Hi, been lurking on here a while now and soaking up all the useful info since buying my 348 last year. Working my way through a list of jobs and having had the belts done, I’ve fixed the sticky plastics, fitted a stereo, rewired the passenger door and fixed the driver’s electric window…goes on Earlier this year the clutch got stuck where it sat for a little while, it needed doing anyway so I had the plates relined and put it all back together. only problem was everytime I added the little circlips to the intermediate plate it would cause the clutch not to engage. So I took them out and it was fine, so just trying to understand how to fit these small circlips correctly as without them I get a small rattle when the clutch is depressed which I didn’t get before. Any guides or ideas please? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The circlips go on the posts of the ring in the top left of the first photo but my understanding is that you have to put them in the small gap below the holes on the plate on the top right of the 1st photo. Not the easiest thing to explain
What "little circlips" to the intermediate plate are you referring to? (provide picture) My 348 twin clutch does not have any circlips. Perhaps you can also indicate on the diagram below where your circlips are. Image Unavailable, Please Login
They go on the post circled in orange here, and seem to slot in a small hole I’ve circled in blue below. These are the c clips, photo taken from Ernie’s guide Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looking at Ernie’s guide I think I may have pushed the intermediate plate down too far. Not sure, still have quite a heavy clutch with the bite fairly high up too
The circlips should be trapped between the pieces riveted in place and provide a slight drag to the floater plate movement. It is not possible push the plate too far. Too heavy, too light, poor engagement position are all complaints I have had with relined multi disc clutches. I will never install one in a client car. If I will not suffer it in mine, I will not ask them to pay me for installing such garbage.
Did you check the set-up height of you system? There is a narrow window where the clutch is new to wornout. rebuilders often get the plate thicknesses wrong. There is an open and closed thickness in the WSM. Also this will change from the manual specs if you have trued the flywheel and the int. plate because you lost some thickness there too. Clutch rebuilder guys have been breathing too much lining dust and it destroys their brain cells. I have never had one do it right. I have always had to measure myself before I leave the rebuilder! Every one trip clutch rebuild has been a minimum of 2 trips and sometimes it's 3. This is why shops just buy new clutch assemblies because they don't have time for all the nonsense.
By machining the clutch surfaces, you have lost some of the clamping force coming from the pressure plate when tightened. Also, the relined (not a good idea) clutch discs may be somewhat thinner than what they should be. This is the reason why your clutch is now heavy and "biting" too high. You should not use it as you may damage the pressure plate diaphragm "fingers" since, in the clutch condition you are having, the thrust bearing will be pushing/forcing the "fingers" too much in. As advised by "fatbillibob", it is very important that you check the set-up height of you clutch (I have attached an extract from the WSM on the clutch setup). If you are lucky, you may be able to bring your clutch to within the specified height by using thinner or omitting the clutch shims (see picture below) which will also reinstate the lost clamping force of the pressure plate. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I was also partially wrong here. Since you have machined down all clutch surfaces, you may not be able to achieve the specified clutch height (unless you use thicker clutch discs which would compensate for the lost thicknesses of the clutch plates and the flywheel). If your clutch discs are of standard thickness, you will have to work with lower clutch height (by the total of all removed thicknesses from the clutch surfaces). Then, compare this total (cumulative) removed thickness with the thickness of the clutch shims. If these two thicknesses happen to be similar, removing the shims would reinstate the clutch clamping force.
