Clutch pedal gone soft in my '89 5sp

Well, i drove this car to work today and it looks like I will be lucky to make it home tonight. The clutch pedal seems squishy,wierd, and I can barely get the car in gear. To beat it all, this car just had a brand new clutch installed last week.

What could be wrong?
Clutch Cable going bad?
Bad clutch quadrant?
Do these cars have a slave cylinder that could be bad???:confused::confused::confused:


Any help will be greatly appreciated. It looks like I will be taking the day off tommorrow to fix this.:(

Frank
 
No advise?

I just went on lunch break to see if I could move the car and it would not even go into gear now.:(
Pedal totally gone.
 
When you replaced the clutch, did you replace the slave cylinder? I didn't when I changed my clutch. The slave cylinder worked fine till I redid the clutch. Then it started leaking so I had to do it again. One thing to do, get under the car and pull the bell housing view cover and see if its wet. If it is, there's your problem.
 
I only time I went thru a clutch the feeling (lack of) was immediate. Right to the floor pendulum petal.

I would look at hydraulics if it gave you some time on the pedal.

Have you refilled reservoir to gain back some pedal?
 
When you replaced the clutch, did you replace the slave cylinder? I didn't when I changed my clutch. The slave cylinder worked fine till I redid the clutch. Then it started leaking so I had to do it again. One thing to do, get under the car and pull the bell housing view cover and see if its wet. If it is, there's your problem.

I never replaced that slave cylinder, so maybe you are dead-on.
 
I only time I went thru a clutch the feeling (lack of) was immediate. Right to the floor pendulum petal.

I would look at hydraulics if it gave you some time on the pedal.

Have you refilled reservoir to gain back some pedal?

I looked at that resevoir and it was dead empty. I then tried to fill it up, but it had zero effect on the clutch pedal. I will likely let it sit until I get the will to fix it....:(
 
Frank,

You need to find out where it's leaking first, but it's most likely the slave cylinder (you should see where fluid had run out the bellhousing).

If the leak isn't very fast yet, you can fill it up and limp it around most likely, but if you get air in the line, it won't work (like a braking system). There is a bleeder on the slave cylinder that you can access from beneath the car without removing anything if you need to let the air out of the slave.

I'm not sure if this is proper procedure, but several refills that I did, when I would pump the clutch pedal after putting some fluid in, it would work the air up out of the system and I could avoid getting under the car. Not sure if it will work for you or not. This didn't always work, but most of the time it did.
 
Frank,

You need to find out where it's leaking first, but it's most likely the slave cylinder (you should see where fluid had run out the bellhousing).

If the leak isn't very fast yet, you can fill it up and limp it around most likely, but if you get air in the line, it won't work (like a braking system). There is a bleeder on the slave cylinder that you can access from beneath the car without removing anything if you need to let the air out of the slave.

I'm not sure if this is proper procedure, but several refills that I did, when I would pump the clutch pedal after putting some fluid in, it would work the air up out of the system and I could avoid getting under the car. Not sure if it will work for you or not. This didn't always work, but most of the time it did.

I can't seem to see any fluid leaking at all. I need to find that place you speak of and try to bleed it immediately.
Thanks very much!
Frank
 
Matt I was kinda thinking the same way.

Would'nt the leak (if it exists) kind of act as the bleeder and with enough fluid prime the system.
 
Matt I was kinda thinking the same way.

Would'nt the leak (if it exists) kind of act as the bleeder and with enough fluid prime the system.

Yeah, either that or the bubbles work their way up...I don't know. It worked for me most of the time. My leak was not ever consistent...some days it would leak out overnight, sometimes it would take a week.

Frank - here is a picture of the area to look (driver's side, circled in red). You will see two "ports" that go into the trans (to the slave) - one will have a line attached, the other will not. It will be a nut with a hole in the center (bleeder screw)...I'm pretty sure it's above the line-connected fitting.
 

Attachments

  • pt55-t.jpg
    pt55-t.jpg
    22.1 KB · Views: 62
Yeah, either that or the bubbles work their way up...I don't know. It worked for me most of the time. My leak was not ever consistent...some days it would leak out overnight, sometimes it would take a week.

Frank - here is a picture of the area to look (driver's side, circled in red). You will see two "ports" that go into the trans (to the slave) - one will have a line attached, the other will not. It will be a nut with a hole in the center (bleeder screw)...I'm pretty sure it's above the line-connected fitting.

Man that is awesome! You likely saved me an hour of looking for that.:cool:
 
Back
Top