Can a Slipping Clutch Cure Itself?

[Turbo7379]

Last week I was doing some gardening work for a relative. I had cut a mountain of stuff out of her overgrown garden & I had to reverse a trailer up her steep twisty gravel avenue to lift it. This involved a lot of maneuvering & riding the clutch - lady was impressed as no-one in over 40 years of her living there had been able to back a trailer right up to the front of her house! She thought I was a God when I did it a second time!

Unfortunately this took its toll on my clutch as it started slipping on the way home & for the next few days. Last Saturday I took a few mates to a race meeting 100 miles away. Clutch was still slipping on the way down but on the way home it was ok & hasn't slipped since!

Can anyone explain this? My thinking is maybe I overheated the friction plate & glazed it. Then the long drive has worn the glazing off, giving it better grip.

I'm not sure what to do now. It's a lot of work to take off the gearbox to check the clutch. But I'm heading away to a rally in 3 weeks which is a 400 mile drive away & I don't want the clutch giving up then. Any suggestions?

[Welly]

I've known this before, a friend of mine *completely* fried his clutch at Santa Pod (think smoke billowing from under bonnet) and lost all drive - it was like there was no clutch in there at all

Later, as we all considered what to do about it, the clutch had cooled down and was working again

I think all you can do is treat it well and take your time with it, if it's working ok now then it should be ok really

[Doggy]

I agree with welly,

.....if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

For peace of mind, I would be tempted to use it noramlly for a week or two, (to complete the process of de-glazing), then try to provoke slip by flooring the accelerator at aroung maximum torque revs, while climbing a hill in 4th or 5th. It if doesn't slip then, it's not likely to when treated a little more sympathetically in normal use.