clutch pedal

[fogcity]

It seems that just over night the feel of my clutch pedal changed. Before it was perfrect and now it feels both spungy and stiff, it that makes sense. It feels like the pedal doesn't depress as far as it used to, or that the clutch isn't engaging all the way.

Now, what seems weird to me, today it was feeling as I explained it above, then in the middle of a drive it went back to normal (how it was befroe). After a few more miles, it feels like it's slipping back into that stiff, spungy, non-disengaging mode. What gives? What should I check?

Thanks.

[fogcity]

PS - There was a new clutch put in when the tranny was replaced, about 15k miles ago.

[BReyes]

Maybe blead the slave cylinder. Do you recall how the needle bearings were? Were any other upgrade parts installed when you did the cluth last? Was it a spring centered clutch?

You don't have very many miles so clutch should be good.

Good Luck.

[fogcity]

Slave cylinder? Needle bearings? Huh? Shoot, I was hoping this would be easy.

No performance upgrades done (unless the wrench wanted to give me some freebees and not tell me).

[kjb]

You have a clutch cable, no hydraulics!

If you can look underneath the car, see if everything moves around alright when someone pushes the clutch pedal. I had something that held the big helper spring break on my car, resulting in a clutch pedal that didn't come all the way up after release.

Good luck, I'm sure someone more knowledgable than myself will chime in.

/ Johan

[fogcity]

Great idea. Thank you.

Anyone experiance this same thing?

[450knotOffice]

kjb, really? My '84's clutch pedal also has that same spongy feeling that fogcity describes and my clutch pedal doesn't return all the way back to its parked position on its own. It settles about 1/2" from fully back and I can use my toe to "pull" the pedal back that last 1/2" or so.

The clutch cable was replaced by me last week because of this problem and resulted in no change whatsoever. So you're saying that it very well could be the clutch helper spring or its mount?

Sorry for hijacking but I'm having the same issue that fogcity is dealing with.

[fogcity]

Hijack away. Is replacing the clutch cable a chore?

[450knotOffice]

No. It's not too bad a job at all. Check out the article on this website's "Tech Info Center" dealing with clutch cable replacement. It's very informative. In the article it states that you should replace the helper spring while you're at it. Of course I didn't. Dohh!

The one thing the article does not mention, but is VERY important, is that you MUST disconnect the clutch cable down at the transmission FIRST before you try to disconnect it at the pedal assembly under dash. If you don't, it will be essentially impossible to get access to the clutch cable trunnion pin and retaining clip assembly due to the fact that it'll be almost completely hidden within the tunnel. If you disconnect the clutch cable down at the transmission first, you'll be able to press your clutch pedal down to the floor by hand, thereby pulling the front end of the clutch cable into easy view from out of the tunnel.

Overall, it's a pretty easy job. If you have Wayne's 101 Projects book, check that out too. It does a good job of describing the clutch adjustment procedure.

[fogcity]

A quick update: Nothing binding cable. Problem got worse everyday. Tonight I dropped it off at the wrench and by the time I got there I couldn't put it into gear - just coasted into the lot. I'll find out tomorrow what the word is.

Hey, I never checked the gear oil; could that be it?

[PorscheGuy79]

Mine just did this to me, I have the engine out and Im replacing a bunch of stuff that needed it anyway. I would be interested to hear what the final say is. My guess is the clutch cable.

[fred cook]

Fogcity,

While you are replacing the clutch cable, pull the pedal cluster out and replace the (probably) worn out bushings in the cluster. I just did the same job on my SC and it made a large difference in the pedal feel and response. I think the cost of the parts for a clutch cable and for the bushing kit came to about $100.00 or so. All the parts are available from PelicanParts. The only difficult part is removing the clutch pedal assist spring. It is big and strong and requires a lever type tool to reinstall.

Good luck with your project!

[kjb]

Hi again,

fogcity: I'm sorry I haven't responded earlier.

If the clutch doesn't come up all the way, something is binding. In my car the root cause was:

"Needle bearings in clutch release spring completely worn out"

I'm sure there are other things that can bind too, including the bushings in the pedal cluster, various parts of the linkage, et cetera.

Hope you have your car back on the road soon! The clutch felt completely different on my car after it was fixed.

/ Johan

[Walt Fricke]

So, Fog City - what did the shop find out?

In my cars, when the point of clutch engagement starts changing (where your foot is when the clutch engages when you go that direction, or disengages when you are pushing down) so that you notice it (short run issue), one of two things is happening:

The adjusting bolt lock nut (or perhaps one of the nuts holding the cable tube in place) back by the tranny got loose and things backed off or got out of adjustment. This is easy to fix.

Or, the clutch cable is about to fail completely. Typically a few strands of the cable break by one of the end swedge fittings, which effectively lengthens the cable. Not much, but clutch adjustments don't involve much. Then some more break. Eventually either enough break that you can't adjust it out (if still going that route), at least not without special measures (repositioning levers on splines), or it just breaks completely.

Oh - Fred's suggestion that one or more of the plastic bushings in the pedal cluster may have given up the ghost is also a possibility. If one starts breaking up that might have the same effect as maybe 1/8" of adjustment. And semi-random movement of good bits and bad bits of the bushing or bushings might account for bad pedal, back to normal pedal, then bad and then worse. And the spongyness might come from broken bits compressing.

There are other, worse, possibilities (throwout bearing finger bending), but I think they are less likely.

While it is the change in engagement that I notice, I think that things get a bit spongy with partial cable failure, because the partially broken cable stretches as some of the twist is taken up (some of the cable unlays) before it starts pulling on the clutch lever.

Other possibilities are a broken helper spring on the pedal assembly or a broken harp spring back by the clutch lever stuff at the tranny. However, I think these manifest themselves mostly in a very stiff pedal action, and don't affect the engagement point. Of course, if attachments are failing, that would be different.

After years with a broken front helper spring I recently was able to install a replacement without removing the cluster. Done with the power of positive swearing mostly.

The G50 trannies that came in in what, '87, have the hydraulics, and have a different set of problems sometimes.

So what was the actual cause of your woes?

Walt Fricke

[fogcity]

So, here it is:

One of the clutch assisting springs failed, and then some "fork" thingy twisted and broke. The engine needs to be pulled and tranny dropped to repair. Since we're there, mine as well replace the clutch. Been 16k miles since valve adjustment, so mine as well do that and replace the plugs. Bottem line: about $2000+.

Once I was over the dissapointment of the problem not being a simple adjustment, I quickly found peace with it. Basically, I've had the car for two years and drove the piss out of it and, aside from the small little do-it-yourself for fun repairs, I haven't spent a dime on the car and was never left stranded. Dropping the engine is way out of my realm, and although I'm paying big bucks, I trust my wrench and believe it will be done right. I figure any twenty year old car will average @ $100 a month in repairs; I'm just paying mine all at once. Besides, with the all real problems out there, like those poor people in New Orleans are dealing with, how can I complain?