clutch help

[mk1alex]

Driving at about 10 mph in the asda car park distracted by a nagging girlfriend i accidentally crunched the gears , for the rest of the drive home the biting point is way lower and theres loads of free play in pedal. in fact id say only the last ten percent of pushing the pedal down actually does anything.
I really dont know a lot about how a clutch works so any ideas as to what i have gone and done and how i fix it?.

Or even if someone could point me in the direction of a good website or book that will explain basic car mechanics to me so i dont have to keep asking you lot what are probably very basic questions.

thanks

[kaiowas]

Sounds to me like you've got the usual leaky slave cylinder and it's finally leaked to the point that the master cylinder has sucked in a big slug of air making the pedal soft and useless.

Crunching the gears will have been a symptom of the problem rather than the cause.

First thing to do is check the clutch fluid level (the reservoir will probably be empty) then check around the slave cylinder for signs of leakage (it might not be very wet but it'll be dark and dirty where crap has stuck to the slowly leaking fluid.

If those two things are as described then you should be able to get away with bleeding and refilling the clutch hydraulics and just keep an eye on the fluid level. If it turns out to be a slow leak you'll have no real trouble as long as you top it up every now and again, eventually it might get bad enough that changing the slave cylinder is worthwhile.

[mk1alex]

thank you and yes it was exactly as you described. the push-rod behind the pedal seems to be wet also, tho i am not sure if its just grease. hopefully that wont need replacing because getting under that dash is so awkward. I will try bleeding it tomorrow and replacing the fluid. Should i be using dot3 fluid? and where on earth is the bleeder plug? it took me long enough to find the slave.
does anyone have a link to a photo?
thanks.

[badgerbob]

the cylinder your looking at is the master cylinder mate if its connected to the clutch pedal, the slave cylinder is mounted on the front engine mount at the bottom of the engine bay, its on the slave cylinder mount that your find the bleed point for the clutch

[mk1alex]

i did find the slave in the engine bay just could see where to bleed it, i will have another look at where its mounted on, there is not much room with all the tubed and wires down there will i need to get underneath?

[un1eash]

Its alot easier to bleed the clutch from underneath, jack the car up and make sure its very secure with axle stands and i also put the spare wheel under before getting underneath.

You will see the clutch bleed pipe once under.

[mk1alex]

thanks guys and on that subject i just moved down to bristol from up north, ive always used steel ramps in the past but it wasnt really an option to bring them with me. ive just picked up some 3 ton axle stands for now as im about to replace the brakes. anyway where is the correct point to place the axle stands? is it the same as the jacking points?

[kaiowas]

Personally I don't trust the proper jacking points. Seen too many rusty sills on mk1s.

I usually use the rear engine mount to jack the back of the car and then put axle stands under the inboard end of either the track control arms or the trailing arms depending on what I'm working on and where I need access.

[mk1alex]

good advise as always form this forum thanks guys.

[karas288]

yeah i got similar symptoms ive only just bought mine and brought it back from a car sales place in bristol last wednesday and now it wont go into gear with the engine running and the pedal has absolutely no resistance when pressed going to get the AA out to sort it see what they can do

[karas288]

well the AA guy turned up and said that its the master cylinder its leaking so needs replacing its in the garage now i managed to drive it up the AA mechanic filled the resevoir on the master cylinder in the bonnet with some brake fluid then pressed against the slave cylinder to remove any air bubbles whilst i pressed the clutch a few times and the clutch control was actually better now than when i first drove it not sure where the mechanics going to get the new part from or how long its going to take so now its just a matter of waiting i guess lucky i got my quad to take me to work otherwise id be f****ed lolhope that helps guys im just so relieved its not the entire clutch system