h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a title line

Ok, here comes the snag...

The car: a 1977 MG Migit 1500

The problem: Start up in the morning and the clutch works just fine... run the vehicle for more than 10/15 minutes in traffic (ie using the clutch quite a bit) and the clutch starts to drag. I.e. when you're sat at traffic lights in first the car tends to creep forwards, and the longer you go the harder it is to get into first gear without attracting the attention of everyone within a half mile radius and risking stripping the gears.

Leave the car to cool down a few hours and everything goes back to normal...

Now, I can't see an apparant hydraulic leak - I've checked the levels a couple of times but the car's only just back on the road after a four-year lay-up, so I'm not one hundred percent that it's not loosing a little fluid yet.

What the hecks going wrong?

It sounds as though fluid could be leaking past the seals in the master cylinder. If it was the slave it would tend to cause a visible leak, but if it's the master the fluid could just be leaking back into the reservoir. I don't think the temperature of the car would make any difference, but it's possible that it gets worse as you use it.

I'd be inclined to try some new seals in the master.

Yup, roughly the conclusion I came to, that I'd end up under the car taking the master cylinder to pieces.

Oh well, time to spend even more money

when *I* did up my 1978 MG Midget 1500,

We had problems with sorting out the clutch, was doing an autotest and suddenly couldn't get any gear ended up reversing all the way back as that was the only gear I could find. We replaced both the slave and the master cylinder only to find that it made no difference though we could find no leak the problem was solved when we replaced the pipe between the two.

The master isn't too bad to change if i recall so long as you have a pair of circlip pliers (we borrowed some off a friend), the slave's a bit more annouying as you have to grovle under the car.

And remember MGBHive is your friend.