Clutch Kit

Looks like the clutch in my 1971 Stag is failing. I'm about to order the parts and would like to know the answers to the following.

1. My local mechanic said to buy a "clutch kit". Rimmer Bros lists a clutch kit which includes a clutch plate, cover and release bearing. Is there a US domestic source for this kit or maybe the individual components? If not, is the kit from Rimmer the best choice?

2. Rimmer also lists a "clutch alignment tool". My mechanic says he has one for a TR4 but needs to know if it would be the same tool for a Stag. From looking at the Rimmer catalogs for Stag, TR4 and TR6 it would appear so, but I don't want to assume.

Thanks,

Paul Lugo
71 Stag
Fort Collins, CO

1. Purely my opinion (others will disagree I'm sure), but given all the woes the TR folk have had over the past two decades with clutch components that did not perform "as original", I opted to just have the friction plate relined. The pressure plate and throwout bearing were in "known good" shape, so I reused them. Can't really say if it was the right decision or not, but the clutch worked very nicely until I took the car off the road to rebuild the engine.
The cost should have been very modest as well; my local independant parts dealer said they could send the friction plate out for relining for under $50. Unfortunately, the mechanic I paid to do the job insisted on using his buddy instead, who charged $200. My dealer said they could have pressure plates rebuilt as well, for about half the price of new.

I'm sure we all have our vendor likes and dislikes. I much prefer dealing with LDPart over Rimmers, and I see that he offers the clutch components separately. I'm sure he can put them in a box and call it a kit if that makes your mechanic happy
[goo.gl]

2. I believe it should work. However the last commercially made tool I bought was so undersize that it didn't work very well. I prefer to use a spare (ruined actually) input shaft.

Also be sure that the "dowel bolts" are in place and have full size shanks. Both of my Stags have come to me without these special bolts. Since they appear to be NLA (Rimmers sells an ordinary bolt with the usual undersize shank), I made my own from "drill rod", threaded for nuts on both ends.

-- Randall



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2012 07:35PM by tr3driver.

Thanks to all who responded to my original query. I was able to order the clutch kit parts from Moss Motors here in the US.

As documented in earlier posts, getting all the bell housing bolts out was a bear, but the tranny is now out. Once the job is all done I will follow up with a post on some of the obstacles we encountered and how we dealt with them.

Unfortunately (it always seem to go this way) it turns out that not only are the clutch disk, pressure plate and release bearing all toast, the flywheel and release fork mechanism are also in need of attention. It looks like many but perhaps not all of the components of the release fork are common with the TR6, but it seems maybe the cross shaft is not (they have different part numbers in the Rimmer Bros. catalog.) Can anyone comment from experience on this?

Getting the flywheel out is also causing trouble. Any tips?

Thanks,
Paul

Paul Lugo
71 Stag
Fort Collins, CO