Clutch

[noely1]

hey guys my 34 sedan has a heavy duty clutch fitted (not sure on brand etc) and ive been driving it with this clutch for like 6+ months now and its always had heaps of compression and its been relativley hard to push in (well nto hard but not all soft and sloppy) this afternoon i hopped in my car and noticed straight away that my clutch is all soft and has ALOT of freeplay in it... i mean almost to the floor just a few inches off the floor then it gets hard again at the grabbing point...

just wondering if its meant to do this over time it "beds" in or something or do i honestly have something gone wrong?? clutch fluid is all good no problems there..

cheers

[Trozzle]

does the clutch actually work correctly?

Either way, sounds like something could be wrong. I had something almost exactly the same happen in my VL, driving up the highway, clutch in to go 4th to 5th, clutch was unbelievable soft, and only felt like it was doing something *JUST* before it was completely depressed.

Turned out to be the master cylinder (I think....the small one where the reservoir is). There is a spring inside that which had broken into 3 pieces. I didn't quite understand what it did, but as a result of being broken, it was essentially shorter. Didn't do what it was there to do until it was almost completely depressed.

Just my 2c. If it turns out to be the same thing, the spring was like $5 from somewhere that just happened to have springs the same size (wasn't genuine). So VERY cheap fix if you can do it yourself.

[noely1]

yeah the clutch works properly soon as its past the grabbing point when letting the clutch it its just soft as nething..... and the grabbing point is literally soon as i lift the clutch off the floor its grabbing so over 3/4 of the pedal is just free play until i hit the floor almost.. whereas before it was pretty hard all the way thru which is wat i liked... my friend who has also driven the car said its definitley different but he said if its any consilation thats how his clutch feels and it doesnt feel burnt out (ive only recently just got my p's so i havent been driving manual for years and years) so yeah ill get that spring looked at though and hopefully thats wat it is

cheers mate!

[jrm]

It may be that there was something wrong before with a really heavy clutch pedal that has now resolved itself. I have a heavy duty exedy clutch in my car, and it feels about as heavy to the foot as the factory clutch. Certainly nothing like the crazy eXtreme clutch I used to have fitted to my N14 SSS that was a complete ass to drive in traffic.

If you're concerned - take it to a brake/clutch specialist and get them to drive it and put it up on the hoist to check master/slave cylinder - they'll probably do it for free. At least then you have some professional advice.

[noely1]

yeah i have a mate who owns a shop i'll take it to him tomorrow.. i think its my master on its way out and giving up on life lol.

cheers

[noely1]

went to hop in it tonight to move the car for my old man to put his ute in the garage... no clutch at all.... push straight to the floor it grabbed soon as i let the foot off the floor i thort far out this is worse.. went to put it in first.. car didnt respond at all let the car roll for a bit pushed the clutch in and out didnt even react... no clutch wat so ever.. eventually managed to just clonk it into first the clutch jus grabbed and i quickly put it in the driveway...

hopefully its just my master cylinder or a seal of some sort not letting fluid/pressure through????? also how much wud a master be fitted? cheers

[clip14]

check for leaks around your clutch master and slave cylinders. what you're describing sounds like you had a leak in your hydraulic system somewhere and pulled some air into the system.

[Trozzle]

if it's not a leak, DEFINITELY sounds like my problem. Fluid was on max when I had the issue, and car was unable to be driven. I had to be hardcore and rev-match as far as I could to get home as luckily I was already moving when it happened. Got most of the way home, then couldn't get 3rd and had to pull over

I'm putting money on the spring in the master being broken. Sounds exactly the same as the VL clutch.

[noely1]

hopefully its only that.. my mech is taking a look at it on monday/tues so ill let ya's know!! thanks alot for the help guys!

[noely1]

ok so my mechanic said bla bla bla cant adjust clutch since its hydraulic.. so we got onto adjusting the pedal...

now the pedal pressure is great just teh same as before i love it - its not soft anymore - but the release point is really really really high... like literally a few inches before the clutch is completley up, then it grabs...

my question is if i adjust the pedal back down so the release point is where it was before (just below half way when clutch is depressed, i loved it like that) then will the pedal go soft again?

if it does go soft again... wat is actually wrong?? i got the master and slave diagnosed and they are both functioning correctly so wat else cud go wrong?? its a heavy duty clutch and its done probably 10-15 thousand klms only since being put in