HELP! My car is broken

[JH32]

Does anyone know whats happened to my car :

today I was driving and it started to get hard to select gears ... until the point where I couldnt get it into any gear at all.

As the car has a heavy duty clutch, the pedal is normally very stiff to push in, but now there is hardly any resistance at all.

The only way I could select first when the car was stopped was to turn the car off, select 1st (the gearbox was free to move with the engine off) and then turn the key. The car would bounce forward and then start. When driving I could get into gears but I had to really force it in.

So basically the clutch is constantly engaged and when I stop the car stalls. What the hell is going on?? How do I fix this???

I've checked the fluid levels and they seem fine. :confused:

I'm stuck and it's xmas day and nowhere is open and this is ruining my day

cheers.

[JH32]

Also i noticed that when I pump the clutch the whole cylinder thing where you top up the clutch fluid moves.

I don't know if this is normal or not though. But it moves quite a lot.

[Silver-Arrowz]

Something like this happened to my WRX before. There was some hose line for the clutch that cracked and therefore clutch fluid was coming out.

[JH32]

I got the RAC out and the guy thought that maybe the clutch master cylinder might be stuffed? Either that or the slave cylinder?

Either way it seems as though the problem is hydraulics as I can change gears when the car is off.

This is very annoying.

Guess I'll hafta get someone to look at it on Friday then.

[Morgs]

Sounds like air in the line....

[Merli]

That's exactly what happened to my clutch a few weeks ago.

I had snapped the ball joint on my clutch pivot fork. What this effectively did, was move the friction point to a point further than you could access by pushing the clutch pedal in, so in effect, you couldn't disengage the clutch by pushing the pedal anymore.

[JH32]

I have checked the slave cylinder and the little piston on that moves when you push the clutch in, so apparently that means the problem is inside the clutch/gearbox.

I spoke to gtrken and he said that I could have done something similar like break one of the fingers. I'll get it checked out on Monday when I can finally get the car to a workshop.

Of course this has to happen now when all the shops are shut for christmas/NY!!!

[Duncan]

I once split a hydraulic line and had the same problem - no fluid left.

Of course, you can change gears without the clutch.....

[JH32]

Is there somewhere else there could be fluid other than in the clutch master cylinder?

Also when I press the clutch the slave cylinder moves in and out.

Does this mean I still have pressure within the hydraulic lines?

[Steve]

Dude, it does sound like there are problems with your clutch pivot point, or the mount for the slave cylinder, esp if it is moving - this is 'old school', but in my younger days the slave cylinder was usually fixed and pushed against a fulcrum which was attached to a pivot point. If you are not leaking fluid - it probably aint a leak, and you would probably know if it was.

I have heard that heavy clutches can do a bit of damage to the pivot point on skylines, specifically if the clamp pressure reaches or exceeds 3000lb - but that is hear say.

[JH32]

damn

are these pivots/fulcrums expensive to fix?

[Steve]

If you can get the damage welded, not too bad. Otherwise you may have to replace the bell housing - don't know how much one of those would cost.

[Cubes]

Ouch.

I wont be getting a really heavy clutch then...

[JH32]

Originally posted by Steve

If you can get the damage welded, not too bad.  Otherwise you may have to replace the bell housing - don't know how much one of those would cost.

****.

how the hell could this have happened?

i was driving like a grandma at the time!

[Cubes]

The stress from simply pushing the clutch down on the hard clutch.

I had a VS V8 Manual Commodore previously which had a very heavy duty clutch. (At traffic lights your leg would shake)

That stuffed the pedal box and caused the pedal to click and clunk.

Put a new lighter clutch in (standard) and it was stuffed.

I was told I had to replace the pedal box and pin or some thing.

SOLD THE CAR!

[JH32]

haha ... damn!!

well I don't wanna sell the car so I'll have to just get the clutch people to look at it for me.

I'm not very excited about what they'll have to say

[Cubes]

I wonder if a VL Bellhousing is the same/similiar.

Could be a cheaper option.

Slap a VL Bellhousing and a VLT 5 speed behind it.

As Strong as the RB25 boxes but a bit cheaper.

[JH32]

I might go and try and push/hit the slave cylinder in ... see if it'll release the clutch.

Prolly won't do shit, but it's worth a try

[Steve]

JiMiH,

As Joel said, the skylines dont seem to like too heavy a pressure plate.

[JH32]

It's wierd though as mine has all the GTR running gear, including GTR gearbox etc, and I've heard of GTRs having much heavier plates than what I've got

How could this be?