'63 2000 with clutch stuck on

chrisw

chrisw

Well-Known Member
Technical question; '63 2000, has been standing now for about 10 months and the clutch is stuck on. Will move in and out of gear when the engine is off, but not when started. Can start in gear, kind of, but won't release the clutch.

Any suggestions other than engine removal?
 
chrisw said:
Technical question; '63 2000, has been standing now for about 10 months and the clutch is stuck on. Will move in and out of gear when the engine is off, but not when started. Can start in gear, kind of, but won't release the clutch.

Any suggestions other than engine removal?
Click to expand...

Can you tow the car? If you can, you can try towing it with the gearbox in 4th and the clutch pedal down. May or may not be successful. Even if you free the clutch you may have to pull the engine anyway, as the clutch plate may be ruined by the rust (I'm assuming that's the problem—have you eliminated faulty hydraulics and the like).

Yours
Vern
 
Start it in first gear, and go for a drive. Drive it as if you were driving it without the clutch. Pull out of gear wait for the rpm's to drop and it will go into the next one. Do not force it. Drive like this but put your foot on the clutch pedal when changing gears and release it. This may free it up, with the vibrations from the road and the gear box. The down side of this is some skill is required to do clutchless gear changes, however many Rover owners have this skill having driven home at least one without the clutch operating. I am one of those Rover owners.

James.
 
HI, as James says. The only thing I would add is get it hot first and get it up into top if
you can because this puts the most load on the clutch. When it is free slip the clutch a
couple times gently to polish the faces. This is all a bit difficult nowadays with cars having
to be legal on the road at all times.

Colin
 
Jack the rear wheels off the ground , and run it in top with the clutch down , accelerating and de accelerating . As above though , ensure the hydraulics are working :D
 
First thing I would suggest is to get the engine and box good and hot ; an hour's idling will see to this . If this alone does not free it off, then, as others have suggested, choose a quiet time and drive the car for a mile or two in first gear, alternating drive and overrun ( don't be too vicious with the throttle ) whilst all the time keeping the clutch pedal pressed fully down . It is rare for this not to work and , in my experience, the plate usually comes to little harm

Personally I would not change gear - this creates rather high loads when 1st gear is involved
 
Thanks for all the advice. Problem is that I can't drive the car, as we're in a built-up area.

So, on to Plan B. We'll see what next weekend brings :)
 
I would go for the Stina solution above, as it does not involve driving the car on the road. If that does not work, try wedging the clutch pedal down while it is still hot and leaving it overnight.
 
When i have had to run the car on the driveway. I put drive on ramps under the trailing arms and take off the wheel just incase . Even had the speedo read over 100mph once.

Would hitting the brakes with the clutch in help or would thtat strain the gearbox too much?

Colin
 
A combination of Colin and Stina's advice, really.
Support it rock solid under the body, run up engine to some speed with clutch pedal down and apply brakes carefully until engine is at lowest comfortable speed, then come off brakes abruptly.
Repeat and repeat. As Stina says, leave wheels on to increase inertia effect. Sometimes it comes free with a bang and other times everything just smooths out as the running gear stops spinning.
We never broke a transmission doing this and I can't ever remember a time when this wasn't eventually effective, but it feels like crude mechanical abuse when you're doing it (which it is, really)

John
 
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