j8s clutch

[ross]

Hi, I am taking the clutch out of my 2.1 turbo diesel, j8s, as the car is 18 years old and to my knowledge has never had a replacement clutch, or so I thought. With the gearbox out of the car I have examined the clutch release bearing and it was very stiff to move on the input shaft. The clutch has always been very heavy on the pedal, so I was not surprised to see it so stiff. My question is about the retaining of the thrust bearing. On similar Renault clutch units there is a spring to retain the thrust bearing onto the actuating fork, but not on this one. There is only a retaining hook on one side of the release bearing to clip onto the actuator fork, which makes it seem a bit one sided. Does anyone know if there should be some type of retaining spring, as there are holes if the actuator fork to accept one.
I will take a photo or two and add to this thread as soon as I can.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Regards
Ross

[BrianM]

You should replace the release bearing anyway, no point doing all this work & not. A new one will have retainers on both sides. I had a car that the bearing broke up & the clutch was being opened by the clutch fork! I needed to mig weld the fork to rebuild it & then reprofile it to make it work again.

   

[ross]

Hi BrianM, many thanks for the response to my enquiry, but I have moved on and replaced the complete clutch unit, including the release bearing, which was slightly different in design from the original.
The original release bearing had a flat front face with a raised lip, which had worn a groove in the fingers of the pressure plate and worn completely through one of the fingers, which is why it was very heavy to push down and always stiff to use. The new clutch release bearing has a rounded front face and is so much lighter to use, but the throw is still very short which makes the bite point very close to the floor. I will see how it settles, as it wears in. The whole job was not as bad as I had feared, but the damper unit on the top of the gearbox is a bit difficult to replace in its position at the back of the engine. I did like the fact that you didn't need to remove the driveshafts from the hubs, as when the hubs were released from the top wishbone the driveshafts slid off of the gearbox spline and fell clear.
This clutch lasted 160,000 miles, and the friction plate has still got some life left in it, so I hope the new one does the same.
Many thanks for your reply.
Regards...Ross