3.2 clutch problems

[Jay07]

I have just started having a few problems with my clutch.

occassionally the clutch does not engage quickly enough, I get some huge rev's as if my foot is still on the clutch and lots of startes and then it bites.

This has only happened twice.
Once when I was in very slow moving traffic for about an hour and constantly moving a couple of feet and then stopping.
Today it happened after a long hard burst on the motorway.

Any thoughts??

Jacob
'87 Carrera

[Don Plumley]

Your clutch, like mine, is hydraulic and self-adjusting. So unless this is a wear issue (how many miles since replacement), then I'd suspect:
>Fluid: bleeding
>Cutch Slave/Clutch Master cylinder

Reasonably easy to pressure bleed the clutch if you have skinny arms. I'm planning on replacing the two cylinders later this year, so no info on that.

Just a shot in the dark.

Don

[Rick Lee]

With your car there is a sequence to clutch fixes. 1st - flush slave cylinder. If that doesn't work, check pedal cluster and see if boot on master cylinder is torn. If all looks fine but still no joy, I'd spend the $110 or so throwing in a new slave and master, then bleed and see if that works. If not, then you're looking a clutch R&R. Has your G50 fork update been done yet? If not, you have to look forward to. Normally, I wouldn't recommend just replacing parts without much diagnosis, but with the slave and master, it's a crapshoot. Either one or both could be bad and the symptoms will be the same. So fixing just one may not cure the problem. This stuff is a lot easier and cheaper than the clutch R&R, so try them first.

[Beethoven]

I take it that if it turns out NOT to be the master/slave cylinder but something else, one wouldn't have wasted money on replacing these items because they need replacing anyway, right? I too have some shifting problems (rough transition from first to second, occasional problems with finding third) and wonder about the right sequence to address them.

[Rick Lee]

M/C and S/C will go bad eventually. Happened to me. But you usually have pedal issues first. Shifting problems are more likely clutch disc, pp or t/o bearing related. Hydraulic issues can almost always be felt through the pedal - too much play, sticking to the floor, not returning, soft/spongy resistance. M/C/ and S/C are cheap parts, but install is not a lot of fun, nor is subsequent bleed. But if they are bad, , mad, what a difference it makes when they are replaced. Clutch feels new.

[mjmoran]

I just found an interesting issue with my 89 Carerra's pedal cluster. I noticed that the clutch pedal was not returning all the way back. I first adjusted the return spring cam a bit and had a small amount of fix...but not enough. The pedal just felt stiff all through the travel. I decided to remove the pedal cluster thinking that one of the holes where the dbl roll pins were in had elongated. Upon disassembly of the clutster on the bench I found an interesting reason to my sticky pedal. The main clutch pedal shaft had bent in the middle. This caused binding on both the brake pedal bushings and the outer bushings (the bend was inbetween the brake bushings). The shaft has about 2-3mm of "rise" in the center when on my flat bench...very interesting. I have ordered a new shaft and new bushings. This should make the car back as new. As I have not read about this issue before, thought I would post an alternative to the MC and Slave replacement.