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Clutch went ping

Craigybaby

Craigybaby

New member
Evening all, coming home this afternoon after a great weekend in the dales, clutch went ping and stayed to the floor. Thankfully was only about 10 miles from home rather than the middle of nowhere. Rac arrived in 45 mins, pulled the clutch up and a small piece of broken metal fell away, about an inch long. Clutch seemed to be working again so drove home with rac following me. Clutch seems ok apart from the last inch of travel where it is soft. So, is there some sort of spring that pushes the clutch up for the last bit if travel? Easy cheap fix?
Cheers Craig
 
It'd be the master or slave cylinder leaking I would have thought.

Same thing happened to me on Boxing day. I fitted my new master by myself and thought it was a really easy job
 
This rings a bell. Isn't there a spring acting above the clutch pedal pivot which evens out the clutch effort required? Maybe the bracket attaching to the pedal has fractured if the clutch works well still.
+1 for replacing the master cylinder being relatively easy, just need to remember the bleed screw on the slave is right underneath the bellhousing, not great if you forgot to put the car on ramps!
 
thanks guys, here's a pic of the snapped off bit that fell out when the clutch was lifted back up....clutch does appear to still be working well, could that be the case if it was the master or slave cylinder?

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just found this on design911 website

"A clutch that is engaged/disengaged via hydraulic fluid instead of a cable uses a Clutch Master and Clutch Slave Cylinder. When depressing the clutch pedal a lever is squeezed, forcing hydraulic fluid through hydraulic lines to a "slave cylinder" which houses a piston. The piston forces a push rod to engage or disengage the clutch. A clutch master cylinder that contains the hydraulic fluid sits on a support har near the clutch lever. When either the Master or Slave Cylinder fail the clutch is unable to be disengaged."

so it can't be either then ?

proper confused.....
 
I can't see why the hydraulic system failing would drop a chunk of metal on the floor? [&:]

I think Paul Smith had a failure of the pedal box IIRC. It does look more like the pedal itself, rather than the bits on the other side of the bulkhead.

The other thought is that hydraulic leaks don't go "ping"! You get in to the car one day to find the pedal on the floor, as there's no pressure. You fix the leak, and the pressure is back.
 
Looks like a retaining pin, check out the Porsche PET parts catalouge which is a free download from Porshce UK website and it may shed some light as it has blown up views and shows how things are assembled.
 
My pedal box came loose when one of the studs on the firewall snapped off, the symptoms were a clicking felt through the brake pedal when the clutch was pressed at the same time.

That piece does look like the end of a pivot that maybe the clutch pedal levers on? Get the seat out and lie on your back with a torch
 
Evening, had a good look tonight, nothing obvious snapped off that I could see, but then again don't exactly know what I'm looking for. Whilst it's drive able I may as well take it to a garage myself rather than have it collected, (& I wasn't gonna leave it in harehills on a Sunday night) but haven't got time for a few days so can do a bit of research/digging myself.
 
Hats off to Rob, i think you're right, looking at google pictures and the bit of metal I've got they look the same. It also makes sense to me that it would be that because it snapped when I was changing gear. Not sure if I'll be able to get just a new metal bit or a need a new fork with the metal bit but eBay ranges from £60-£100 so not a wallet buster. Thanks for the help so far.
 
I'll give them a ring. Do you reckon clutch work is best left to my local specialist, strasse/porschetek, or could my even more local normal garage do it (would be so much more convenient)
Cheers
 
If it's something simple like rods and levers and whatnot then any competent local garage should be able to tackle it. There's not much that's specialist about a 944 so 'specialist' garages with 'specialist' prices are often unnecessary.


Oli.
 
cheers oli.
just rang porsche leeds, the metal bit, or "clutch control shaft" is £33.16, but the "clutch release lever" (fork) is no longer available, but would have been £281.
Had a bit of an internet nosey last night and it looks like the bell housing needs to be removed to get access to the fork, so guessing labour might be more than i initially thought.
 
If I am correct in what I think has happened then the pivot rod has snapped at the bottom . The rod is still attached to the fork and likewise the fork to the release bearing and the pivot is still attached at the top. Hence the reason why you can still operate it but with the wooly feeling at the end beacuse it is loose. In theory you will have to remove the old rod from the fork. This is normally done by threading an M6 bolt into it and pulling out from the bottom. It is tight but you can hammer it out from the bottom through the top of the bell housing using a long drift or screwdriver. It will damage the firewall material above the housing but this is superficial. You can then thread a new pivot in from the bottom which is tricky but not too bad. If you cannot achieve any of the above for whatever reason then you will have to remove the bell housing. This is an entirely different ball game as you will have to drop the transaxle and move the torque tube back. Check the piece that you have recovered. Does it have a thread running through the centre of it to attach an M6 bolt to?
 
If Rob is right then you should be able to get the pivot rod (or what's left of it) out without too much dismantling, but it will be a tricky job and you'll need to go slowly. Bear in mind that the pivot bearings are some quite fine taper needle bearings which don't take longitudinal abuse that well so you'll need to be (fairly) gentle. However this approach is going to be orders of magnitude easier than the alternative, which would indeed be removal of everything forwards of the driveshafts.

(An aside, but if you do end up taking the bellhousing off then I'd be tempted to put a new clutch in if you don't have records of it being changed in the last 80,000 miles and you intend to keep the car for a reasonable while.)


Oli.
 
I'd assumed that you meant the bit of metal was inside the car, when you said the RAC guy pulled the clutch up and a bit of metal fell away! Disregard any comments on it being the pedal assembly, lol....[&:]

Regarding specialists, it's exactly the job where an expert on 944s should be cheaper, less likely to break anything, and know what other things to do whilst he's at it. Round me the specialist is something like £10 per hour dearer than a back-street workshop, and this is a job that will take a long time for someone who's never seen the underneath of a transaxle car before?

Of course, what you don't want is a specialist who has moved on to the newer models, and puts the apprentice on a job like this, whilst charging a much higher hourly rate. [8|]
 
paul, you are correct, the bit of metal fell into the footwell. just spoke to porschetek and he was convinced it will not be something from within the bellhousing, more likely something related to the pedal operation.
had yet another look at lunch, couldnt see an obvious snap, but theres definately a leak down there of some sort of oil type substance

taking it in next week
 
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