clutch cable clip thought

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citronut
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clutch cable clip thought

Post by citronut »

does anyone know if the clutch cable clip breaks more with self adjustting cables, rather than manualy adjusted, as i wonderd if another reason for it the fail might be over adjustting on one or the other type,

so when the pedel is pressed to the floor, it gets to the end of its travel before the pedel reaches the floor,

and in turn breaks the clip

regards malcolm
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Kowalski
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Post by Kowalski »

Its a good theory, but I'm not sure its right!

I've had 2 break on the manual adjust cable and one on the auto adjust.

The first time the metal broke as well as the plastic (manual adjust), the other times the metal broke and the plastic was pretty much intact.
handyman
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Post by handyman »

Surely, if you have to depress the clutch pedal to the floor, does it not shew either a worn out clutch or a badly adjusted cable? Clutch release and take up should be a long way from full extension of the cable.

I always thought the clutch clip breaking was a "telltale" to warn of a worn clutch. My old SX estate did over 200k miles on the original clip and only failed through fatigue! :shock:

Handyman :roll:
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Post by red_dwarfers »

Isn't is a case of some Xantias (engine dependent on push/pull clutch) wearing towards the top of the pedal travel and others wearing at the bottom?
At the moment I only have to press my clutch down an inch or 2 to change gear (yes ive got a rock hard clutch pedal!) so wouldn't it strain the clutch clip if the pedal is always depressed fully? Thats the idea I had :?

I also had the idea that if the clutch is not adjusted properly on the manual one that the clip would be under a fair amount of strain whereas the self adjusting does just that and takes the pressure off the clip, until the self adjust cable gets to its tail end and its straining anyway.
That is how it works isn't it?
I've been on a steep learning curve since being on FCF :lol:
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Post by jgra1 »

hmm..

sorry to drag.. off topic

what causes a pull clutch to need less and less pedal as the miles rack up ?

I can only think the diaphragm gets sick of being pulled and starts to 'remember' newer positions further away from the flywheel, if that makes any sense?

John
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Post by Pleiades »

The clutch clip is a thing that has played around in the back of my mind for a few years now.

I have replaced quite a few and can do the job in under an hour, personal reccomandation is that if the clip fails it's normally due to the clutch getting old and heavy.

Now I am told that this is not allways the case, some cars just seem to like eating the clip for some reason!

Now to the question......

I could get these made up from a nice strong metal, it would be a fit and forget job, so once done it would never fail again, but if I did this, I would have to get quite a large amount made to make each clip cost effective, they would be about double the price of a plastic clip or maybe even tripple the price, I wont know for sure untill I investigate.

If I had these clips made from steel, would people buy them? as I dont want to get 500 made just to keep 490 in stock for the next 10 years or so.

Please let me know your thoughts on this and if there is enough interest, I will investigate the costs involved.

Regards
Martin.
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Post by handyman »

Hello Martin, I see this old chestnut has arisen again! :(

There were a couple of firms making these in Dural. Nicely engineered, well made, not prohibitively expensive at £20.00 plus. :shock: Then the clutch cables started snapping, stripping, shearing......... :roll:

I think you had best leave your reputation intact, as this was a ventured doomed to fail. :wink:

Handyman, :roll:
citronut
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Post by citronut »

Martin i agree with Richard (handyman) on the clip versis cable,

firstly i was allways taught to press the pedel to the floor, and the bitting point should be no more than half way up the travle,

now my point was if the manualy adjustable cable is wrongly adjusted so that it did not reach the floor before the clutch lever was at the ferthest point of its travle, then the pedle was pressed hard down it would break the clip,

and the self adjusting cable is not workig corectly, it might do a similar thing,

i have seen this sort of thing happen with a badly fitted universal throtle cable

also if you only have to press your pedle down slightly to change gear it is most definatly out of adjustment
regards malcolm
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Post by dnsey »

I had two clips fail in fairly rapid sucession, and had more or less resigned myself to replacing the clutch, but decided to try a new cable first. The replacement didn't seem much smoother than the original when tested off the car, or lighter when fitted, but appears to have solved the problem completely, as the clip has now lasted about a year / 15k miles.
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Post by davek-uk »

I brought a replacement clutch clip from CGS Autosystems in Gloucester in May 2004. It was £20 and beautifully done in aluminium. The mileage was 105k and the clutch was heavy. Over 4 years and 93k miles later, the clutch is still heavy. But I haven't had any other problems - no broken clips, no broken clutch cable and still a functioning clutch.

I'm still waiting for the clutch to fail - I'm sure it will sometime. If I had taken a different route I could have changed a few clutch clips by now. I could have changed the clutch and cable too. Thank goodness I'm lazy and took the easy way out.

The internet is a good place to hear about problems. Unfortunately you don't hear about good results as often. I dare say the CGS (or similar) replacement clip will break the cable before it fails, but it will outlast many standard clips before that happens. Providing the replacement clip is not wearing the clutch cable, I can't see that the clip can be seen as being at fault.

Personally I'm in favour of a good replacement.

Dave
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