Sticky clutch problem

[ahbeyra]

When i first got my hatch, it was in rough shape, still working on it. but one of the interesting things that it did was the clutch pedal lagged behind my foot when i released it, it wasnt constant so it wasnt bad. now it has gotten a bit worse and on occasion it will stick to the floor with no return. to me, that seems like it could be something simple, but i did searches and nothing came up about the pedal really sticking down. so i was curious if anyone had this problem. i think it may just be the cable is frayed and dead. but, i havent gotten to look at it yet.

[Vinny]

If you have a second set of eyes to help you it shouldn't be too hard to isolate this. Have one person actuate the clutch pedal inside the car and the other person watch the release arm on the transmission. If the arm travel when someone pushes the clutch in then the cable is good. If the cable is good then it can be one of 2 things. Either the cable needs adjusted or the spring for the release bearing is bad.

To adjust the cable you need to follow it to the release arm. You can't miss it, just follow the cable. It has a plastic adjusting nut sitting in a bracket a bit above the release arm. The arm/cable should have no more than about 1/16 to 3/16" of play in it. I usually just grab the threaded shaft, pull up on it and then tighten the nut down.

If the release arm/cable adjustment is good then it may be the spring.
The movement of the relase arm and the release shaft on the transmission are controlled by the cable and a spring that hold the release bearing in place and pulls it back when the clutch pedal is released. You may have a bad spring for the release bearing. Its not hard to change the actual spring itself, but you do have to pull the tranny to do it.

[ahbeyra]

I was worried it was something to do with the release bearing(well, something inside the tranny). removing transmissions in fwd cars has never been my favorite thing to do, but i suppose it will give me a good chance to do some other preemtive work like replacing the alt. just because i have no idea how much is on it, and i really dont feel like taking apart the whole side of the car when it does go. Thanks a lot though, this should be fun.

[Vinny]

Check the cable and cable tension first, it may be an easy fix