What to do with the clutch? (was violent clutch)

[Agwa Moose]

Right... this has been a problem since I got the car but now it's getting silly

When I bought the car the clutch was badly adjusted (to say the least), I adjusted it and all was fine for a few days then it went back to how it was, so I adjusted it again and again and again, roughly needed taking up a few turns every week

I adjusted it again today, it was fine for all of 10 miles, then it went back to stupidity

The problem being that it's impossible to set off smoothly, it starts to move fine then it's like you've been kicked in the back, does it on gear changes as well, feels like I've just stepped off the clutch pedal instead of bringing it up smoothly

Engine mount's seem fine, one was buggered but it's changed now, and there's no more engine movement than either of my 1.7's had, also the clutch is new, it was replaced a few weeks before I bought the car, so what else could cause it?

And it might be worth me mentioning that it's got the longer type release arm and also my adjustment info came from the HBOL, is it wrong on that bit as well?

any ideas?

J

[Agwa Moose]

Forgot about this one...

Sorted it (ish) a while back, it was a mix of two things, a badly routed cable, it had been pulled down in the engine bay towards the starter and tied in place, with a few tight turns on the way, so I undid it and routed it a bit better which made an improvement, and also the pedal wasn't on correctly , put that back right and wow! a working clutch!

But...

Recently there's been a noise, sounds like theres a bird singing under the bonnet, couldn't see anything obviously wrong so I just ignored it. Now it's got loud, so I had a proper look and it would seem that it's coming from the clutch area, looking through the inspection hole in the front of the gearbox you can see that the clutch itself is new, but the pressure plate isn't, so I'm guessing the release bearing isn't either, I've backed off the cable as much as I can, any further and I can't get into gear, and it still does it, not as loud but when the pedals pressed it howls, so definitely a buggered release bearing

Now then, the question - the clutch plate itself has only done about 4000 miles, so do I take it all apart to change just the bearing or do I assume the pressure plate's buggered and do that as well, or would I be better off just getting a full clutch kit and doing the lot?

A bit annoyed really at having to do this when it was supposed to have been done a few months back (and by a Volvo dealer), but I suppose it shouldnt be too bad with it all being apart recently - or is that just me being hopeful, it is a 480 after all

I'll stop babbling now...

J

[heavend]

Whoever did the clutch should get a real kicking for not doing the bearing at the same time. The bearings are cheap, and labour is not...unfortunately you have to separate the gearbox from the clutch as if you were replacing the clutch plate. See your Haynes manual for details...

[chris1roll]

Thats what you get for taking a car into kwik fit or mr clutch etc and paying peanuts for the job.... You get monkeys.
The 740 I dismantled had obviously been somewhere like that as they had rounded the inside allen head off one of the pressure plate bolts and then tightened it back up again with a pair of molegrips, knackering the outside too. That was fun to remove... all for a 50p bolt.