Practically Classics Forum

I have to agree with what Luxobarge said. The end of the fork should be at the other end of its opening (in other words to the other side of the vertical) when the clutch is engaged and there's not room for it to disengage the clutch from its present position. Just as well you've spotted this now. Ordinarily, I'd ask whether the car was showing signs of clutch drag when last driven, but with one of these they tend to crunch into 1st or reverse from rest in any case and it's all but impossible to adjust that out within the available amount of travel.

Cheers Guys

The fork locates on a pin with a ball on the end inside this opening ,and its does current move this pin if you pull on the fork , but back towards the slave with a metalic clunk as if selecting a gear.

Its almost as if the fork is the wrong way round ,but it doe snot have a locating hole for the slave rod the other way round and it does not locate on the pin inside.

It looks like the fork is missing some type of return - i.e. a spring - to keep engaged against the push rod - do you have a owners manual / is anything listed in relation to the return ?

No owners maunals I'm afraid Haynes never did one either.

I will have to do some research online. The guys on the 75 forum seem to think I simply have it located incorrectly, so Ill have another go and report back.

Assuming that they mean the slave should be slid further through the clamp to make up the difference in reach, this wouldn't help as where the fork currently sits, there's not enough space for it to disengage the clutch, it must start from the end of the slot that's closest to the slave cylinder.

I knew something else didn't look right, Mister Northerner is spot on with the suggestion that the fork should be spring loaded - the spring in question should, IIRC, be a concentric one that fits under a washer which is itself kept in place by the ball that fits on the end of the pushrod (picture three below) - however that alone won't help the clutch to clear when the fork is in a position it should only occupy when the clutch is disengaged.
Has the car been stored with the clutch pedal pressed down somehow to prevent sticking to the flywheel? That's the only way, short of the fork having fallen off its ball inside the bellhousing, in which the clutch could be disengaged without the slave cylinder at full extension.

The Haynes Alfetta manual will provide the illustrations you need here as the layout in this area is essentially similar under one of those.


Note that concentric spring:

Big thanks again for the time you have taken here to help me out!

I found the Alfa Workshop manaul online for the 75 and there is not mention of any spring, simply the fork and the pin inside the housing.

Need to leave the office early and ge tunder and have a look, its really bugging me what Ive done wrong!

OK , so had it confirmed by other 75 3.0 owners that there is not spring and just like mine did, once the slave with reoved the fork just drops out.
Aparently though the pin can turn meaning the locating point moves, so I need to check this.

Without that spring, the release bearing will be in constant contact with its pad on the clutch diaphragm, this would wear [the carbon] away in double quick time. Has there been a change to a conventional bearing at some point during the production run, or are people fitting one as clutch covers with the appropriate receiver become harder to source? A bearing wouldn't need the clearance though ideally should still have a perceptible amount. Can you post a picture of the cover and its means of taking the thrust from the release mechanism? Otherwise, don't assume that the original one in the image is wrong, it was built that way so we now need to know what's been done since then.

Il get under and post a pic of inside where the pin is in the housing.

Got some intresting info from some of hte other 75 guys -

"Before I do anything, I always read up as much as I can on what I'm doing, and print it up. So seeing we just happen to be doing the same thing, here it is. Oh, also ordered pivot ball today from Jason at EB

CLUTCH FORK INSERTION

Swapping transaxles in my Milano Verde. Removed the existing transaxle, clutch fork came right out with my fingers after removing the push type slave cylinder. Removed the clutch assembly and bolted it onto the new transaxle, got the new one installed. Tried to reinstall the fork so I can reconnect the slave but it won't catch the thrust bearing tangs on the machined flats- so the fork just sits sloppily on the ball stud. Do I simply need to find a way to rotate the thrust bearing and line up the machined flats?
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Yes, flats must be lined up so fork will slip on to TO bearing. With arm out of the way use a long "ice pick" or thin screwdriver to reach round part of bearing and rotate until flats are horizontal.
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For anyone else who has the problem in the future, and hasn't seen the clutch bearing, here's a bit more detail. The problem was that the release bearing had rotated during my attempts to put the fork back in. You need to get the bearing just right (which you can feel with your fingers) before you carefully slot the fork in."

So I need to have a look at this bearing!

The bearing has two flat sections with a semi-circular 'knob' on each which the flats on each leg of the fork hook behind, so you need to line these up each side of the pivot then slot the fork in.