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Clutch


geoffbeaumont

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Clutch started to feel a bit odd in stop-start traffic on the M40 this morning. Eventually decided that the pedal wasn't meeting any resistance for the first part of its travel, but it was still working okay.

This evening it still feels much the same but it's now difficult to pull off without nasty noises (scraping noises is about the best description, I guess) but changes okay once it's on the move.

Clutch fluid is at max and I can't see any leaks or other issues externally - haven't had a chance to investigate further.

The clutch is still the original one, so it's done 140k, and had a bit of abuse the last couple of years driving around a knackered gearbox.

What's the problem likely to be? Anything that involves taking the gearbox out is bad, 'cause it's putting up a fight (the top bellhousing bolt is seized) so that's a big, big job... :(

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what gearbox is it? i cant remember what your truck runs. could be a simple as a dying slave cylinder, they dont always leak when they go or could be the clutchfork spilting which is a engine/gbox out job. i'd investigate the hydrulic side carefully in the hope its just that. symptoms were much the same when my clutch master cylinder went, but then when the clutchfork the same thing happened, just that it died quicker.

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It's an R380 (complete with worn main shaft bearings and knackered syncromesh on 3rd) - bog standard 300Tdi manual.

Other than removing the slave cylinder and checking it operates when the clutch is depressed, what can I do to pin down any hydraulic problems (ie. how do I tell if it's master or slave that's gone)? I guess I can visually check the fork with the slave out?

Clutch fork would be particularly annoying as I'm taking this truck off the road to change the gearbox anyway as soon as the rangie is ready to go back on it :angry:

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Not sure there is a whole lot to do Geoff, I replaced the complete hydraulic system when I had a problem where the clutch was dragging. In the process I had the slave out and the missus pressing the clutch with both and old and new slave. Couldn't see a lot of difference, though that might be because there was nothing wrong with the hydraulic side anyway (turned out the clutch plate had got stuck to flywheel while the box was on the floor for a week, took a rag around the block in anger to free it, not that I knew it when I went round the block :))

Sounds vaguely master cylinder to me, you could try as some have here when a failure has occurred and fill with oil which is thicker, if the master cylinder seals are failing the oil won't creep past so easily. Don't know if you would end up having to renew or at least flush the system after that though :(

Changing the master can be done in about an hour with the right motivation, however it is a right PITA while you do it.

You could just alter the master cylinder throw to get rid of unused area if you want, or just forget about it ? :)

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Okay, had the slave out and inspected it - no signs of leaks there, operates okay so far as I can tell (given the clutch still just about works, I'm not sure it operating with no load on means a right lot). The clutch arm seems to be sitting in about the right place, but beyond that I can't really tell what condition it's in from outside.

Depressing the clutch by hand the pedal 'flips' almost right to the floor, then beyond that meets some resistance - I'm guessing that's going to be the master cylinder? It is just a rather uninformed guess, though...

Is there anything else I can do to pin down where the problem is?

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I have seen something similar on a Discovery where the seals inside the master cylinder somehow turned inside out and the pedal went almost right to the floor before you could feel anything. New m/cyl seals sorted it IIRC, it was a few years ago now...

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