Kelly Chiu

I just replaced the slave cylinder on a 1986 951, bled the system and the clutch pedal is off the floor (fully up position). I can't push the clutch pedal down however. A quick check under the car at the inspection hole reveals that the release lever socket (the socket that the slave cylinder pushes against) is wedged against the bellhousing.

I can take a screwdriver and lever it back in place. However when I push the clutch , the clutch pedal drops to to the floor, springs back up and the pedal is locked in the up position.

My questions is if there is supposed to be a spring that returns the release lever back into the non extended position? I am really lost here, spent most of the day yesterday bleeding and messing around with this, I am out of ideas. I hope its something simple.

So to summarize, the clutch pedal is up, system is bled. Clutch pedal cannot be physcially pushed down as the release lever is at the extended position with the pedal up. Hope this is clear, and thanks for any advice rendered.

-Kelly

Luis de Prat

Hi, does the pedal snap down by itself when you push on it? If so, I suspect there is still air in the system. How did you bleed the clutch? Did you use a pressure bleeder, or did you use the traditional pedal pumping method?

If you have a pressure bleeder, bleed the system again. Bleed it first in with the pedal in the down position, opening and closing the bleed nipple on the slave cylinder, and progressively pull the pedal upwards repeating this operation. This will get the air out of the system. Ideally, you would finalize the bleeding process with someone pushing down a bit on the pedal while you open the bleed nipple one more time to get the last possible bubbles out, but you'll need a helper for this. HTH

P.S. Have you also checked your firewall for cracking? I just discovered I have this problem after difficulty bleeding the clutch hydraulics.

Kelly Chiu

I used a pressure bleeder. The clutch pedal in the up position physically cannot be pushed down. When I check under the car the release arm is pushed up against the bell housing, this can be seen via the inspection hole. I already went through 1 litre of brake fluid via the pressure bleeder. The fire wall looks fine, no cracks.

Luis de Prat

Have you tried removing the slave cylinder to reposition the rod? It floats between the slave cylinder and the clutch.

LeMans71

Kelly, yes the release lever is returned to the "non-extended" (clutch engaged) position by the clutch pressure plate springs. But unless you've done any disassembly at the clutch (i.e. the release lever pivot rod) the release lever should be in its proper orientation. Try bleeding the system once more, either with the slave cylinder in place and the rear of the car jacked as high as you can SAFELY put it, or take the slave cylinder off the clutch housing and tip the bleeder valve end as high as the hose will let you. Seems to me that there is still a bubble in there.

The thing that puzzles me is the pedal being "locked" in the up position. Is it locked locked, or just very difficult to push in???

Kelly Chiu

I took the slave cylinder out, the release lever does return to the non-extended position, it seems that the force of the slave cylinder rod exceeds the pressure of the return spring. I did not take anything in the bellhousing apart. I hade the clutch pedal drop to the floor and limped it back into the garage. I will try and bleed the slave cylinder outside of the housing.

The pedal is locked, as in can't physically push down with my feet. The ball end of the release lever is extended to the bellhousing with the pedal up.

Luis de Prat

This sounds more like a problem with the clutch itself. How old is it and how many miles are on it?

Kelly Chiu

less than 2000 miles ago, the clutch is pretty much brand new. I do not drive the car much. Was going to get the car smogged. There likely is no way to get to the required parts unless you remove the torque tube and do a whole clutch job right?

Luis de Prat

What was replaced in the clutch job? Did you include throwout bearing and clutch fork needle bearings? These parts can create problems, although I'm not sure it's your issue. My clutch fork was shot and replaced with a new unit back when I had mine done.

Sysgen

Could it be that the adjustment on the clutch pedal is extended to the maximum it can go. I don't know if I'm epxlaining this correctly but have you played with the adjustements of the pedal?

Kelly Chiu

Have not played with the adjustment of the pedal, if the slave cylinder goes bad (clutch pedal to the floor), would it move the pedal out of adjustment causing this condition?

Sysgen

I guess it could. I would try to back out the adjustment little by little and see if the cylinder backs out. I'm guessing it will.

Kelly Chiu

I just looked under the car again. The release lever does not return back to the non-extended position. Does anybody know how the release lever should return back to the non-extended position? I know that I likely will have to remove the bellhousing, but is there anything else that may cause the lever not to return back?

Mighty Shilling

the tension from the pressure plate (it's a giant flippin spring) should be more than enough to return the clutch release fork to it's normal position. somethings broke. sounds like a dead fork? Just happened to me, and a couple others I know.

LeMans71

Could be, but why is the clutch pedal "locked"? The clutch fork needle bearings have moved to #1 on my list of suspects - especially if we find out that they were not replaced during the clutch job. Mine were trashed at 106K miles.