Clutch lever

[jphoenix]

The clutch lever on my transaxle has almost fallen off. From the marks, it appears to have been in this position for some time. I quick tap with a bronze hammer and it slid off, however it's plenty tight on the shaft, just seems not to have been pushed all the way on.

Is there anything that is supposed to keep the lever in place on this shaft? I don't see a roll pin or anything like that to fix the lever in pace on the shaft.





Also, I placed the transaxle on its nose as shown in the photo to clean off the old paint and re-paint it, I noticed about a cup of gear oil leaking past the front seal (after an hour or so) - is this normal, or should I replace that front seal?

[Caracal99]

Hey Jim,

The throw out bearing shaft is supposed to have a circlip in a groove near the end of the shaft. It 's job is to keep the arm in place on the shaft. Obviously it's missing and allowed the arm to slide (almost) off. You need to get another circlip fitted and you'll be back in business.

You probably didn't notice, but the input shaft actually extends slightly beyond the edge of the trans belhousing. If you're going to place the trans in that position, you'll need a couple of pieces of wood (1") between face the trans and the horizontal surface that you place it on. If the front seal didn't leak previously you're probably still good.

hope this helps...
Paul

[jphoenix]

Thanks Paul, the input shaft is sitting in a hole in the bench and now I see the land for the circlip, cool. That's an easy fix. I think the previous mechanic forgot to finish the installation as the nut on the clutch cable pulley was only on hand tight.

[Veefan]

Sometimes the circlip groove is very warn or the clip your using has seen better days and they'll pop off during a race. Many transaxles I've used have had a small hole drilled through the lever and the shaft with a nut and bolt added for safety. In a pinch at a track a few tack welds from a mig will keep it in place also lol

As seen in the top arm.

[jphoenix]

The clip groove appears to be fine, it appears that the clip was simply never reinstalled by the previous owner.

[tiagosantos]

I've also seen some shafts with a groove on the bottom, used with a clamping style clutch lever arm!

But yeah, seems like you've figured this one out already I can't remember the size of the circlip, but I had one of those cheap parts store boxes of random sizes and one of them worked OK.

[jphoenix]

It's a 15 mm circlip, got a pack of 5 from McMaster.