Heavy Clutch

[sxl01]

Morning all, I am going tomorrow to look at a restored ?? 1972 stag, K reg, for a friend, he has looked at the car and says the clutch is heavy, anyone any ideas why this might be, is it a gearbox out job?

[Lingen]

Sx
How heavy is heavy? Has he tried a Stag clutch before? They can vary, depending on which make of clutch has been fitted. It could also be that the pushrod from the slave cylinder has been fitted to the top hole in the drop arm in stead of the centre one. This might have been done in error, or to make the clutch "Release" fully. It is a five minute job to refit it.
Mike.

[Tdafforn]

There is also a possibility that the incorrect slave cylinder bore has been fitted..
Relatively easy to check
Tim

[sujitroy]

I have a manual Stag I got on the road back in 2021. It has a Borg and Beck clutch. I haven't driven other folks Stags, but I consider it very heavy. I put in a new master cylinder, slave cylinder and a steel braided line and it is still heavy. I don't like driving it much compare to my BW35 auto which I've had for 23 years. My 19 year drives it once in a while.
We had a manual Triumph Toledo, but I was 30 years younger.
Sujit

[flying farmer]

Check the clutch release arm is pointing slightly forward of vertical. If it’s vertical or slightly pointing backwards then either the clutch fork pin has broken or a Triumph saloon arm has been fitted. A clue here is if the push rod has been extended.
I once mixed up two arms during a gearbox rebuild and found extending the rod to make it reach left me with a very heavy clutch.
Not wanting to pull the box again I welded on a triangular piece of steel to correct the geometry and that fixed the problem

[richardthestag]

+1 on what FlyingFarmer + Lingen said

I always avoid the top hole on the clutch fork. it is also worth checking that a ham fisted gibbon hasn't installed the clutch slave forwards of the engine plate! it should be on the gearbox side else an extended pushrod is needed. no doubt that some one will be along shortly with an alternative theory on that but hey ho

Never really noticed that the clutch operation is heavy on a stag. sometimes notchy but not heavy

[Tdafforn]

On the TR6 I reduced the clutch effort by using a 0.625inch clutch slave. Had to use an adjustable pushrod in the master cylinder but worked well. Some add a servo to the clutch which helps even more.
tim

[trunt]

+1 on how heavy is heavy? Compared to a modern the stag/tr6 clutch has a reputation of being heavy, heck even compared to my 67 MGB it’s heavier..

[dasadrew]

.......it is also worth checking that a ham fisted gibbon hasn't installed the clutch slave forwards of the engine plate! it should be on the gearbox side else an extended pushrod is needed. no doubt that some one will be along shortly with an alternative theory on that but hey ho ..

.... or some annoying donkey might be along to say there's a pic of the correct fitment in the Technical Section!....

[sxl01]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, yes he was comparing it to his MGB Roadster, I felt it was ok, similar to my own stag and as ''lingen'' suggested the slave cylinder rod was not in correct hole, now in the middle hole, ta

[Goldstar]

I bought a car with an usually heavy clutch. Found pushrod in top hole. Pushrod now in middle hole and clutch much easier to operate.