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Leroy

Member Since: 20 Nov 2018
Location: Western Highlands
Posts: 15

2011 90 2.2 pickup clutch woes sorted at last.

Only got Tonka a few months back, with 32K miles and 2 previous owners, the second of whom only did a couple of thousand miles over 5 yrs and kept it in cotton wool in his garage. Seen here as advertised by previous owner

Looks mint, lovely green, was unmolested, and apart from replacing the original standard steel wheels and tubed tyres with sexy new Wolf style and BFG ATs, and attempting to improve the diabolical driver seat back alignment with some jacked-up-at-the-rear seat rails (made no appreciable difference), all I've done is get it fully serviced from front to rear, newly MOT'd, replace corroded brake pipes, and get it properly undersealed and given a general squirt elsewhere with waxoyl and dinitrol by a very thorough pro. Oh, and get a tub mat and a couple of new stainless tray catches.

Pronounced ready for anything.

But the

clutch was not being very kind, and it seemed to gain an already excess travel to a bite point very close to the floor on longer trips. Sound familiar??

Not happy!

System flushed and that helped enormously - for a week. Then suddenly pedal goes straight to the floor and has to be lifted back with my toe, repeatedly, can't be pumped up, and I limp home (fortunately almost there) in 2nd gear.

Half an hour later feels perfectly normal (well... as it had already been up until now).

Diagnosis options; hopefully master cylinder, probably slave cylinder (gearbox out job), could be clutch itself (ditto, of course).

My old-school mechanic says let's do master cylinder as the cheapest first option, and hope for the best. Fine by me.

Works a treat for one week again, then return of the pedal plunge suddenly, after a 100 mile trip. Feels a lot better after cooling down. Fluid level OK, but the brand new fluid is strangely discoloured.

Mechanic now suggests; thrust bearing is possibly sitting in contact with clutch fingers continuously and fluid in that ridiculously located concentric slave cylinder is getting to boiling point on a longer trip. Hence sudden failure. Culprit may be slave cylinder, or clutch itself is breaking down. Either way, it's time for a gearbox out job.

Time to sell another grandchild is what this means.

End result? Thrust bearing has had a groove worn into it and has worn clutch fingers down. Clutch springs are also loose. And yep, the slave cylinder was cooking in a nicely friction-heated bell housing.

Likely cause.....? One of previous owners probably drove with foot continually on the clutch for long periods.

Rest assured it wasn't me.

So we have a lovely new clutch which is a joy to use in comparison to the previous arrangement.

Anyone in the market for a grandchild?

Last edited by Leroy on 8th May 2019 11:08am. Edited 2 times in total

8th May 2019 10:48am

hank

Member Since: 12 Sep 2016
Location: South Wales
Posts: 2237

2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Stornoway Grey

What a swine. Did you upgrade to the heavy duty thrust bearing? > 110 XS Double Cab
> Instagram @simonlanemind

8th May 2019 10:59am

Leroy

Member Since: 20 Nov 2018
Location: Western Highlands
Posts: 15

Left the judgement to my mechanic, who seems to know his stuff and likes Deaffies, and he deals with parts suppliers who guarantee covering the cost of any part failure repair, including diagnosis and labour. I also only intend using the machine as mostly a low useage tarmac toy, so I figured that driven properly it'll last me well past my own use by date.

8th May 2019 11:07am

boxoftricks

Member Since: 06 Feb 2019
Location: Home Counties
Posts: 745

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 USW Zermatt Silver

I recently got a great tip on driving the defender to protect and extend the life of mechanicals as they are not built with the same refinement and tolerances as modern vehicles.

The advice was when you change gear fully depress the clutch, change gear carefully (not slam from one to another), fully release the clutch and only then press the accelerator.

This gives the gear and transfer box and drive train that critical few milliseconds to properly engage. Not to feather in the accelerator as you come off the clutch.

I've been doing this and it has got rid of a lot of the clonks and clanks I previously heard.

8th May 2019 11:39am

Leroy

Member Since: 20 Nov 2018
Location: Western Highlands
Posts: 15

Must practice that technique. Though I'm still coming to terms with just driving a manual car at all again, after years of lounging back in autos and letting it all happen via God's grace and the position of the loud pedal. I'm getting much better at remembering to change down for intersections and roundabouts in Tonka now, after some embarrassing kangaroo impersonations over my first few weeks.

Fortunately early training over many years in the dim past, in a succession of Morrie Minors and Hillmans has helped rejuvenate the muscle memories, plus a stint in Toyota Landcruiser volunteer bushfire response units back in Oz.

8th May 2019 4:51pm

boxoftricks

Member Since: 06 Feb 2019
Location: Home Counties
Posts: 745

Yep, it takes a while with conscious thought. Nothing wrong with kangarooing straight over the top of a roundabout showboating your off-road prowess

8th May 2019 5:14pm

blackwolf

Member Since: 03 Nov 2009
Location: South West England
Posts: 16934

boxoftricks wrote:
...

The advice was when you change gear fully depress the clutch, change gear carefully (not slam from one to another), fully release the clutch and only then press the accelerator.
...

How else would you change gear? There must be some seriously inept drivers out there!

It also helps if you double-declutch, especially down-changes.

8th May 2019 5:42pm

Zed

Member Since: 07 Oct 2017
Location: In the woods
Posts: 3042

2010 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 XS CSW Santorini Black

Quote:

How else would you change gear?

Beat me to it.

8th May 2019 5:43pm

Leroy

Member Since: 20 Nov 2018
Location: Western Highlands
Posts: 15

I assume the key point is the careful timing of the fast pedal. Not sure if I can estimate a millisecond, though.

Used to know how to double declutch many yrs ago (in Oz we called it double shuffle, which rolls off the tongue a bit easier).

Long lost skill now, but will start practising again.

Once I figure out where the ON button for the double de-whatever program is.

8th May 2019 5:58pm

Caterham

Member Since: 06 Nov 2008
Location: Birmingham
Posts: 6266

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 XS CSW Stornoway Grey

blackwolf wrote:
boxoftricks wrote:
...

The advice was when you change gear fully depress the clutch, change gear carefully (not slam from one to another), fully release the clutch and only then press the accelerator.
...

How else would you change gear? There must be some seriously inept drivers out there!

It also helps if you double-declutch, especially down-changes.

now where's that emogie with the hand in the air - you know the one that looks like a school kid with his hand in the air 'me sir, me sir'

joking aside - I'm not suggesting I'm completely inept BUT I do believe the defender has taken me longer to get used to than anything I've ever owned before and as such do sympathise with others struggling.

Personally I've always (so far as I can remember) depressed clutch, released accelerator, changed gear and then blipped accelerator - never had a problem before.

Defender on the other hand demands you keep the accelerator depressed and as mentioned before there's skimping on the clutch - fully depress and nice n slowly.

9th May 2019 8:09am

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