ford prefect clutch judder

[fordfan]

Hello all. I have a 1953 ford e493a prefect which has teeth rattling clutch judder when I pull away in first gear,if its rolling along a bit and I pull away in second its fine but I have a steepish hill on my way home from work with a lot of stop start traffic on it which can be fun in the rush hour as it really sets the old girl vibrating!I have completely rebuilt the engine including new rope oilseals although to be honest they don't seem to be sealing much which could be part of the problem but then there is nothing I can do about the basic design of the engine and I would think that on a longish journey any oil that was finding its way onto the clutch would be burnt or thrown off via centrifugal force but no matter how far I travel it still does it.I have also adjusted the radius rods as per the hand book ( about 5 times ! ) and replaced the engine mounts but to no avail, so before I take the plunge and order a new clutch is there anything obvious that I may have missed? I may add that I rescued the car from a lay up of 30 years which could have some effect on the clutch but when the engine was out it looked ok,somebody told me that the springs on the clutch plate get weak over time but I would of thought that with the clutch being left on as it were for 30 odd years not much harm could come to it.Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Keith.

[JPB]

Is this the first car you've driven that has a coil spring-type clutch cover? Maybe try a few others before assuming that there's too much wrong with it.

It's possible that the springs under the three fingers which support the thrust pad are a little weak and that one has taken more wear than the others, so the carbon bearing and the thrust pad wouldn't then be making full contact until quite late in the travel of the release fork, but that's not something to worry about as long as the clutch isn't dragging or slipping and that there's at least some clearance.

This affects any car with a coil spring clutch combined with a carbon thrust pad and it does so because, unlike in a modern car whose release bearing has to meet the clutch cover concentrically, carbon thrust "bearings" meet the cover in a path that's an arc so other than for a very brief period in the middle of the clutches life cycle, the pad will have to support a load that's meeting it from above or slightly below but rarely evenly.

[jimmyybob]

3 things come to mind, Worn or broken springs, oil on the clutch plates or loose mountings or as in the case of my VW the engine was loose on the gearbox..

[OneCarefulOwner]

The description of the problem almost denies any chance of it being oil on the clutch; it wouldn't be catching anything like as violently as is being described, in fact quite the opposite! The steep hill would be insurmountable due to slip.

I don't suppose there's an option to just avoid this road?

[fordfan]

Thanks for your thoughts guys,I think the oil on the clutch theory is as has been said unlikely and there is absolutely no slip as it pulls strongly from fairly low revs in top gear and the engine is definately not loose on the gearbox or its mountings,I had my suspicions about the springs but I wasn't really sure how a weak clutch spring would affect the driving of the car but I guess that could be the most likely cause along with perhaps the carbon thrust bearing,anyway its still perfectly driveable and once I'm underway all is fine so I'm going to carry on enjoying driving it through the summer and add another winter project to my list of things to do, I have a 105e anglia and consul classic as a back up if things get really shaky,who needs modern cars anyway !

Thanks everybody

Keith.