I recently bought a 1980 Triumph Spitfire via ebay. It had a new clutch,
pressure plate and bearing, the first time I drove it the clutch begin
to slip badly, I thought how can the clutch be slipping when it's band
new , I continued driving, the not gassing it enough to make it slip ( I
watched the tach) a couple miles went by and I noticed it was not
slipping as much. So I hit the overdrive switch to in position, I felt
it shift up and the rpm drop, then switched it out, I felt it down shift
and the tach went up. Ok the overdrive seemed to work fine. About five
miles down the road I stopped, and started from first gear and gas it
going thru the gears the slipping was much less but it still slipped. I
turned around and headed back home, trying the overdrive again, worked
fine. I did so more stops and starts I noticed what the clutch was
slipping less the more I drove it. By time I got home I'd guess the
clutch was about 80% compared to about 20% then I started. I bought a 20
dollar hanes service manual and started reading, I discovered the
overdrive had a clutch ! and it could my problem or could it be the
drive line clutch. I'v owned a lot of manual cars before and I never
experienced a clutch slip get better. I called a Triumph transmission
rebuilder , Charley from Florida maybe you know him, he was baffled and
thought it could be a hydraulic problem (clutch master cylinder)?
I hate to take the trans out if it dose not need
rebuilding. I had a local follow spitfire owner over last weekend,drove it I went with, we went the same route and it did the same thing
again. He was also baffled. ... there are no oil dipping on the floor under the engine I thought maybe oil was leaking and getting on the the disc. P.S. The second time I drove it I did smell something burning when it
was slipping badly. Please help me
Thank you , Brian in the Ozarks email :
sunshine102049@hotmail.com 
Maintenance Issues
