Goodbye clutch

My rattle-y flywheel problem exposed a near-toasted clutch. I got the car last Sept. at 15700 miles and after 2500 miles and 10 months, I discover this.

The tech says the clutch likely suffered from garagitis when the PO had the car; only 1000 miles in 5 years. The clutch materials got brittle and cracked and came off in chunks when I started driving the car for real.

At any rate, it's a $2800 part. Oh well.

 

Are you replacing the flywheel as well as the clutch?

 

If you are not replacing the flywheel, the clutch kit including the pilot and T/O bearings can be purchased for ~$500. It is a weekend job. The only special tool you need is a pilot bearing puller which most auto stores will loan / rent to you.

At most, you should only have to resurface the flywheel.

 

You will be happy with the new clutch...you won't believe how much better the T drives and performs...just in time for summer driving....look at it this way...you saved on double labor..they were already in there for the flywheel grease...I think you actually lucked out....not sure about this brittle clutch story....also price for parts not bad considering we have this double disc clutch...

 

Some seals are being replaced. Bearings and throw out and all of that apparently look fine.

Not sure why one would replace the flywheel. How does a flywheel go bad?

 

You can bottom out on some cars and destroy it...

Ken

 

If you did bottom out, you would for sure destroy the bell housing too.

Would replace If the flywheel surface is no good or damaged.


regards, Jim

 

The "pumkin" bell houseing is low but sits way back at teh very end of the car and my mondial is so low that most of the underside would bottom out and the bell housing would have to take a big hit for the flywheel to be detroyed...I think you might meean the surface of the flywheel could be destroyed and that is possible.

The Mondial T has a twin disc clutch and the flywheel surface is kinda thin when my clutch was replaced the flywheel surface was fine and was strongly advised against having it "ground and polished" as was my practice with my previous car repairs (xke, maserati), it turns out the flywheel was only cleaned up very lightly by hand and was fine..but then again I am careful not to burn clutches...and use my mondial as a fun spirited tourer and not a racer.

 

First, my apologies to add another part though it is best to do it while you are 'there'... Consider another $30 or so and replace the rear main seal as mine went and it is right there when you remove the clutch. It is a basic preventive measure, but a good thing to do IMHO as if the rear main leaks it means taking her all apart again to get to it.

 

Agreed and only took 30-45 minutes to have the old one out and a new one in.

 

thats ok if you have a Mondial 8, qv, or 3.2.

the Mondial T rear main seal is located between the engine and gearbox and as we know, the clutch on the Mondial T is on the rear of the gearbox. You have to remove completly the gearbox to replace the rear main seal.

Regards, jim

 

Hello New Clutch. Completely different feel. Engages quickly and crisply. Now I have to relearn how to do smooth starts. The rattley flywheel was packed with grease and hot start is now straightforward and reliable.

And the valve gaskets got replaced AGAIN and the A/C was fixed AGAIN.

The Joy of Italian Exotic Ownership!