Scottish Highlands Trip
06-20-2012, 04:45 AM
#1
Drifting
Thread Starter
Scottish Highlands Trip
We left London on Saturday June 2nd heading for a village near Nantwich in Cheshire for a family birthday party. We got about half way there, to a village in Gloucester called Moreton in the Marsh and that is when the clutch failed.
To be honest I wasn't actually sure what had failed, the first time the clutch pedal fell to the floor was some years ago and I found that the release bearing actually separated, on another occasion the master seals started misbehaving (but that was a more gradual failure).
I got under the car (without lifting it) and managed to remove the clutch slave, and straight away it was obvious something was wrong because the rod didn't pop out, and there was a pool of fluid that seemed to have come from the very wet slave. I pumped it a couple of times and then it came back to life, so I refitted it and we got on our way, this took 90 minutes. 30 miles later it failed again.
Since I had managed to drive back from the Ring with the failed release bearing, I couldn't bear telling the family that we couldn't make it to the party, so I didn't even stop we just kept going. Thankfully most of the route that Anna navigated was dual carriage ways with roundabouts and some motorway, so it shouldn't have been a problem. However there were bad traffic jams on the motorway, where we had to crawl at walking pace, which means driving with your foot on the brake the whole time. Sometimes I pulled over on to the hard shoulder to avoid stopping, hopefully it was clear that I wasn't trying to overtake.
The real killer is traffic lights on hills, if you end up having to stop on a hill (going up) then it's pretty much game over. If you have to come to a stop on the flat, then you can start again in first, but even that you want to avoid if possible.
That evening I posted a plea for help on the 928OrgUK list, and by some miracle Phil, a renown 928 owner, offered me his new clutch slave, and he lived only 30 miles off our intended route to Scotland. However that meant we still had another 150 miles to drive with no clutch, so on Sunday morning we headed north.
The thing is it's not too bad, apart from the added concentration which really is quite tiring over two or three hours. You have to plan every manoeuvre, every junction, and of course the route itself.
The good thing is, you don't loose too much time, you can still keep a fairly good pace going, but it is exhausting.
Without the offer of the new slave, we would have been completely stuffed. It was a double bank holiday weekend, the earliest I could have even phoned around to try to find a new part would have been Wednesday, and then it probably would have been the other end of the country, if in fact there was one in the country at all.
When I fitted the new slave it took a while for me to persuade the fluid to flow, in the end I had to take the master apart, and pull the piston most of the way out. I decided that the master seals had misbehaved as a direct result of the slave failing. I kept telling myself that over the next few days, and in fact that seemed to be the case. It took a couple of hours to complete the job, and have a quick look at Roger's red SE that Phil was looking after for him.
Initially the clutch was not quite right, it took a few hours of driving for the hydraulics to self adjust, but by midday Monday it was perfect and stayed that way for the rest of the trip. If only the rest of the car had done so as well!
To be honest I wasn't actually sure what had failed, the first time the clutch pedal fell to the floor was some years ago and I found that the release bearing actually separated, on another occasion the master seals started misbehaving (but that was a more gradual failure).
I got under the car (without lifting it) and managed to remove the clutch slave, and straight away it was obvious something was wrong because the rod didn't pop out, and there was a pool of fluid that seemed to have come from the very wet slave. I pumped it a couple of times and then it came back to life, so I refitted it and we got on our way, this took 90 minutes. 30 miles later it failed again.
Since I had managed to drive back from the Ring with the failed release bearing, I couldn't bear telling the family that we couldn't make it to the party, so I didn't even stop we just kept going. Thankfully most of the route that Anna navigated was dual carriage ways with roundabouts and some motorway, so it shouldn't have been a problem. However there were bad traffic jams on the motorway, where we had to crawl at walking pace, which means driving with your foot on the brake the whole time. Sometimes I pulled over on to the hard shoulder to avoid stopping, hopefully it was clear that I wasn't trying to overtake.
The real killer is traffic lights on hills, if you end up having to stop on a hill (going up) then it's pretty much game over. If you have to come to a stop on the flat, then you can start again in first, but even that you want to avoid if possible.
That evening I posted a plea for help on the 928OrgUK list, and by some miracle Phil, a renown 928 owner, offered me his new clutch slave, and he lived only 30 miles off our intended route to Scotland. However that meant we still had another 150 miles to drive with no clutch, so on Sunday morning we headed north.
The thing is it's not too bad, apart from the added concentration which really is quite tiring over two or three hours. You have to plan every manoeuvre, every junction, and of course the route itself.
The good thing is, you don't loose too much time, you can still keep a fairly good pace going, but it is exhausting.
Without the offer of the new slave, we would have been completely stuffed. It was a double bank holiday weekend, the earliest I could have even phoned around to try to find a new part would have been Wednesday, and then it probably would have been the other end of the country, if in fact there was one in the country at all.
When I fitted the new slave it took a while for me to persuade the fluid to flow, in the end I had to take the master apart, and pull the piston most of the way out. I decided that the master seals had misbehaved as a direct result of the slave failing. I kept telling myself that over the next few days, and in fact that seemed to be the case. It took a couple of hours to complete the job, and have a quick look at Roger's red SE that Phil was looking after for him.
Initially the clutch was not quite right, it took a few hours of driving for the hydraulics to self adjust, but by midday Monday it was perfect and stayed that way for the rest of the trip. If only the rest of the car had done so as well!
Last edited by UKKid35; 06-21-2012 at 01:44 PM. Reason: Video embedding
06-20-2012, 03:07 PM
#4
Instructor
AllI want to know is how skinny are you that you can get under a non-lifted 928 and actually do something????? Impressive my man! People should pay you to ride shotgun on "iffy" rides.
Glad the trip turned out and could enjoy the Scottish Highlands in the Shark.
Glad the trip turned out and could enjoy the Scottish Highlands in the Shark.
06-20-2012, 07:00 PM
#5
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Great roads for a 928. Glad you got to see my SE.
__________________
Does it have the "Do It Yourself" manual transmission, or the superior "Fully Equipped by Porsche" Automatic Transmission?
George Layton March 2014
928 Owners are ".....a secret sect of quietly assured Porsche pragmatists who in near anonymity appreciate the prodigious, easy going prowess of the 928."
Does it have the "Do It Yourself" manual transmission, or the superior "Fully Equipped by Porsche" Automatic Transmission?
George Layton March 2014928 Owners are ".....a secret sect of quietly assured Porsche pragmatists who in near anonymity appreciate the prodigious, easy going prowess of the 928."
06-21-2012, 01:02 AM
#6
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Sounds great in that first video on those oh-so narrow roads.. Lovely.
I'm impressed too that you could squeeze under there and do that - without
a. burning yourself
b. getting stuck underneath!
So I assume you were able to shift without the clutch as well? I can't imagine my 1981 manual would like me doing that, it's a bit bad-tempered even with a clutch...
cheers
Jim
I'm impressed too that you could squeeze under there and do that - without
a. burning yourself
b. getting stuck underneath!
So I assume you were able to shift without the clutch as well? I can't imagine my 1981 manual would like me doing that, it's a bit bad-tempered even with a clutch...
cheers
Jim