Clutch Line

Monday, 10 August 2020

Clutch Line

Bending and fitting the clutch line followed much the same process as for the brake lines.

The clutch pipe is formed from 1/4" diameter copper / nickel pipe. This was much easier to bend using my pipe bending tool - as it was the correct diameter for the channel in the tool and all the bending marks were for the correct sized pipe. Although bending the pipe by hand, using the pipe bending pliers, took a bit more physical effort than the brake pipes; thankfully I only needed to form one bend with the pliers.

The overall length of the clutch line was around 1.8m so that was a bit of fun to try and handle and get all the bends in the correct plane. I used the measurements from my CAD model, made the correct allowances for the bend gain (based on 1/4" pipe) as done previously for the brake pipes. I was pleasantly surprised to get the whole section of pipe bent up correctly the first time!

I must have measured something wrong, however, as the pipe didn't quite reach the bulkhead fitting on my chassis bracket - fortunately, this was an easy fix by simply reversing the bulkhead fitting in the bracket!

I made up another small bracket to hold a further bulkhead fitting on the inner nearside chassis rail (powder coated candy red of course!). Eventually, there will be a short flexible pipe from this fitting to the clutch slave cylinder that will be mounted on the side of the gearbox. I worked out roughly where to fit the bracket from looking at Richard Chippendale's rolling chassis on a recent progress visit!

I also made up some additional mounting clips, with just a single hole, to hold the clutch pipe securely along the inside of the chassis rail.

That concludes all the pipes for the front end - next is to tackle the brake pipe run to the rear brakes.