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The Fluid Clutch is one of the most important parts of your train.  As my luck would have it the shaft seals on my train went bad and I had to replace them (shaft seal picture right and the box the seals come in under it.  Note the seal number 7636).  So, keeping in mind I am not a mechanic and my memory is just a little bit shorter then this sentence, I took a lot of pictures hoping to get the clutch put back together correctly.  The information provided on this web page is how I removed, fixed and replaced my fluid clutch.  I do not intend to give step by step direction because it was at least two years ago that I did it and I'm not going to remember every detail.  If you discover an easier way to accomplish this repair, congratulations!  If you'd like to submit an article to this web site to explain it I would very much welcome it. 

If you ever end up having to take your clutch apart my first recommendation is take your time!  My second suggestion is have someone there to help you.  Drain the fluid clutch as best you can while it remains mounted in place.  You will not be able to empty it completely unless you let it drip for an extended period of time (like over night?).  

You might say the fluid clutch is "wedged" in there pretty good, you may find that you have to loosen the transmission allowing it to tilt back just to get enough space to unscrew the Fluid Clutch Shaft Couplers set screws.  The picture left, with green arrows indicates the space that needs to be widened.  Once widened you will need to take an allen wrench (which we had to cut short because there isn't enough room for a standard allen wrench) and unscrew the allen screws which run parallel to the shaft.  You will not be able to remove the screws just loosen them enough that the couplers will come out (remember tilt the transmission), watch out for the ball bearing located within the couplers.  To put it back together I reversed the process and it was pain trying to keep the ball bearing in place while putting the couplers in place.

Once you figure out how to get the fluid clutch out/off put it in some kind of container and start removing screws.  Beware that there may still be inside the clutch and will spill out.  Now just work your way through it, taking it apart piece by piece, there really isn't much to it, but the taking apart and more so the putting together can be tricky.  If you have specific question feel free to drop me an email and I'll see if I can answer them.  The other resource for seeking advise on repairs is the MTC Trains Yahoo Group which you can sign up for by adding your email address here.

Keep in mind you may have to order parts so it might be a week or so until the train is running again and do what ever you have to do to remember how things go back together.

Website created by: Scott Winter.
Copyright © 2005 Scott Winter. All rights reserved.
Revised: 12/13/05