Installing clutch cable

[SHOguy 92]

Last night pulling into my driveway just off a long night of work of coarse my clutch cable snaps. So first thing this morning I headed out to the parts car and pulled that one.

Pulled out the junk one from the 91 and tossed in the new one. I've got it all set in there and for the life on me I can't figure a way to get the end connected to the pedal on the inside. You can't see where the cable has to go over the top of the adjuster. And with all the slack I could get out of the cable I can't see the end when I try and run the cable over the top.

So anyone got any tips here?

 

[shobote]

here is a how to from shotimes

http://www.shotimes.com/php-bin/mod...le=article&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0&sid=94

 

[SHOguy 92]

Thanks for the link.

I checked out out, then went and looked at the car. While sitting there I spot 3 things.

1) A grey box that has a button, if you were to pull the clutch pedal up this would adjust the cable.

2) A blue piece of plastic farther up with notched sides. This is what the cable goes up and over then latches to the bottom of.

3) A black piece of plastic (more like a cover) on the top driver side of piece number 2.

I assume the clutch adjuster cover is number 3. Problem is you can't see any bolt heads. If I move my hands up there I can find 2 attachment points with some bolt head that feels like under 10mm, but that can't seriously be it.

So is that the cover that needs to be removed, if not what is? Any help would be great.

 

[SHOguy 92]

Anyone? A search come up with no real info on this.

 

[dantheman68]

its not that tough, it has to hook onto the blue piece... its like a half moon looking baby blue piece...

you can lift up on the pedal and push the moon (well rotate it actually) towards the firewall... then stop lifting on the pedal and it should lock in place where you left it, then hook the end of the cable to the notches on the blue thing, and lift the pedal to put tension onto the cable (the blue thing will rotate back towards you, in the original position).

Next prop the pedal up and hook it to the transmission.... thats all there is to it.

 

[SHOguy 92]

Just went and gave it a shot, thanks for the tip about rotating that backwards.

That is what I was talking about as #2.

Anyways, so I went out and pulled the pedal up. Then roated that peice back towards the firewall. But still there is that thing I mentioned as #3 that completely blocks me from reaching above #2 and connecting it. I can look up the center groove on #2 (blue peice / adjuster) and see the end of the cable, but I just can't get it to catch anything.

And even from what I can see, that still puts the head of the cable pretty darn far away from where I had disconnected it from. Which is at the bottom of the blue peice.

 

[38SHO]

be careful with your fingers when moving the adjuster as well, as it can slam back and it sounds like it would really f'n hurt

with the pedal pushed up, you can press on something and it will slide towards the firewall giving the clutch cable more slack.... this is kind of the process from what I remeber.... luckily I have a spare pedal set laying around that I just figured out how it works from that....

 

[SHOguy 92]

The blue plastic thing I believe is the adjuster, it does rotate back towards the firewall. And I can get the head of the cable to catch a little on the teeth that adjust clutch pedal slack. But the cable is still a good 1/2 inch away from being able to make it over the bottom edge of the adjuster and locking into place.

 

[SHOguy 92]

bump for urgency

 

[dantheman68]

ah... yeah you have to loosen the black cover bolts, and remove only one. so you can rotate that out of the way... im not really sure what it does or protects, but i think its purpose is to get in the way for installing the cable.

I removed mine and never got it back on... I'm not 100% sure you need it, I drove it for a year with it off, but i replaced my cable twice in one year, so you could say it does something (but i ammount the failure to a crappy cable) i have it laying around but it is nearly impossible to re-install once you take it completely off, hence my advice for rotating it out of the way.

 

[SHOguy 92]

Well I managed to get the cover off, so now I can reach above the blue piece of plastic. But really didn't improve anything. The cable still seems about 1/2 - 3/4 inch too short. And if it was long enough theres a plastic box that has a arm that runs to the clutch pedal that is very close to the adjuster.

I have got all the slack out of the cable I can, is there a way to pivot the whole clutch pedal assembly back?

Also don't know if this matters, but the cable I'm using is from a 90 and I'm putting it into a 91.

 

[dantheman68]

year shouldnt matter...

its not hooked up to the trans yet... right?...

have you tried pulling it as hard as you can with a pliers (put it on the metal end, not the cable itself... there is like a grommet or something usualy in the firewall that can make it hard for the plastic part of the cable to slide all the way through. The cable moves intependently from this sheath, but it does matter, because on the trans side is the adjusting spring, and that will hold up the cable from traveling through the sheath, so if the sheath is not far enough inside the car, you will not be able to have enough slack to hook the cable to the adjusting quadrant.

 

[SHOguy 92]

Not hooked to trans yet.

I pulled the cable in with pliers already and I have no more room. The ring that pops into place has the cable pushed tight up against it so I can't pull anymore cable through the firewall.

 

[dantheman68]

you can remove the clutch assy, but its a PITA, also eventually the lack of cable has to be made up somewhere... were the cables the same length?... or were you not able to compare the two?

 

[SHOguy 92]

Got it, like other things just ended up working better with 2 people. I was inside the car yanking on the cable and it must have moved, but I couldn't keep constant pressure on it with just my fingertips so it probably moved back.

Got my dad to push the end under the hood back into the cable and got enough slack to connect it. All good to go now, thanks for the help dan.

 

[dantheman68]

yeah that was my next thing... it really does go better with two people, takes me like 15 minutes at the most with another person