SR71BLACKBIRD

Today I made a quick get away coming out of the parking lot and was hard on the throttle and slammed it into second in a not so gentle fashion and then about 5 minutes later I stop off at parking lot and notice that the clutch pedal was stuck half way and didn't return back to its clutch in position and felt kinda spongy- and would not return even with a few stabs to the clutch pedal to the floor. Finally I used my hand and pulled it back to the fully returned position. Afterwards it operated fine.

Is this a message that my clutch slave cylinder is about to go? My car is now at 38,000 miles.

Thanks

Scott

Flying Finn

Could be but you should first start by taking the wooden floor board out, try to lubricate everything and see if it helps. If that doesn't help, flush the slave, next option, change the slave. And then lastly, I'd change the lever.

AOW162435

Scott,
It could certainly be. I would replace the slave and the associated rubber line. The parts are fairly inexpensive - I sourced mine through Sunset. My clutch operation is perfectly smooth these days.

Andreas

SR71BLACKBIRD

Thanks guys. This same thing happend to me about 1.5 years ago 2 weeks after I got the car and now after an additional 12000 miles it is happening again although. I went tried the car this morning and it returns normally so it is so strange. Does one need a power bleeder to bleed. I have this manual bleeder called a Mighty T -I think thats what it is called.

AOW162435

Scott,
The Power Bleeder Black Label I used worked perfect. If you think the slave and hose are original to the car, i think it would be prudent to replace these now.

Count on a few hours, some cursing, a bloody knuckle or two, and oh, a few more hours. It was very satisfying to do this repair and regain a super smooth clutch pedal. If you need a few hints, contact me.

Andreas

Fred, Long Island

Bleed it first. When you're in there you can determine if the rubber line has a weep around the connections. If there's no weep or leak, it's OK.
The kinematic (love those complicated names) lever may need to be replaced. p-car.com has the lessons. And there's also the possibility that the roll pin in the pedal cluster has failed. It will bind halfway through and give you enough action to work but ultimately, drop the pedal.
Good hunting.

SR71BLACKBIRD

Thanks Andreas: I definitely will call you for advice when I psyche myself up for this job and the way I work its probably going to be a few days instead of a few hours BTW how much do the slave cylinders run?

viperbob

Slave cylinders are only about $85-90. With a '95, as Petu mentioned the arm may be at issue. When you bleed the clutch, check the color of the fluid. If it is VERY BLACK then you could have an issue with the slave and potentially the master...

farmerjohn

Here's a good approach

http://p-car.com/diy/pedal/

SR71BLACKBIRD

I had my 30K done at the Dealer last year - is flushing the Clutch part of the 30K service - I know they did flush the brakes. I drove the car last night and the clutch returns fine again so no reoccurrance yet. I think it had burped after a hard sloppy shift into second.

AOW162435

Scott,
I'm not sure if the slave flush is part of the service (would suspect that they may have just overlooked that part...). If they did flush it, there is a chance that the new fluid contriubuted to your current problem. When I purchased my 993, the pedal action was perfectly fine until I flushed the brakes and the slave cylinder. Directly thereafter, the pedal action was horrible. Responses on the board indicated that the new fluid could easily have made the old seals react, and thus change the feel. A new slave and hose did the trick. Smooth as can be now.

Andreas

Robin 993DX

FWIW, when my car was 1 year old I was doing some testing with the g-tech pro meter and did some really hot burn outs to get the best 0-60 time, you know side step the clutch the whole deal.

Anyways, after couple of runs I completely lost my clutch! I thought that was the craziest thing in the world. I mean the clutch pedal went to the floor and did not come back up, after I manually pulled it back up there was absolutely no clutch action. I can shift to all the gears and with the clutch pedal out full like there was no clutch in the car at all.

I put the car in neutral and let the car cooled down on the side of the road and then everything was working again, including the clutch. After 80 k miles I am still on that same clutch.

I hesitated from posting this experience because I thought it was way too crazy for anyone to beleive. Sounds very simliar to your experience....

LAT

Robin

I did the same sort of thing with a friend in his Bullit Mustang about 3 years ago. Everything came back when it cooled off and 3 years later all is still fine.
Possibly something to do with the dual mass flywheel?

LAT

Flying Finn

Come on Robin, we know you better than you think!

That's not crazy at all, just normal Robin to us!

SR71BLACKBIRD

Hey Robin: You're the man - you just sucked it up and kept it bottled inside you all these years ; not like me ; I'm whinning at the first sign of trouble . Thanks for sharing your craziness - now I feel much better knowing I was not seeing things.