Defender Clutch Surprise

[ANDYD]

Just thought I would share my clutch surprise in case there are others out there with similar woes ...

The symptons were, clutch pedal went have way down and jammed. Clutch no longer disengaging / operational.
Turned out to be a well known problem, the ball pivot that the clutch release arm pivots on had gone right through the arm.
This of course means gearbox off to open up the clutch housing etc ... My clutch plates were still over 50% good but I decided to replace for new anyway. You will see from the photos that the new Release Arm part has a reinforced plate accross where the pivot ball pushes against. (hence - its a well known weak link!). Hopefully I wont need to open this up again for a few years .....

Cheers, Andy

[red90]

On mine, I added a remote grease line for the pivot as well. I think the main problem is they wear, running dry.

Make sure you do the throwout bearing and slipper pads as well as they both wear with use. Really, it makes sense to replace everything in there, while they are apart.

[Green Giant]

I had the exact same issue on my white Rangie!!! Thought the worst, but turned out to be a simple in-expensive fix minus the aggro....

[ashek]

Same on my Defender, right in rush hour traffic. That was fun.

[Whistler110]

I had the same thing happen in Pemberton and I power shifted all the way back to Squamish. Thanks Dad for teaching that to me when I was learning to drive.

When fixing it I also replaced all the hydraulic hoses with one stainless steel line.