Clutch Fork Clip AWOL - and excuses for absence

[rfs1957]

New Forum, must be time for an old contributor to pop up.

Been busy with less exotic fodder this last few years -



- owned since 1981 when I emigrated to France in it, been progressively hotted-up and horribly non-original, but much easier to park outside boulangeries for afternoon cakes



so been using the Jag but not tinkering much.

Looks like this may be about to change ; funny noise followed by finding this conveniently propped up on the edge of the flywheel tin cover plate.

Its one of the clips that retain the clutch release bearing sides within the embrace of the clutch-release fork, and seems to be referred to as Part No 4163 in the J30 Parts List, but then is frequently subseded by C22479 - which is not of the same shape - on many vendor platforms.





Seen below Part 11 ?



Do these clips fulfill any function once everything is assembled ?

I seem to remember flats on the thrust stubs, and slots in the fork ears, thus requiring the correct approach angle during assembly, so that once together the geometry of the parts did the rest ?

Is it open-heart surgery or can I ignore it ?

[PeterCrespin]

Other way round -flats on the forward-facing fork ears, full circle on thrust bearing stubs, so nothing to worry about. I suspect (but am not going to test it for you!) that even with the slave detached and full swing available on the fork, you could not swing the external end far enough forward to let the thrust bearing drop out of position with the transmission bolted in place. No open heart surgery required - put your rib spreader away. Not even a a keyhole cardiac catheter procedure IMO. You should always count the number of rags though, in case you leave one inside :-)

[rfs1957]

Am bumping this one up as it's become apparent that those clips might do more than I thought .......

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11948&p=96901#p96901

[abowie]

you could not swing the external end far enough forward to let the thrust bearing drop out of position

Pete's right; it can't come out once installed.

[abowie]

Now that Sir, is cool!

[rfs1957]

Then I hope you'll enjoy this too :



and it looks Lotus-enough to get onto the Digue for the Monaco Historic GP :



I found the picture of the early type of clip, the one that I caught before it went on the road - and I now see that this type is still very much for sale ? So maybe nothing wrong with the clips, per se ?