At the services on the way back from Winchester it became difficult to engage first gear. It makes a kind of grinding noise when the clutch is down and it seems harder than normal to get into first. The clutch was fitted in April this year and sometimes makes a similar whirring noise when the clutch is down but it usually goes after engaging gear and moving a few metres so I'm guessing a problem has developed into something more serious:(.... Any ideas?

At a guess it simply needs ajusted properly especially if it had been behaving normally previously.

Sean

Bear in mind that 1st gear doesn't have synchromesh so the clutch will need to be fully disengaged before you can select that gear cleanly (and the car stationary!).

Once you are in first gear, at what stage of releasing the clutch does the car begin to move off? Does it happen earlier than before - does the clutch feel 'sharp'?

If so, then hopefully it is simply down to cable adjustment as suggested above; at the moment the clutch isn't being disengaged fully.

Fingers crossed.

The clutch is abit sharp actually. I'll try and adjust it abit this afternoon. It seems to be fine in other gears and before this clutch change the box was fine.

Please define synchromesh

This is a 1st/ reverse Synchro hub..!!

Synchromesh is a type of gear box where all the pinions are in constant mesh and free to rotate on the shafts, the differing ratios are selected by locking the pinions to the shafts with sliding collars or dog clutches
as the selector/locking mech slides over the first contact is between the bronze cup and the cone which brings the 2 pinions up to similar speed before the locking ring slips over the spring clip and locks the 2 pinions together

there may be synchro mechanism on the 1st gear pinion but without the clutch mechanism (synchro ring)the pinions will not equalize speed and so will crunch
this is normal as the cars never came with an effective synchro mechanism on 1st gear


Anyway,
to go back to original post the whizzy sound you heard was the release bearing being in contact with the mearest whiff of pedal, as clutch wears so this will get bad and as the clutch wont fully dis engage and the 1st gear it will crunch as it has no effective synchro on it - which is normal

in the engine bay there is the ajuster nuts on the cable as it goes thru' the bulkhead loosen them(19 &16mm and not un common for them to be locked solid) and run them down the threaded part of the cable, now pull the cable down wards as if your pulling it out the car and run the big nut up till it just touches the housing on the bulkhead.

you should now have it so that there is 20-25mm of pedal movement before you feel it stiffen as it touches the clutch, ajust the nut to get the 20-25mm
i tend not to use the lock nut as it hasnt come loose in 20 odd years of driving A serese even on free running and well greased threads

and for long life its always best to go to 1st from 2nd even if taking off from standstill.

Happy days

Cheers for that

Mr Viking - you pedant, you!

Yes Sir
In my book the A model gear box has synchromesh on the 1st gear but no braking clip.

Book? BOOK?!!! You read books?