Thread: Sticking clutch

Do you mean sticking as in you press the clutch pedal yet you cant engage gears?

*the standard clutch I would have said one of the large springs has fallen out and is sitting behind the pressure plate (or cover plate) fingers thus not allowing the fingers to move freely.
*are you sure the master is not leaking?
*are you sure the slave isnt leaking? (it may not be visible until it leaks out the bottom hole in the bell housing)

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

Do you mean sticking as in you press the clutch pedal yet you cant engage gears?

*the standard clutch I would have said one of the large springs has fallen out and is sitting behind the pressure plate (or cover plate) fingers thus not allowing the fingers to move freely.
*are you sure the master is not leaking?
*are you sure the slave isnt leaking? (it may not be visible until it leaks out the bottom hole in the bell housing)

Yes Dazza it's sticking as in when I press the clutch, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to engage a gear when stationary.
I don't think it's losing fluid- certainly not a significant amount as it's been a problem for some months now and hasn't run out of fluid, no fluid dripping from the bell housing either. The clutch pedal has a good feel. It's a bugger to bleed but I'm reasonably confident I've got the air out of it from when I last had it apart (well I guess I'm not 100% confident of that, given that it is acting the same as if I wasn't getting full movement of the slave cylinder).
I'll have a look at the firewall to ensure there's no fluid at the back of the m/cyl. Just thinking it might be worth giving it another bleed- certainly easier than dropping the gearbox. I'm open to suggestions of the best bleeding method for these clutches; I've had to 'reverse bleed' the thing before, pumping fluid up from underneath. I'm not a fan of how far upstream of the slave cylinder the bleed nipple is either.

honestly its the easiest model to bleed a clutch on...

*Connect a bleed tube to the bleeder valve (below on the passenger side) have it run into your fav old plastic drink container (thats a joke, it really is a bad habit people do)
*(bleed bottles are very cheap and readily available from most auto shops)
*A bit of fluid in the bottle.
*open valve.
*up top, a very small funnel will sit nicely in place, make sure master is full.
*two gentle pedal pushes with your hand.
*top up master again.
*repeat two pedal pushes.
*repeat top up.
*keep doing that, more than needed does flush it out nicely.

When I have done a clutch i connect the bleed tube and open the valve, then I continue to put the gear stick and rubber floor back in, by the time i get to the bleeding its already mostly done.

Funny that you say it's the easiest, I've found it the most difficult vehicle I have ever bled a clutch in, I've never been able to get it to gravity bleed at all and could not even prime it from the master cylinder when I last reassembled it, had to reverse bleed by setting up an injection system from below, a right pain in the neck. I don't think that the bleed nipple being about a foot from the slave cylinder helps anything either.
When time permits, I'll give it another bleed but I doubt that is the trouble, the pedal feels as it should and once it's in gear it takes up where it should.
I'm going to be doing some re-adjustment to the body mounts as I never got it quite right with the chassis swap, I might pull the box at that time and see if there's anything obvious going on inside the bell housing.

Returning to this thread, I have removed the gearbox today to investigate what is going on with this clutch, it's been an absolute pain and I have frequently been having to switch the motor off to engage first or reverse. I had been wondering if the step in the flywheel had been machined incorrectly.
Everything appears to be just as it should be, the step in the flywheel is 25.53mm, or 0.13mm deeper than spec- would be the opposite if that was going to be the problem.
I'm thinking the most likely thing has to be air in the slave cylinder itself (I'm 100% sure there was no air in the line upstream of the bleed nipple). I'm wondering if it is normal practise to prime these slave cylinders upon installation? There's so much fluid space downstream from the bleed nipple, seems to me if there's air in there on installation it's never going to come out. I'm not accustomed to this style of slave cylinder.

POD
The only dramas I had bleeding the MT82 clutch was when I was limping a shagged slave cylinder along when on Badu
With not even a trolley Jack I wasn’t excited about dropping the boxes

So I replaced master and bled out the system so many times before relenting and doing the job in the dirt

Anyways - new clutch (LOF) and all new hydraulics as per recs here
And on reinstall it about bled itself

I would be considering changing out the slave

Do you have a dud slave ?

S

I've ordered a new slave cylinder even though it's only done about 20,000km, since the box is out I thought it best to fit a new slave cylinder, spigot bearing and the plastic tube that goes to the slave cylinder. Waiting on those parts to arrive after the long weekend. It occurred to me yesterday that perhaps the master cylinder is the source of trouble, I did replace it a while back but I think I bought a cheapy, don't recall the specifics.

Those masters have a long history of internally bypassing?
Definite possibility

Out of interest - how did the LOF clutch, fingers and springs look after 20kkm?
You mention it was all in spec - no appreciable wear ?