Thread: Clutch & Tailshaft question

And a further question: If your vehicle went in for a replacement of the front shaft, would you expect the workshop to check the rear and both of the rubber couplings for wear?

Sounds like you've some work done your not happy with.


Yes, front & rear shafts would come out for a clutch job.

If the bolts were left loose, there would be movement &, if left too long, could lead to parts being damaged. Chances are the bolts are stuffed if driven when loose anyway.
If left until the parts separated, then major damage could happen.

They wouldn't replace any part of the hydraulic system normally. If they noticed a leak, they would/should have told you. More likely 'would' as it means upselling the repair.

There's only one rubber coupling & they should have told you if there were cracks evident (again, an upsell).

Thanks Scott - The front tailshaft was done late last year, but the clutch was only done about 2 months ago. My understanding from the service & repair manual was that the workshop would check all elements of the clutch when replacing the plate and advise me if anything else needed doing. It just seemed a bit wrong that the hydraulic failed on the clutch a matter of weeks after it was replaced. It also appears that they forgot to tighten the bolts on the rear tailshaft and the result on a 3,200km driving holiday is that my car is now 1,600km away from where I am and I'm not happy. The workshop who towed and fixed it in NSW said the tailshaft was spinning so fast that it could have blown apart anytime and thrown bolts up through the floor of the cabin. Given I had four kids in the car with me, I can't tell you how much it frightened me to hear that.

The worst part is that the car was in the workshop the week before we went away getting the horn rewired and they were asked to give the car the once-over to make sure it was good for the trip.

I'm meeting with the boss tomorrow to discuss the invoice from the workshop in NSW for the $800 of work it needed, plus how to get the car back to me in Brisbane. I just wanted to make sure I had my facts right before I went in there.
Thanks for your help.

I probably wouldnt have touched the shafts I would have pulled the engine do to the job.

Had I been under it and worked on the shafts I would have checked them both for servicability. but the story of the bolts coming up through the floor is a Myth, akin to the propshaft catapult nothing more.

The clutch hydraulics dont normally need to be messed with when doing the clutch other than pulling the MC off, If I'd noticed it leaking I'd have simply changed it and billed you for it. That said I've had to do a warranty on a repair by replacement of the slave that had lasted less than 500Km Brand new slave cylinder didnt get past 1K Km... Similarly I know somone whos changed their master cylinder drove to work then came to chew on my ear about what they could have cocked up because they couldn't keep the bleed up to the clutch, turned out the MC was missing a seal..


IF they have pulled the box out to do the clutch then the onus is on them to ensure that anything they disturbed is put back together properly.

Dave, I see you are close by in Ipswich (I'm in Centenary suburbs Bris) - perhaps I should call you next time I need something done. I will not offend you with the story I got.

Depending on my schedule sure,

And it should have been SC not MC... you dont normally touch the MC.....

given a full workshop environment pulling the engine or the gearbox is a 50/50 thing and you pull whatever needs to have additional work done to it.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

I probably wouldnt have touched the shafts I would have pulled the engine do to the job.

Wouldn't you still need to drop them off the transfer box so you can tilt the box and get to the (damn them) top nuts of the bell housing.
Never done it this way, but I would have thought it would still involve removing gbox mounts.


The hydraulics on these always seem to die after you do any changes, change the MC and the SC seems to die, ditto the other way. Could be that the increased pressure of a new plate meant that the MC or SC decided to give up.

nahh I know all the secret access points and have an air ratchet with lots of extension bars and swivels.

let me put landy clutch hyds in perspective for you..

after driving fozz round for about 3 weeks and getting bored of the no clutch thing because I kept having to re-route through traffic I decided to fix it.

new slave... next day the clutch master cylinder failed and covered my boots in brake fluid, no problem I have a spare piston seal I'll just fit that. A couple of days later the MC failed again but the fast fill valve had stuck open so it was just recirculating and pushing no fluid. Fixed that and straight up after bleeding the flex hose blew apart.

I cracked it and decided the landy gods were being mean so kept on driving anyway sans clutch hyds.

That'll teach em.