Clutch?? Or gearbox??

[DUDELUX]

Heres the story.
Late 93 Pajero, 3lt V6, 5speed. Its the family bus, and the only working car we have until I finish putting the Dudelux back together.

I went to pick up our son from his mates house this arvo, car was running fine there and most of the way back.
Coming round a roundabout, all good. Just exited the roundabout, and went to change from 3rd to 4th gear, it wouldnt go into any gear, and the clutch pedal stayed on the floor, wouldnt come back up.

So I pulled over, and pulled the clutch pedal up by hand, tried to select a gear, couldnt get into any gear, and when I push the clutch pedal, it stays on the floor.
With the engine running, couldnt get into any gear, with the engine turned off, I could get any gear I liked, but it wouldnt start in gear.

So I rang Mrs D(its her car), she told me that she had a similar problem last night, the clutch pedal stayed down against the floor, so she pulled it up by hand, and continued on her way. I wish she had told me that, I couldve had a look at it today while it was in the driveway and it was daylight.

Anyway, I had a look under the engine bay and noticed that the clutch fluid was low, so I walked to the closest servo, and got some clutch fluid, and a little LED torch and walked back to the car again.
Topped up the fluid bottle, and hoped that it would be ok, it didnt seem to make a difference at all to the feel of the pedal, there was still no feel in the pedal at all, it just went straight to the floor when you pushed it.

Im not sure what the exact problem is, as I couldnt find anything obvious.
It feels as though there needs to be a spring to bring the clutch pedal back up after its been pushed, and the spring has either come off or broken.

I couldnt find anywhere that a spring would mount to the clutch pedal, and I couldnt find any spring hanging around under the dash area, there is what appears to be a hydraulic type pump thing with a spring looking thing on it mounted to the clutch pedal.

Any ideas what the problem is??

I had to get it towed to the mechanic that we go to when I have no idea, Ill be seeing him in the morning.

Thanks guys.

[-Scott-]

I'm not an expert on hydraulic clutch systems, as I've never had trouble with one. But my understanding is that it's the clutch diaphragm that pushes everything back to the "rest" position (when you take your foot off).

If the clutch works OK when the pedal doesn't misbehave, I'd suggest the next problem is a dud seal in one of the cylinders (master or slave), and fluid is leaking past the seal rather than being displaced. The fact that clutch fluid was low would point towards this too.

Have you checked both cylinders for signs of leaks?

[bakerboy]

mines done that before, check the slave cylinder on the gearbox, followed by the soft hydraulic hose coming off the slave, and then the master cyl, will be an easy sub $100 fix for any one of the three mentioned problems

[MightyMits]

There will be a leak in the hydrolic system. when the pedal is pressed down, it releases the clutch disc, therefore disconnecting drive to the gearbox so you can change the gear. If there is no pressure in the system, the drive will be going through the gearbox and when you try to change gear, it wont and might grind the syncros.

[NJV6]

Ha ha, I know this feeling!!!!

Inside the slave cylinder (the one attached to bellhousing with rod) is a piston. With mine, it got moisture in it and got rough edges so one time it had enough friction to overcome the pressure plate spring and therefore effectively had no clutch (no drive)

You don't say but i'm guessing you have no drive at all, as in the foot on the clutch.

I just undid the two bolts holding the slave on (its under a bit of force when engaged so be a bit careful) then hit piston back in with a hammer, sanded it with some fine sandpaper,put it back on and carried on for another year until i got round to replacing it!!!

[I CHALLENGE THEE]

how did you go with this Tony?, i had the exact same problem with a camry a few years back. The problem was the slave cylinder on the hydraulic clutch, the diaphram gave up the ghost. although now that i have looked at the date of the last post, im sure it as all fixed by now.

Go and get that lux on the road!

[DUDELUX]

Yeah, I had it towed to my mechanic, he gets the work when I cant be assed or I dont know.
Result, had a new master cyl and slave cyl fitted, system bled and all good now, had the Paj back by wednesday.

[Dimitri]

I'm not an expert on hydraulic clutch systems, as I've never had trouble with one. But my understanding is that it's the clutch diaphragm that pushes everything back to the "rest" position (when you take your foot off).

If the clutch works OK when the pedal doesn't misbehave, I'd suggest the next problem is a dud seal in one of the cylinders (master or slave), and fluid is leaking past the seal rather than being displaced. The fact that clutch fluid was low would point towards this too.

Have you checked both cylinders for signs of leaks?

I am agreeing to you. That if Clutch is working well, then there must be some problem that you are presuming is due to clutch. It may also take place due to the functions that are working behind clutch. Like you have said, there could be problem in the clutch fluid that is operating the clutch.