Clutch Fork Pivot ball

Hi ToonRBoy,

Yep... my wife's old Milano broke a whole bunch of pivot balls. If you're clever and lucky, you can access the remaining part through the clutch fork opening (after removing the rubber cover). Use or buy the smallest size vice grip, and you should be able to grasp and remove the stub by turning a little at a time. Then, use a flexible shaft with a magnet on the end, and you should be able to get the broken ball end out. If you file a 13 or 14 mm hex on the flange end end of the new pivot ball stud, you should be able to re-install it through the same clutch fork opening. BIG CAUTION: the insertion is kinda blind as you reach into the hole from under the jacked-up car. Be carefull not to cross thread the pivot ball, since it is easy to drive the thing into the tapped hole incorrectly (ask me how I know).

ToonRboy said:

Anyone ever pop the head off the pivot ball? Thought I had just a clutch slave failure, but when replacing the slave cylinder I found the bloody pivot fork barely hanging on (to the throw-out).

The question is: Can I be clever and remove the pivot ball shaft (threaded) from behind? -Basically trying to circumvent all the work involved with the driveshaft/removal and separation of the clutch housing just to drill and extract it.

Click to expand...

right o
just pulled the fork from the box... the pivot balls gone. the boot that covers it has been taped up previously and is pretty severly rooted anyway. but the best part is that the cylinder mount has broken. the top most bolt mount has snapped off. the middle bolt wat reasonably tight and the bottom one loose but both of those bolts were bent so maybe thats why the middle one was a bit tight. i havent undone the top one yet but i presume itll be tight since i cant mover the broken bit by hand.

i have another spare parts box [from a 1982 GTV] but the slave is mounted backwards comparably. will i be able to nick the pivot ball from that or is it different [question mark not working].
i had a brief look before i took mine out and i think the forks were different. mine cast and the other folded metal plate. ill check again.

oh and the part the ball sits was compleately dry but around it had dryed grease. i think ill grease up my gtv now...

Broken-off Pivot Ball can keep you down for a while, but not forever. If you gotta go this route, it helps to have another set of hands.

I think I left off in the winter of '07 with this. Summer of '08 I posted a couple of other tasks: Timing Belt R&R, Water pump, hydraulic De-tensioner. This job was finshed summer '09.

I was really hoping all the suggestions would work to remove the pivot ball. It turned-out to be an all-afternoon affair. The ball had broken off all the way down to the flange at the base.

'Tried squaring it off with Dremel to get a open-end wrench on it. Tried Vise-Grips of varying sizes - nothing. Everything would slip off - I decided we'd have to remove the clutch housing to extract from the front.

Basically, you have to drop the exhaust, pull the transaxle crossmember bolts, and disconnect the driveshaft yoke at the rear. To be able to lower the clutch, you tilt the transaxle by disconnecting the watts linkage - I also disconnected the shocks at the bottom for fear of bending anything. Since the diff is attached to chassis at rear, just lower clutch with the supporting jack.

While your down there, it's a good opportunity to inspect your giubos and trans mounts. - Clutch too. 'Course getting the clutch housing off was impeded by the shifter shaft and shift lever that goes through it! I had to run to two auto parts stores to find a gear puller small enough to pull the shift lever off the shaft. Then she came home to poppa!

Unfortunately for me, the fun had just begun. Add a trip to Murrays to buy a Titanium bit and bolt extractor - Proved totally futile. Lost more time. Sun droppin' quickly...
...Out of desperation, a Camel light, some help from St. Pauli girl - the combined brain power of two men equalling one child, we thought:
Hmmm, what if we applied some HEAT? Where's that propane torch Watson?

Amazing what a liberal application of FIRE does to stubborn things!

Took some serious muscle and jostling around to get the driveshaft back on there straight. Also make sure to rotate the throw-out bearing so the flats are on top and bottom - so the clutch pivot fork will slide back on - oh, yeah you'll want to lubricate things.

Someone out there is gonna say (yo, where's das boot?) & I'll say, ya' think that's why the dang thing rusted-out in the first place?
So, I ordered a NOS clutch pivot boot from APE. Had a nice gash along the side. But it was still nice, supple (and 1/3 the new price), so I repaired it with a vulcanized bicycle patch kit and installed it with Shoe Goo.

Unfortunately, I then discovered that my Clutch Master had blown - presumably at the same time the slave did -- BULLOX!!!...
Ordered a new one from IAP (adjustable type with it's own resevoir) and installed it a couple weeks later. That job was easy, just needed some contortionist skills in the cabin . Bleeding takes a lot of time tho. Twist slave so fitting is at 12 o'clock, install one-man bleeder kit. Pump clutch pedal slowly while rear stays on jack stands. Hope for the best.