The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk beware of them flywheel covers! shooting myself in the foot

so heres an interesting discovery

a while back i fitted one of those aftermarket grp flywheel covers

been fine

then this weekend i tried to use my truck and noticed straight away two things

1) my clutch had suddenly and without warning at all failed. impossible to get it to disengage and ground every gear

2) my engine had sprung a fairly large water leak..from where i couldnt tell


i had water dripping off the engine rear and a faily large puddle of clear cold water on the driveway. this really got my head scratching as is wasnt coolant....

clutches dont usually just suddenly fail like that so i dug deaper...


turns out that some how, maybe from heavier than normal rainfall the flywheel cover had filled with rain water, the clutch must have become wet and stuck engaged.


i removed the cover, loosened the clutch plate bolts used a screwdriver to gently pry the clutch free.

and clutch is running fine again.


I have now fitted a small drain hole in the flywheel cover....

grp?

Factory covers come with a drain hole in the bottom.

Drmike
Clutches after being wet, will cause oxidation, or rust, where the clutch fabric, meets the flywheel, and the preasure plate. This will cause the plate to glue its self to each other. The simplest way to break these 2 parts apart is to push the clutch peddle to the floor, and put the transmission in the highest gear and hold the brake, all at the same time, while turning the starter.

Thats why factory covers come with a drain hole.

grp...no drain hole....


there is now!

cheers
mike