clutch not clutching...

[georgem]

A couple of nights ago we visited our daughter who lives in the centre of Brisbane and drove our Pagoda.. We stayed for dinner. When we came to leave I noticed the clutch was a little "odd" and by the time I moved off and after a couple of gear changes, the clutch "disappeared" - foot to the floor, no disconnection at all. The clutch pedal wouldn`t come up off the floor unless I hooked my foot under it but this made no difference - it was still AWOL. As you can imagine it made driving cross town a "challenge".

Anyway, to shorten the story, after investigating ( safely at home in the garage) I find that  the slave cylinder rod moves the  end of the release forks about 15mm or just over half an inch. If the pedal is held down, the rod stays out. With  the  clutch pedal "up" there is about 1mm of play between the slave cylinder shaft and the end of the release fork.

Before I saw this I assumed  either the master clinder or slave would be kaput but now I`m not so sure - even starting to catastrophise and think that the fork might be bent. No odd noises though.

So, is the amount of movement of the slave cylinder shaft about right?. If so what else should I be looking at? If its too little travel, which is the likely suspect - slave or master. There is plenty of fluid in the container.

Any suggestions would be appreciated


cheers

[UJJ]

George
the same thing happened to me last year, of course during a ride on a beautiful fall day with some of my Pagoda friends in Massachusetts.
Fortunately I made it home with only some difficulty when I needed to stop at traffic lights.
I cannot tell you what the stroke of the slave cylinder is, because I never looked at that. I replaced the master and slave cylinder including the hose from the reservoir to the master and the hose from the master to the slave.
Now it is all new, I do not like to do partial work like changing one cylinder only or so. I found quite some junky fluid when I took it apart. I cleaned the reservoir thoroughly and used synthetic brake fluid as I have done with my brake system.
The result is quite nice, much easier pedal movement and engaging/disengaging of the clutch. Another part of the car I probably never have to work on again.
I think it is very unlikely that you have a bent fork lever or a worn out clutch. A worn friction disk would show up slowly and not that sudden as you describe.
Good luck,
Urban

[ja17]

Make sure that your fluid level did not go low.

[georgem]

Thanks  Urban and Joe,

I`ve just bitten the bullet and ordered both cylinders and the flex hose to the slave cylinder - not much else to replace. It does leave the dreaded bleeding  though!

cheers

[georgem]

Just to finish this thread off - I fitted the new slave and master cylinders -- bingo - I have a clutch again. The main difference I notice (apart from being able to select gears!) is the fact that the clutch is now noticeably heavier - is this pressure adjustable with the return spring on the pedal?

BTW, I used the brake bleed technique - really worked well although my wife wasn`t convinced that the .....down/hold/up... technique was easier because this time she was pressing the brake instead of the clutch.............

[GGR]

I think by now all our wives know about bleeding the brakes or the clutch!

[Ron500E]

Post number 2.

http://www.500eboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7772

R

[Naj ✝︎]

Post number 2.

http://www.500eboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7772

R

Post # 1

""The one disturbing thing I found out is the Pagoda people are just as cheap, and like to cut corners, as much the B/W people.... makes me appreciate this site even more.""


Don't know what you mean

naj