Advice On Reinstalling Clutch on '74 mk2a

If it is, then you "wind" the spring in from one end. You may have to tap the last couple of inches into place to seat it properly.

If not, then it's possible the clutch pack is too thick? That compressor looks fine - I made mine out of a length of large diameter tube.

Hi Ron

I had a similar problem when I did mine for the first time, perhaps made a little harder because I put a 3mm plate in to help lighten the clutch.

I think where I went wrong is that I overcompressed the spring, perhaps out of fear of the spring! When the spring is too flat the opposing spring tangs seem to act in different directions causing the spring to distort from the flat. I succeeded in the end by uncompressing the spring a little so that it became slightly concave and went flatter at the edge. This enabled me to feed the retaining clip back in. When back in push against it with the flat of a screwdriver to make sure it is really home. When adjusting the spring, just make sure that the centre bolt is properly locked into the hub so that it cannot possibly come undone when you adjust the spring.

It did take a lot of careful fiddling, but was actually easy when the spring was the right shape. I’m sure you will get more experienced replies- but we all do it for the first time at some point! good luck

Steve

On the retaining clip there is a small cutout at the end - when the clip is nearly completly in get a screwdriver inserted in the cutout and either a sharp tap with a hammer or the palm of your hand should ensure the clip is well seated in the groove. You should be able to see if it is correctly seated all the way around by the amount left showing. The above assumes that you have the clutch tool correctly used on the spring to give you full acess to the grove for the clip.

Regards - Paul.