What can cause the clutch pedal to stick to the floor?

[nikp]

Driving the rex yesterday, and went to change down a gear, and the clutch pedal stuck to the floor. With my sticking my foot underneath it and putting a slight amount of force to free it, and pinged back up. What sort of things can cause the pedal to stick to the floor?

I was playing about with the aftermarket coolant temp sensor last night, where the wires go around that area - so I guess it could be possible that the wires caused it to stick also. But wondering if there are other reasons why it may stick.

[banned advertiser]

The folk on the clutch can crack causing this, a bolt come off the slave cyl can have sim effect, or maybe airlock.

[nikp]

Only happened the once - i\'ll check over my secureness of the slave cylinder i think. Cheers Gary - i hope it\'s not a crack in the fork! Pain in the butt to have to remove the gearbox!!

[smarts]

Might sound silly, but is it possible it\'s catching on the mat?

The mat on mine had pushed up and the clutch stuck and then sprang back - took a little while to work out what it was.

Si.

[nikp]

nice one - i\'ll check it out. You have to eliminate the obvious before you go for the complicated stuff!

I think i scared my girlfriend last night - suddently shouted "oh f*ck!". Stuck the hazards on, then the next second freed the clutch pedal, and back on my merry way! :p

[ianelvar]

Hi Nik

How did you get on with your rattling problem?

I think your clutch problem is most likely to be master cylinder related. A guy on here had a similar problem the other day, and once he\'d fixed his master cylinder it was fine.

Had the same problem on other cars with hydraulic clutches, always ends up being the master cylinder. Slave cylinders just tend to leak, and I\'d be very suprised if you got an intermittant fault with parts of the clutch itself. I\'ve just bled my clutch completely to put fresh fluid in it, and the pedal sticks to the floor unless it\'s returned by the fluid being pushed back by the clutch. After that the pedal spring can hold the pedal up and away from the contact point, but its not powerful enough to lug the pedal up from the bottom of its travel.

I recon the hydraulic stuff in my land rovers regularly (clutch, brakes etc) with some wire wool and very fine wet and dry. Works well if you don\'t want to spend out on a new part. From the sounds of it, yours just managed to push the piston past the fluid, rather than pushing the fluid itself, so it might just need a clean-up inside.

Hope that helps

Ian

[nikp]

Cheers for that - i\'m going to keep an eye on things, but i reckon you\'re right about the master cylinder needing a recon, as the brakes aren\'t up to it that much at the moment. Gonna get some decent fluid in there too at some point.

As for the rattling, it has subsided a lot now. Barely noticeable. Possibly due to the alternator belt being too tight - i released the tension on it quite a bit, so that probably didn\'t help. Seems better now.

[antnicuk]

Have you put an uprated clutch in it?,   this can cause a weakness in the master cylinder seals to get worse and fail.  

What rattling?  did i miss something,

[grinder]

sounds like the master cylinder - mine did the same ( FC )

speak to pip or clive for a rebuild kit and have a look in the FC section ( sticky called mods ) there is write up in there about how to do it

Stu

[nikp]

Coolio....well, bummer really. After faffing about with the engine for so long, i was hoping for a bit of a sit down and relax, and not have to mess with it for a bit! grrr.....

[banned advertiser]

you can see parts kits and seal kits on here
http://www.rotaryart.uk.com/acatalog/New_3rd_gen_engine_perf_tuning.html

[ianelvar]

What rattling?  did i miss something,

Sorry, something from a previous thread. Just curious to see how it was doing.