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Taking all the gaps and ratios into consideration, I get a minimum of 0.36" of throw is required at the Slave cylinder. Given that the hydraulic system is capable of more than twice this throw, has anyone considered adding a clutch pedal stop to reduce the throw? This is pretty typical on more modem cars.

Thanks for the Borg&Beck ratio, I had not check that yet. I ordered a new clutch disc and will install along with my good spare starter.

Hmm, sticky? Not rusty Not corroded Not gooey Not Slimy Not oily Yes, slightly tacky. Doesn't come off on a rag when dabbing. They don't feel smooth when you run your fingers across the surfaces like the flywheel side surfaces do. Kind of like the adhesive left behind when trying to pull off a price tag but not that tacky. If I just put the disc back on the PP and give it a little pressure, they don't stick together. But if I add more clamping force for a couple of minutes, they stick together. I'll hit the surfaces with brake cleaner tomorrow to see if that resolves it.

SENC: I have another starter with a good pinion I'll drop in. I had already pulled the starter and inspected and cleaned the brushes. Good catch on the reduction gear starters. I'll confirm before I buy if I go that route. With my gear selection issue I never tried to jam the shifter into gear causing grinding. I'm sure that if I tried I would get an earful of grinding. I stopped pushing when I felt more resistance than normal but, your point is well taken and I will look for wear tomorrow. I am familiar with the three springs in the transmission cover. I dropped two of them into the transmission on my other car. Not fun getting them back out. I just wish they had made the passages longer on the transmission side so the springs could be placed there rather than in the cover. I'm sure it will be a lot easier with the transmission on the floor than it was with the trany in the car. Thanks for the picture, very helpful. I'll send back picture of what I find. MV8: I have a lot of experience with clutches rusting to the flywheel and/or PP and the various methods of popping them loose. But this is a first time I have seen this kind of stickiness. It's not oily, just sticky. I'll try to clean it but agree the best solution is to change the clutch disc. I'll have Ken at DB put one in the mail tomorrow. I'm not following your suggestion to shorten the slave pushrod. The pushrod is set to however long it needs to be to obtain the proper gap between pushrod and release arm. I'm already getting good slave stroke. Based on what I'm seeing with this PP, you shouldn't need any more than 0.25" of slave stroke to fully disengage the clutch. My stroke is already in the area of 0.8-0.9".

I measured there is 0.2" of clamping force on the clutch disc. I measured this to be about 165# with my press and bathroom scale. Which is about right. The Elan standard clutch has about 210# with about 110HP. The release arm is not quite 1:1. I measured 0.71" of throw at the release bearing for 0.875" of throw at the slave end.

Ring gear and starter gear both look very worn. I assume the ring gear is pressed on. I don't have a fixture big enough to press that off and back on. I may have another starter or just replace it with a reduction gear starter. I have not opened the gear box yet. I'll open the top cover tomorrow. I'm not sure what to look for though other than the obvious damage or metal chips.

OK, I have a theory. Let me know if it's totally crazy. Condition: The flywheel and flywheel side of clutch disc are smooth and dry. But the The pressure plate and pressure plate side of the clutch disc are sticky. I was able to drive the car so the disc and pressure plate are not stuck together all the time. But when I removed the pressure plate the disc was stuck to the pressure plate such that I had to knock the disc loose with a screwdriver handle. Theory: When squashed between the pressure plate and flywheel the disc sticks to the pressure plate. Sticks but not stuck such that playing with the clutch pedal can unstick the two and shifting is as normal. Perhaps adding heat to the two surfaces makes the sticky stuff more sticky so when the system warms up (driving) and clutch pedal is pressed, the disc sticks to the pressure plate enough to keep the transmission spinning making shifting difficult. When I could not get into gear I could play with the clutch pedal e.g. slip the clutch to unstick it then a gear change was possible. I may be able to clean up the surfaces and it should work fine. But I don't want to take the engine out again next weekend if this isn't the solution or if some of the parts are not correct.

With pressure plate removed: - No blueing of the flywheel or pressure plate - Clutch disc was stuck to the pressure plate - Disc appears in good condition - Pressure plate fingers are all intact and work properly.

I have the engine out and engine/trans separated. There were no loose clips or obvious breakages. There are some metal shavings at the bottom of the bell housing that appear to be coming from the starter motor gear teeth. Let me know if you see anything out of sorts. I will pull the clutch plate out next. Is this the correct pressure plate?

Thanks Henry, very helpful. Is removing the radiator, starter, and generator necessary or just for convenience?

Pushrod length is 3" from the end of the slave body to the release arm. This is steady state with slave piston fully retracted.

