near the top of the bellhousing on the Vitesse.

 

Though it does have its problems this set-up seems to be a bit more reliable than the TR6/2000 arangement and easier to repair.

[samco]

You have both actually come up with the same solution that I did with the copperslip. However whilst talking to a friend about this issue this week I was offered a tube of graphite grease from an ex Boeing 747 engineer. Worth about £50 for a tube the size of a tube of toothpaste. He reccommended that so i'll give it a try