woe is me and thrice woe....

[Scarpia]

woe is me.....
how can it be ; you push the car out of the garage for the first time in months to go for a test drive and cannot get it into gear.The car drove fine before christmas and now the clutch doesn't seem to disengage making it impossible to engage 1st gear whilst stationary.Unfortunately I couldn't test it for long as petrol started flooding out of the carb over the engine bay causing slight concern and a potential BBQ alert. So I couldn't test the brakes I just spend 15 years bleeding...Please god, don't let me have to take the gearbox out (again) to do the clutch. Don't you just love these days...

[chrislg]

Chances are that the clutch plate is stuck to the flywheel due to a small spot of rust. Put it in gear with the engine off, push on the clutch pedal and start the engine (with hand brake on!) it will probably disengage immediately allowing you to select gears as normal. This is the method I use on my Appia when this has happened in the past.

Chris

[Scarpia]

thanks, i'll give it a try.Fingers crossed.

[Scarpia]

let joy be unconfined.........Not only did your the tip work Chris but the carburettor leak is solved also.The jolt of freeing up the clutch when I started the engine must have jolted the float which I guess was just sticking causing the float chamber to flood. I don't know the smiley equivelent of shaking someones hand but if we ever meet I owe you several beers.
The sliding pillar returns to the realms of the possible once more.
William

[chrislg]

Hi,
Glad to be of help - that is what this is all about!.

Chris