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Clutch Release Mechanism and Bell Housing
 
New pin on left, notice slightly longer, apparently this is to improve clearance when the friction disc wears.  

 

Modified bell housing with the steel insert.

 

Before assembly, I scribed a line on the pin and bell housing, its difficult to align the pin flat with 
the hole flat when the bell is fitted to the engine block because the flat orientation is obscured.
The flat on the pin provides a grip for open ended spanner to turn slightly one way or other to line up.

 
 
Installation of the bell housing with the fork and pin was actually quite easy, one thing that helped 

was that the pin was prevented from pushing through the fork by the plate bolted to the back, the

rubber boot helps to keep approximate correct orientation. Locktite was used to secure the retaining 

bolt. 

 

 

I decided to use the method employed by Gunther, but not with a tube running from the fork to the 
bell housing wall, instead I just screwed a M6 grease nipple into the fork, which I can access from 
another hole in the bottom of the bell housing. The reason for this is that I can see the grease nipple 
from the side inspection hole, whilst applying grease from the bottom, I loaded the assembly with 
grease before I assembled it, I don't think it will need any more grease for a long time, but at least I can 
see what is going on.

View from the hole in the bottom of the bell housing used to grease the fork and pin.

 

View of the grease nipple from the inspection hole in the side of the bell housing.

 

Following 2 pics show size and position of the greasing access hole.

 

 

 

This pic shows the view looking up through the grease access hole, I guess as a emergency 
you could drill this hole and apply some lube if the clutch actuation was creaky, or at least 
see if the pin was loose. Circled is the pin poking through the bell housing and into the clutch 
release fork. Lube should be aimed at the position show by the arrow. Have somebody operate 
the clutch at the same time

 

 

Another issue I wanted to deal with was lubrication of the "T" pieces that sit in the fork ends which 
pull on the release bearing flange. I've heard that these can seize up over time, no great suprise 
after what I've already seen elsewhere. I drilled another hole in the other side of the bell housing 
which would allow a tube to reach the release bearing flange to add just a couple of drops of oil 
couple times per year. The hole was tapped M10 so it could be plugged with a short bolt.

 

There is a direct line of sight to the release bearing flange from this hole, some light from the 
lower access hole will make things visible.

 

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