Clutch, or something else??

[whiteman_01]

My girlfriend was driving our 93 mtx the other day. When she was about to pull into a parking lot she began to downshift to second. Once she got the car into neutral, she heard a loud snap, and the car would not go into gear at all.

I went to pick her up as she was about 10 miles from the house. When i got there the clutch pedal was just about on the floor. When i pressed it there really wasnt much resistance. I then pulled up on the pedal to see what would happen, and i got a bunch of clicked out of the adjuster. So now the pedal is all the way in the up position. I pretty much left it at that since she had to get to work, so we left the car there over night.

Now today( well, yesterday ) we had the car towed back to the house. I suspected that the cable may have snapped, just the way she decribed what had happend. But upon further inspection the cable is intact. I found that you can have the car in gear, with the clutch pressed, and it will start and not lurch. But if you pull the car into neutral and try to get it back into gear, it will not go in, but the car will start to pull.

As for pedal feel after it was adjusted, its pretty soft untill you get just about to the bottom of the throw, then it gets stiff. With the car running and in gear, you barely get the pedal off of the floor and its starting to pull already. Nothing like the cluch was before. Also, the clutch is about 3 years old, mabey 4.

As for what else i noticed, the car doesnt shake/vibrate funny at all. But there is kind of a tiking noise coming from the trans side of the engine bay.

Where do i start next??

Sorry to be long winded, i just wanted to give you as much info as i can. Thanks for any help in advance.


Joe

 

[Phoenix]

Sounds like the TOB passed through the pressure plate.

 

[AREA 91]

Times 2.

You need a new TOB and clutch kit.

 

[93rev2sev]

x3. Probably caused by a foot "resting" on the clutch pedal during normal driving. If you are even touching it, you are damaging the TOB.

 

[zak]

x3. Probably caused by a foot "resting" on the clutch pedal during normal driving. If you are even touching it, you are damaging the TOB.

Not true. The SHO TOB is in constant contact with the clutch fingers, irregardless of whether the pedal is depressed. This can be a factor in premature finger wear, depending on how the car is driven.

 

[whiteman_01]

Thats what i was hoping not to hear. I have a NIB TOB laying around, so i just need to find a clutch. As for her driving, im not sure if she rests her foot on the clutch or not, but the car almost never sees over 3500 rpms.

 

[sdpatt]

The TOB and clutch pedal design provide for constant contact between the TOB and the pressure plate spring fingers. It is slippage at this interface that causes the wear on the TOB and PP springs. The owner's manual says to lift on the clutch pedal every 5,000 miles to ensure that the cable is properly tensioned and in firm enough contact with the PP to keep the TOB spinning without slipping.

The last clutch job I did on my car let me see this first hand as the not-regularly-tensioned clutch pedal allowed the TOB to wear the PP springs into thin tips and broke off several of the PP springs when I depressed the clutch pedal at different times. I could feel the "pop" when they broke. The root cause analysis from that investigation concluded that the TOB needs to be in firm contact with the PP to prevent the slippage and wear . The owner's manual is telling us a good thing to keep the cable properly tensioned. See the image below.

The risk involved with resting the foot on the clutch pedal is that the clutch disk is unloaded enough to allow it to slip against the flywheel. That will wear out the friction material.