Morgan 4/4 CVH clutch adjustment – 3rd time a charm?

The shortest summary for the work tonight I can give is the following:

Since finishing the Morgan, I sometimes ran into Vapor Lock issues. This can be caused by issues with the fuel supply or heat. After checking and partly replacing all components of the fuel and ignition system I rule this out as root cause. Something else must be the reason for excessive engine heat. During the trip to Italy, I also noticed a slipping clutch on inclines. Therefore, my assumption is that it has do with my clutch adjustment.

Most cars use a hydraulic operated clutch nowadays. Older designs – like the one from my Morgan – use a cable operated clutch. Two brackets mounted at an angle transfer the travel of the pedal to a cable. This in turn pulls a lever in the gearbox tunnel towards the release bearing. On RHD cars – this Morgan specific part is rather short and the bracket are none to break. In LHD cars – like mine – a piece of half-inch tube connect the bracket just in front on the chassis crossmember from the left to the right.

When restoring the car, I did not really check- or think about this. I took the parts off, cleaned them, and put them back together. There is an article on Gomog that says the cable should not have any free play. After some fiddling, I could shift gears without an issue – but did not realize that I most likely over tightened the cable. The effect is pretty mich like keeping the foot on the clutch pedal – a permanent “riding the clutch”. The release bearing is slightly pressing the fingers of the clutch – causing a loss of grip on the disk – which results in slipping. The causes excessive heat on the flywheel and I think that this could be the root cause of the problems.

Andre Koopman told me that over time the tube in the CVH Morgan twist – causing the two brackets having less of an angle. He told me to bend the tube back and increase the angle – but I forgot to ask if he knew the right number of degrees. The image on the mentioned Gomog page did not look like a 90 angle so I went from about sixty to about 75 degrees between the two brackets. At first, I thought that this solved the issue – but just the day before the Rallye I had a hard time getting the gears in. The only thing I could do is tighten the cable a bit more again. On inclines I noticed a slipping clutch and the engine temperature immediately went up again. Not as bad as before – but still an issue

I posted a question on the TalkMorgan forum and got the hint that the angle of the bracket should be 90degrees. Tonight, I gave this a try. This adds roughly 2.5mm to the travel of the cable – allowing to release pre-engagement and easier shifting. After putting everything back on the car – the lever still makes the release bearing almost touch the clutch fingers – there is just a very tiny amount of play in the cable now. It felt better and it is now much easier to shift gears – I will need to do a longer test drive with inclines to find out.

To properly fix the issue in the long term, I will need to fabricate a new tube with new brackets – but this is something I can do in a few weeks. The next task is already waiting – Saabeth needs a new exhaust….