..... the clutch pedal feeling like it's getting stuck & not coming all the way back up after being depressed? Feels that the return spring is partly siezed? The pedal itself has a spring which is ok in pulling only the pedal up with a good few inches of travel before the weight of the clutch itself is felt. The clutch etc is new with only a couple of thou miles on it. I assume this is not normal & would welcome any informed comment before contacting the fitting garage to resolve any "problem". Cheers for your help.

Ian.

 

You'll find the problem is in the clutch slave cylinder.

Inside is a piston, spring and seal.
The spring becomes compressed and stops the piston from coming back up the bore. This causes *play* experienced sometimes when changing gear.

To do the job, get a brake hose clamp and clamp the clutch cylinder hose.
Remove bolt securing the hose to the cylinder with 14mm spanner.
Undo the two bolts holding the cylinder to the gearbox. Again a 14mm spanner.
Remove the dust seal and plunger from the end of the cylinder and remove the piston from the cylinder and *stretch* the spring.
Refit the piston after cleaning all parts and refit the hose to the cylinder.
Keeping the cylinder upright, undo the bleed nipple slightly and make sure the reservoir is topped up.
Get an assistant to push and pull the clutch pedal by hand to bleed the system, making sure you have your thumb over the piston to stop the piston being pushed out of the cylinder. Keep an eye on the reservoir level.
Once you see there is no air coming out of the bleed pipe, nip up the bleed nipple, refit the dust cover and plunger and refit cylinder to gearbox.

Alan

[Edited by AlanG - 7/30/2003 1:14:01 AM]

 

Before you do that though...check the return spring at the clutch slave cylinder is in place...

If it turns out to be the problem in my first post, your garage should be able to complete the job in an hour.

Alan

 

I've had a helix clutch on the car for about 2K miles and it is working very well, so as Alan G says I would suspect the external clutch operating system.

Les

 

Its much simpler than that.

There is a spring that goes from the fork to a bracket at the back of the engine. When this looses its elasticity the pedal stops returning fully and eventually can stay stuck down near the floor.

The springs are less than a tenner and you can change it without even removing the intercooler.

 

Cheers chaps, great help. I'll have a look at the suggestions to see if my mechanical "skills" are up to it.....

Thanks again...

 

That's the one i'm talking about in my second post.

When i first experienced similar problems i thought it was the spring Pete refers to but turned out to be the spring inside the cylinder itself in the end.

As a test, if you push back the plunger on the end of the cylinder (with the rubber boot)and find it doesn't return after a while, it's a safe bet the spring inside has lost its' tension. Don't worry about it not returning *immediately* but if it doesn't return at all, then the spring is a cert to be needing replaced.

Alan

[Edited by AlanG - 7/30/2003 1:13:01 AM]