Clutch conversion of S1 Fulvia

[Huib]

Some pictures of the conversion of a 180mm S1 clutch to a 200 mm diafragm clutch.

As a general rule I am not much in favour of changing anything on a Fulvia. The original design usually guarantees a well balanced car with many many miles of pleasurable driving. Make love to the Fulvia not war so to speak.
However sometimes a modification is necessary. Problems of slipping clutches on 1216cc coupe's and the bad availability of new 180 mm pressure plates and clutch discs prompted to convert the clutch.

A 200 mm diaphragm pressure plate from Valeo was used. The same type is available from Sachs (ZF). It is listed for various types of Fiat and Renault. OMP makes a racing version. It has two sets of mounting holes. The Fiat pattern can be used for S2 Fulvia's (direct fit). The other pattern is used for the S1 clutch conversion.

A standard S2 release bearing was used.

Quite a bit has to be taken off the flywheel. I was afraid driveability in city traffic would suffer. Not so! The car is still easy to drive in the city by experienced as well as inexperienced drivers alike. The feel of the clutch is fantastic, a subtle firm bite, a real pleasure. The same conversion can be done on the S1 200mm clutches. I am considering that as availability of new pressure plates is also going bad.

The thickness of the flywheel is now 21 mm. The pressure table in the center is 0,5 mm higher than the mounting surface. This gives an adjustment range of 4 cm at the top of the arm where the cable is attached to using a disc with a thickness of 7.5 mm. This allows the disc to wear to 6.0 mm

[lancialulu]

Love the set screws!

It has always been known that 1.3 Fiat Uno Turbo clutches were a good upgrade for 1.6HF S2.

Tim

[Geoff]

nicely done and well documented. Thanks, Huib.

[Andrea Nistri]

Very interesting stuff, many thanks. Can you please post the Valeo/Sachs part numbers? Have you also investigated the possibility of relining the old plate?
ciao
Andrea

[Huib]

The Valeo p/n is 263105

The Sachs p/n is 3082 133 041. More info: http://www.viva-lancia.com/lancia_fora/ ... -plate.mht

I have new clutch discs in stock for all Fulvia's. The first conversion was done on the 1216 coupe of Martijn and Christien. A new disc and pressure plate were put in around 1st of august 2008. These were original parts bought from Ebay. After about 10.000 km the clutch started slipping again. When I was looking at the problem another customer with a 1216 coupe and a reasonably new clutch phoned with the message that he had a slipping clutch. Both cars are relatively high mileage cars. To solve the problem for good and also have a better chance of parts availability in the future the decision was made to convert to a modern clutch. Since the flywheel had to be machined it was as easy to convert to a 200 mm clutch as opposed to a 180 mm diafragm clutch. Remember that 180 mm is marginal at best for a car with the power and torque of the 1216 cc Fulvia.

[Andrea Nistri]

Many thanks for the extra information and parts numbers. Interestingly, if you read the contemporary reports of the road tests for the Fulvia coupe 1.3 rallye done by the auto magazine Quattroruote, you will find that one of the negative points in the overall very positive reports was the weak clutch. This problem appears to be solved with S2 Fulvias. My S2 Montecarlo (with over 120 K km, truly original on the clock) is still on its original clucth and doing very well indeed. Ciao, Andrea

[Ralph deMasi]

Several month's ago in the British classic car magazine Octane, Jay Leno, who has a monthly column, wrote about pockets of people who continue to both advance the knowledge of various now-extinct automobiles as well as horde parts to insure their continued operations. He likened them to the monks who held on to and preserved ancient manuscripts.

Huib, you are truly one of those in the best sense of the term.

[Huib]

Thanks for the compliment, Ralph.
The other 1216 coupe is now running with the new clutch. The owner is very happy. In fact the clutch is now the same as on the S2. As Andrea points out, it should be ok for a long time.

[ZanettiZA]

Hi Huib,

I'm quite interested in doing this also, just to check is the 21mm total thickness including the .5mm pressure table? I assume this could vary depending on the wear and condition of the flywheel?

Thanks

[Huib]

The 21mm is the thickness of the flywheel and does not include the pressure table. The pressure table protrudes .5 mm from the flywheel.

In the meantime I have also converted 200 mm clutches of the 1967 and later Fulvia's to diafragm clutch. Works well and the same 21mm applies.

Both for the 180mm and the 200mm conversion you need to turn a new pressure table which is heat shrunk into the flywheel.

Remember to use an S2 release bearing.