Legless spiders

[deshollier]

Not having an old clutch centre I inserted the small(or was it the large?) rubbers, then used my 18" Stillsons wrench to put the tension on the outside of the basket,with a strip of lead between it and the wrench jaws, inserted the large(or was it the small?)rubbers with very little effort and so far as I know they are still fine - I don't intend to look at them until something does not feel right!
Incidentally, the old rubbers were somewhat squishy, but I only decided to change them after dismantlling the clutch for an inspection, they had worked well enough prior to that.

Edited by - deshollier on 16 May 2008 4:27:36 PM

[Tolly]

That was a brilliant clip. At a guess it must have been mid 50's and was wondering if they had not invented a torque wrench by then as I didn't see one.

[Groily]

Interesting Q, the date of the first commercially available torque wrench . . .
I'd say 1942-ish in the UK, courtesy of North Bar Tool Company. Was it a Merlin engine thing that got it going? I rather think it might have been but can't remember.
Whatever, no normal person had one, and most normal people of but modest means couldn't run to one until the '60s or later. My old Dad got one for playing with funny furrin cars in the late '60s when he had a Citroen - they were more sensitive beasts than the hack-a-day stuff he'd been brought up on, quite apart from requiring a whole new tool kit . . .
But then it was 1963 before he'd admit that anything built after 1938 was worth having, and that only because we'd run out of Austin 7 and Standard 10 engines for the monthly ritual makeovers.
Nothing whatever to do with clutch centre rubbers, I know, but to Tolly's point all the same.

[Rick.Edwards]

Wonda if we could get itma to do a vid on our motors well done Michael almost made me want a T100,then i remembered they are 10 grand now.

[bjork]

Right you lot, back on topic please! Got an answer that worked for me at least. After visiting JSL and Norvil today and picking their brains, it seems there were two problems with my clutch assy, and the replacement bits.

1) All the new spiders are now made to the last spec as from Plumstead. This means the vanes on the spider are about 1/8" thicker than the originals. This was because the Atlas engines were breaking the vanes off the spiders.

2) Some clutch inner drums need about 1/8" removing from the metal face on the far side of the small rubbers. Mine was like that. I've just spent a happy hour or two with a bastard file. (coarse one, too)
edited this as I described the wrong face-sorry, must be the stress etc.

After I made a new tool to compress the things, with a 12" handle I still couldn't quite compress them enough. So I stuck an old fork stanchion over it and it's now all together. Before the filing I wasn't able to get anywhere near fitting them.

I have done these before and I guess that most of our bikes will have the older small vane spiders, so that explains why it was easier. When you come to replace it though, only the later wide vane type is available (unless you are lucky with some NOS)
Luckily the Ajs/M engines don't seem as likely to break them in the first place, so hopefully it won't be a problem for many.

I have taken some pics of the bodging, sorry filing if any one thinks it might help?Edited by - bjork on 16 May 2008 10:15:08 PM

[Rick.Edwards]

Steve why didn't you visit the workshop whilst you were at kettering,JB or myself could have put it together with special tool No/23c,