Clutch Adjustment

[D87 SMW]

Can the clutch be adjusted on the 1.3 A Series Maestro at all? I took a drive in the car yesterday and I feel it is biting too near the top. Is there a way of adjusting it so it bites roughly in the middle, or am I being stupid?

:rolleyes:

[onza100]

If its like my car a 1.3lx '91 It will have a self adjusting cable. When mine got really close to the top the clutch went not long after hope this is not the case with yours.

[D87 SMW]

Originally posted by onza100
If its like my car a 1.3lx '91 It will have a self adjusting cable. When mine got really close to the top the clutch went not long after hope this is not the case with yours.

Uh oh... :eek: :banghead: :o :horror: :giveup:

[e692wtt]

On my Monty 1.6, the 'biting point' rises over several weeks' use, then 'clicks' back down one 'step' on the mechanism. It's easily felt if a little 'odd'. When this stops, I think the clutch will then need replacing 'soon'...

On a 'manually adjusted' cable, you can set the 'biting point' where you want however - I don't think any of our cars ever had these though.

[BIGLAD]

If you grab your clutch cable near where it enters the car, through the bulkhead (it will be covered by a "black rubber boot") and give it an almighty "yank" towards you it may adjust the biting point for you.
You really do have to pull it hard and it doesn't always work.
Thanks Biglad

[G Force]

Originally posted by BIGLAD
If you grab your clutch cable near where it enters the car, through the bulkhead (it will be covered by a "black rubber boot") and give it an almighty "yank" towards you it may adjust the biting point for you.
You really do have to pull it hard and it doesn't always work.
Thanks Biglad

Hiya, this method above only works if the biting point is too low.

The self adjusting cable on the maestro Montego is not the most reliable bit of kit that Rover ever produced. The mechanism has a tendency to stick and you end up with an incorrectly adjusted clutch. There is a way to re-set the cable, what you have to do is take hold of the clutch release arm at the gearbox and push it very firmly downwards this will cause the self adjusting part of the cable where the spring is to compress. If you then Take hold of the cable and gently ease it away from the bulk head letting the spring do most of the movement the cable will reset.

Cheers Gary

[Rich]

Whilst on the subject of clutches, H902 had a new clutch about 10 thou miles ago. Recently, and noticably, everytime I pull away I am getting a judder. It can be really quite bad in the mornings. The old one did this before I had it replaced, and originally the new one didnt do it at all. Does anyone know what causes the judder?

[H48HPE]

my dads car was doing that juddering whilst pulling away business (peugeot 405) and after a few weeks it did its last judder when its thrust bearing calopsed. could it be a similar problem to that?

Andy

[Simon]

Rich, you might have a weak rear engine mounting or the flywheel might be slightly out of true, or the idling speed might be too low perhaps. My first Maestro, a 1985 1.6HL, needed a new clutch at 36,000 miles. Not only was it juddering but it was also starting to slip. By 48,000 the judder was back but worse, and I was just about to fix it when a horse wrote it off back in 1989! My current Mayfair used to have a bad judder until I replaced the engine/clutch/virtually everything else nearly 50,000 miles ago. I'm just getting a very faint judder starting and I'm convinced it is the rear engine mounting becoming soft after nearly 150,000 miles/15 years of use.

[derek mclean]

You can fit the earlier manually-adjusted cable to the later cars. Alas, you can't do this with Honda-gearbox versions, because the cable is longer and there was never a manually-adjusted version. But on all VW boxes, to the best of my knowledge, just use the very early cable, along with all the other bits that go with it.

However, with the Honda boxes (and with any other self-adjust cable) you can tweak the auto-adjust mechanism manually, a little bit. By using the basic technique mentioned above, i.e. pushing the lever on the box downwards, you can sometimes choose the point at which the self-adjuster settles. It is a bit trial-and-error, and it may take several attempts. It may not even work at all, depending on how much spring and friction there is in the cable and the adjuster.

Odd feel doesn't necessarily mean the clutch needs replaced.

Another way of adjusting it is to screw the self-adjuster away from the bulkhead slightly, and hope it doesn't immediately spring back.

Derek.

[E_T_V]

I've got terrible clutch judder on my rover 214 (very common problem)

clutch judder is caused by any/all of the following:

1. Warped friction plate (can be warped fairly easily if it is put together wrong when it is replaced)
2. Warped pressure plate (never known this on 1.3 or 1.6's)
3. Worn gearbox bearings
4. Broken springs inside the clutch

If it isn't a mega milage car then my guess is that they botched the friction plate when they changed it, either that or you have a hugely powerful engine that overheats it.