Here’s my theory, which takes me back to the 80’s XR2s and other ‘fast’ Fords of that era.
The symptoms were somewhat similar to yours but they did vary!
Once you got the old clutch out and on the bench, examining the diaphragm spring pressure plate I could see the odd snapped or distorted spring ‘fingers’ that were pressed by the release bearing.
This didn’t give clutch judder at all, just a gentle crunch when selecting reverse or first. The condition of the friction plate was irrelevant here and the crunch didn’t happen every time.
I guess your clutch has done well at 117k!
John
The symptoms were somewhat similar to yours but they did vary!
Once you got the old clutch out and on the bench, examining the diaphragm spring pressure plate I could see the odd snapped or distorted spring ‘fingers’ that were pressed by the release bearing.
This didn’t give clutch judder at all, just a gentle crunch when selecting reverse or first. The condition of the friction plate was irrelevant here and the crunch didn’t happen every time.
I guess your clutch has done well at 117k!
John