Thanks Henry, When I had the camera in place I noticed that when I had trouble getting into gear from a stop, the car would creep very slowly when the clutch was fully depressed and pushing on the shifter (A little hard than normal shifting). It would stop creeping when I removed pressure from the stick and creep when pressed again. This occurred in 1st and 2nd (only two I tried). No creeping when the car was finally in gear when cold. But after a short drive the clutch is definitely not disengaging. If I apply the brakes with the car moving, gear selected, and clutch depressed all the way, the car tries to push past the brakes. I tested this a number of times in both 1st and 2nd gears. Therefore, I think that I'm looking at something in the clutch area as the main culprit. Possibly a cracked release arm or damaged pressure plate. I plan to dump both engine and gear box oil as the remote oil cooler hoses have to come off and I want to clean and inspect the sump. And I expected the trans oil would spill out the back as soon as the engine is tilted. I was able to break loose the back three header bolts last night without drama. I'll pull the nose cone today and, fingers crossed, loosen the others. I need to pick up a load lever for my hoist then I'll dig in. One question though, does the remote shifter need to come off first? Any other recommended maintenance once the lump is out? Replace clutch components (pressure plate, disc, throw out bearing, possibly flywheel and fork) Replace drive shaft U-joints Replace transmission mount

Was able to setup a camera to view the slave cylinder while driving. In all cases the slave extended full stroke when depressing the clutch pedal. Stroke of the slave is close to theoretical at approximately 0.87" of travel vs .095" theoretical. I say approximately 0.87" because at full theoretical stroke the slave piston peeks out of the bore by 0.162" and when driving I can see the piston sticking out but only about half of the 0.162". Gear selection issues persisted throughout the drive. Unless anyone can suggest other things to look at, I think I have to pull the engine and transmission to see what's going on in the bell housing.

Sounds good. I'll be waiting for your reply with interest.

The concept of the Unisync does not block the air flow but with our small engines you have to close the throat so far down that it effectively does choke the airflow.

Sorry, What's a -3 and -4? Are these part numbers? There needs to be a hose in there somewhere given the body and transmission can move independent of each other.

I would like to see how you use that on #1 and #2 cylinders. I can barely get my Unisync in there. I don't like the Unisync because it doesn't show any air flow unless I raise the idle to around 2000rpm even if I crank it closed. But it's the thinnest gauge around. I didn't want to spend over $100 on a synchrometer with 90 deg adapter unless I was sure that it would fit into the #1 carburetor without removing the horn or fender. Please show us a picture of it fitting into the #1 cylinder.

Let me know if it works. These Allen head bolts scare the crap out me.

All oil (Engine, Trans, Diff) is new. Oil came out like you would expect after sitting for 50 years - black and thick. For the gearbox I used Millers Classic 80W90 GL4. It didn't seem to make a difference. I have tried two clutch MC's (5/8" & 3/4") so unless both have the same internal failure I doubt that's it. Also the 3/4" is off my brakes and they are fantastic - short throw and nice an firm, no sponginess. And the slave is just a hunk of metal with 3 holes. It doesn't leak so nowhere else for the oil to go. Yes, only happening when running. When not running, the first gear selected requires a little effort to align the gears but after that all the gears can be selected but I wouldn't call it smooth. The Gearbox looks like the one in the picture on pg E14 of the manual for the 109E. I'll put the slave hose back on and re-bleed so I'll be able to look into the clutch housing again. The borescope in this space was useless but I'll try to get some meaningful pictures of the throw out bearing. I can't see the pressure plate. I will be able to do more measurements on the slave cylinder when my better half returns next week. Until then I'm relegated to one-person tasks. I think I have run out of other things to try. I probably need to pull the engine and see what's going on with the clutch. Is there a trick to getting the manifold bolts out without snapping them off or stripping the heads? Will running the engine a little fist help?

That Dave Bean catalog is great information. I wonder if they still have them? I'll ask Ken next time I talk with him, which will probably be tomorrow based on past frequency.

Slave has been rebuilt and I tried every bleed procedure suggested. No improvement. I replaced the hose with a hard line. This required me to bleed the slave while attached to the bell housing. This is where I tried all of the suggestions. Except the dry vacuum method which I could not do due to the design of these master cylinder. The port is in a small cavity 90deg form vertical. I do not have an angled fitting to try this. All of the methods did remove air from the system but always left a little remaining. I judged this by a small amount of "squish" once the linkage play has been taken up. I can feel and see this squish while pressing the MC rod by hand. Bleeding the slave above the MC seems to do a better job of getting all of the air out. I also swapped the brake and clutch MC's putting the 3/4" MC on the clutch. As expected, the pedal throw was much shorted (and harder) but there was no improvement in getting into gear. I don't need to drive the car to experience this. While idling, I can sometimes get into gear with no problem and sometimes I can't get any gears. I can always find a way to get it into 1st gear (which is my baseline for testing). Sometimes just selecting another gear first will allow me to get into 1st gear. If that doesn't work then sometimes slowly lifting off the clutch pedal while pushing the gear knob into 1st will allow it to drop in. Sometimes I really have to fish around and try different combinations to find something that works. Usually I can get into 1st with relative ease when I first start a drive. It seems to be harder to shift and harder to get into 1st after about two miles of 20-30mph driving. I have not tried anything further as I fear being stuck at a stop sign or light with people behind me.

Clutch is not frozen to the flywheel. The clutch acts normal some of the time and can't get in gear others. I can rev the engine with the clutch pressed and the car in gear and it does not creep.

Regarding the radiator sitting higher than the cam cover, I found the radiator is sitting inside the top hats and the top hats are in the correct location in the chassis. The nose cone goes on without any interference with the radiator shroud so I believe the radiator is in the correct position. I think that the engine mounts maybe the culprit. To me they look squished. I have ordered new ones.

Thanks, I appreciate the motivation and any additional pictures you find.

That is indeed the same car and in remarkably the same condition. I purchased it from Kelly and Dave, two of the nicest people on the planet. When you say there are not too many like it, do you have specifics? I would love to learn more of the history.