My 1931 Rover Meteor 20hp has a problem when trying to engage a gear at standstill. Seems like clutch is not disengaging fully so a crunch . I now always start the engine with a gear selected.
Is there some type of brake which is supposed to stop the drive shaft from rotating when the clutch is disengaged?
Rover Meteor clutch
Re: Rover Meteor clutch
Has your car always done this (since you have had it) or is this crunching something new?
I have no experience with a Meteor but I doubt your clutch and gearbox are much different to my P1 Rover. My car will frequently, but not always crunch a bit when engaging at standstill, especially if the engine revs are above tick over or sometimes when the engine is hot after a run. My belief is this is a characteristic of a crash gearbox, which has nothing to ease the meshing of the cogs in the way a modern synchromesh box does. I seem to recall the same issue with cars and vans from the 60s, which had no synchro on 1st. The practice then was to put it into 2nd, which did have synchro and then into 1st to avoid any crunching. However, our cars don’t have this option. As such, I always wait until the engine revs have died as low as possible and then gently ‘feel’ it into 1st. I hope that makes sense?
The clutch plate sits on the splined input shaft of the gearbox and is sandwiched between the flywheel and the pressure plate, thereby providing drive from the engine to the gearbox. When the clutch pedal is depressed the pressure plate is released by the release (or thrust) bearing so that drive is removed and a gear can be selected. The gearbox input shaft may still be turning from the engine revs and the output shaft of the gearbox will be turning if the car is in motion, hence the need to double de clutch to match engine revs to car movement speed if a crunch changing up is to be avoided and with extra revs added if a crunch changing down is to be avoided, but I expect you already know this!
My point here is that if your problem is something new, it could be that drive is not being fully removed by operation of the clutch and this is likely to be caused by 1/ clutch cable poorly adjusted so not releasing or 2/ clutch plate contamination caused by oil making the clutch plate and flywheel and/or pressure plate stick together a bit or 3/ the spigot (input) shaft binding in the bearing where it locates into the rear of the crankshaft.
On most old cars the rear crankshaft oil seal can weep a little oil which can find it’s way onto the clutch. The solution is to fit a new clutch plate and possibly fit another oil seal if the leak is severe, but this is a much bigger task.
On my 36 car the release bearing and spigot shaft bearing are lubricated with gearbox oil through the input/spigot shaft and there was an advisory note in the RSR workshop manual to reduce the flow of oil by blocking one of the holes. This was to avoid excess oil getting to the clutch plate. Something to consider if you are changing the clutch plate and if this is the likely cause.
If the spigot shaft bearing is seizing in the crankshaft, you may need to replace and investigate why it isn’t getting lubricated. If it’s the same as the later cars like mine, it might just be that insufficient use has resulted in the bearing running dry or it could be that the oil feed hole has become blocked. I once had the spigot shaft bearing on a Ford Escort seize so badly that operation of the clutch was ineffective so it had to be started in gear and clutch-less gear-changes performed to get home. That had a ‘sealed for life’ roller bearing, which almost welded itself to the spigot shaft making the gearbox very hard to remove. I believe our Rovers have a bronze bearing. I mention this because partial seizing of this bearing on a Rover might go unnoticed because of the ‘crash’ nature of the box once the car is in motion.
I hope that helps and that the solution to your problem is simply that the tick over is to high or the clutch cable a bit slack rather than the other horrors I have touched on!
Good luck.
Tony.
I have no experience with a Meteor but I doubt your clutch and gearbox are much different to my P1 Rover. My car will frequently, but not always crunch a bit when engaging at standstill, especially if the engine revs are above tick over or sometimes when the engine is hot after a run. My belief is this is a characteristic of a crash gearbox, which has nothing to ease the meshing of the cogs in the way a modern synchromesh box does. I seem to recall the same issue with cars and vans from the 60s, which had no synchro on 1st. The practice then was to put it into 2nd, which did have synchro and then into 1st to avoid any crunching. However, our cars don’t have this option. As such, I always wait until the engine revs have died as low as possible and then gently ‘feel’ it into 1st. I hope that makes sense?
The clutch plate sits on the splined input shaft of the gearbox and is sandwiched between the flywheel and the pressure plate, thereby providing drive from the engine to the gearbox. When the clutch pedal is depressed the pressure plate is released by the release (or thrust) bearing so that drive is removed and a gear can be selected. The gearbox input shaft may still be turning from the engine revs and the output shaft of the gearbox will be turning if the car is in motion, hence the need to double de clutch to match engine revs to car movement speed if a crunch changing up is to be avoided and with extra revs added if a crunch changing down is to be avoided, but I expect you already know this!
My point here is that if your problem is something new, it could be that drive is not being fully removed by operation of the clutch and this is likely to be caused by 1/ clutch cable poorly adjusted so not releasing or 2/ clutch plate contamination caused by oil making the clutch plate and flywheel and/or pressure plate stick together a bit or 3/ the spigot (input) shaft binding in the bearing where it locates into the rear of the crankshaft.
On most old cars the rear crankshaft oil seal can weep a little oil which can find it’s way onto the clutch. The solution is to fit a new clutch plate and possibly fit another oil seal if the leak is severe, but this is a much bigger task.
On my 36 car the release bearing and spigot shaft bearing are lubricated with gearbox oil through the input/spigot shaft and there was an advisory note in the RSR workshop manual to reduce the flow of oil by blocking one of the holes. This was to avoid excess oil getting to the clutch plate. Something to consider if you are changing the clutch plate and if this is the likely cause.
If the spigot shaft bearing is seizing in the crankshaft, you may need to replace and investigate why it isn’t getting lubricated. If it’s the same as the later cars like mine, it might just be that insufficient use has resulted in the bearing running dry or it could be that the oil feed hole has become blocked. I once had the spigot shaft bearing on a Ford Escort seize so badly that operation of the clutch was ineffective so it had to be started in gear and clutch-less gear-changes performed to get home. That had a ‘sealed for life’ roller bearing, which almost welded itself to the spigot shaft making the gearbox very hard to remove. I believe our Rovers have a bronze bearing. I mention this because partial seizing of this bearing on a Rover might go unnoticed because of the ‘crash’ nature of the box once the car is in motion.
I hope that helps and that the solution to your problem is simply that the tick over is to high or the clutch cable a bit slack rather than the other horrors I have touched on!
Good luck.
Tony.
Tony Gilbert
P1 12 Tourer
P2 12 6 Light Saloon
Discovery 3
Discovery Sport
P1 12 Tourer
P2 12 6 Light Saloon
Discovery 3
Discovery Sport