Lost the clutch pedal

[dave364634]

Basically I undid the bleed nipple, pumped the clutch pedal several times makeing sure the resevoir didn't go dry, then tightened the nipple, and now I have no clutch pedal (ie it goes down and stays down).

When I pressed the cable it made a bit of a wratchet type noise.


So what have I done and how do I fix it?


Ta.

 

[bighead]

clutch slave cylinder ?

 

[jmelhuish]

Same happened to me last night. I call a friend who told me you don't bleed the clutch by gravity you bleed it by direct pressure. We then bled the clutch with positive pressure and hey presto it works. See http://www.clarks-garage.com/ Clutch - 02 Bleed method 2 and 3. We did 2 then did 3. Good luck.

 

[dave364634]

So basically I can't do it by gravity or pumping, I need an easy bleed?

 

[timfield]

Not if you have an assistant to push the pedal down and hold it there until you retighten the bleed nipple. Then let the pedal up, to suck in the clean fluid, pump it two or three times gently, then hold it down again. You then undo the nipple, out comes air etc... repeat until all is sorted.
All you have to do is make sure the nipple is never undone when the pedal is lifted up as it will suck in air.

I Hope that helps!

 

[Vic Rattlehead]

I replaced the master and slave on my Turbo a few years ago with my Dad helping me to bleed (one operating the pedal and the other doing the bleeding) and we could never get a pedal that would return. After a bit of tooling around on youtube I saw a process where a guy bleeds a BMW clutch by filling a new clean oil can with clutch fluid and then attach it via some hose to the slaves bleed nipple. Fill your master about halfway and then have someone operate the oil can under the car, thus reverse bleeding the system I guess. You'll see all the air bubbles come out through the master cylinder reservoir. If it gets too full and you still don't have a positive pedal just siphon some off with a syringe and keep going.

After a day of trying to bleed the old way, this way worked first time.

 

[dave364634]

I changed the fluid and it was OK for a bit, now its gone cold its like before, but worse!

When it works ok, if you press the clutch down 20% it disengages drive.

When it sticks down, the pedal is 80% down but it still has drive, and the last 20% of travel is just enough to disengage drive.


This is the very well hidden rubber radial damper, isn't it?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Have you changed the two cylinders, and the hose between? Put in new fluid and bled it properly?

Failing that, get the clutch checked. [&o]

Either way, any half-decent specialist should be able to diagnose it easily and could save you ££s of trying repairs that don't work.

 

[dave364634]

Can you change the slave cyl without removeing the bell houseing?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Yep, easy job if you can get under the car. Starter off, then the slave's easy to get to. Bleeding it's more difficult than changing it. [&:]

 

[dave364634]

Stupid thing - When I leave the car at night, I make sure the pedal is up. In the morning it is at the bottom.

Am I going mental, or is something shrinking in the cold?

Ta.

 

[simdel1]

How old are you master and slave cylinders. Mine did something similar last year (almost exactly 1 year ago to the day actually!). There was fluid in the footwell that indicated the master cylinder had gone.

What is your fluid level like when it stops working? If it's dropped you have to ask where the fluid is going. Is there any fluid under the car?

 

[dave364634]

I'm not loseing fluid.

If I pull the pedal up it goes back to been normal. I can usually tell when its about to go.

 

[bighead]

ORIGINAL: dave364634

I'm not loseing fluid.

If I pull the pedal up it goes back to been normal. I can usually tell when its about to go.

I had the same problem ....then I change the slave cylinder (as it was starting to leak) and problem sorted

 

[Buddy]

My son and I have had this problem on several front engined Porsches and each time changed the slave cylinder, ever since the first one which I found had a badly pitted bore also the nipple threads were loose which didn't help with the bleeding. I usually found that if he threads are ok then a simple bleed valve fitted onto the nipple does the trick but it's often best to depress end hold the pedal while closing the nipple as it prevents sucking air back in around the threads.

 

[dave364634]

I'll ask santa for a slave cylinder then. Thanks.

 

[dave364634]

Fitted the slave today, and it still does it, but is a lot smoother. []

I'll put a master on it and hope that solves it.

 

[DavidL]

As someone said don't forget the flexi pipe inbetween the two. Easibleed is the way to go if you are on your own.

 

[ChasR]

Ah, the joys of bleeding a 944 clutch!