Sticky Clutch Pedal

[collardgreens]

01' 540'6. PO had JB lightweight aluminum flywheel and clutch installed over a year ago. The car needs a new clutch. The gear slips when accelerated above 50% and the tach jumps. Im curious though about the clutch pedal. The pedal sticks a little after the engagement point and stays there for few seconds or longer. This happens intermittently. Just wondering which side of cause and effect this is on, bad pedal making a bad clutch or vice-versa. I noticed the the sticky pedal after noticing the symptoms of the dying clutch so im thinking its a result of the clutch. What would make the pedal stick like that?

thanks

searching around i found a nice writeup on this if anyone else has similar problems.

http://www.ls1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55824

[jase007]

Collard:

I'm surprised you need a new clutch so soon. I recently did a complete clutch job and replaced additional hydraulic parts as well .. clutch master and slave cylinders and line between the two .. as well as transmission seals and rear main seal, pivot arm, pivot pin, spring and carrier tube.

If the pedal is sticking on return then the throwout bearing is probably stuck on the carrier tube that it slides along. Bentley and BMW recommend that you do NOT grease this tube b/c it attracts dirt and clutch disc munge and will eventually start sticking. I would hazard a guess that most the replace their clutch do not do the transmission seals and replace this cheap $$ carrier tube that the throwout bearing slides along.

Here is a picture of my old pivot / lever arm, throwout bearing and guide tube ... look at the wear:

[collardgreens]

Pressure Plate, Disc, Friction disc on flywheel, throwout bearing, clutch release bearing, transmission seals and rear main seal, pivot arm, pivot pin, spring and carrier tube, clutch master and slave cylinders and line between the two. Does this seem like a sufficient list for a clutch job? any thing else i should do while im there? I think im going to stick with the JB stuff thats on there, i believe they use a sach clutch but im not 100%. I am also suprised i need a clutch so soon. The PO installed a slave cylinder from an 850ci and i believe and had to use longer push rods because of it. I think he said the longer push rods were needed either because of the lightweight flywheel or because of the slave cylinder, not sure what he said exactly. I like the way the car and clutch feels with this setup so im thinking i should stay with the same type of setup.

jase007


Thanks for the tip. So i should replace the carrier tube as well? most of these parts can only be had through the dealer?

[cdb3113]

Probably the throwout bearing on the carrier tube, as stated. I have a similar problem, but its not too bad yet...

[BimmerBreaker]

Mine has been squeeky for ages. Its been making me want to replace the clutch but it grips fine and indy confirms its fine, so until it starts to fail I am gonna be driving my squeeky clutch around

[jase007]

Another cause for sticking pedal .. to a limited degree ... are the clutch pedal pivot bushings (where top of pedal arm is attached to the car). I believe these are plastic and squeak to let you know they are failing. I didn't replace mine but inspected them when removing the clutch pedal return spring ... while it was off when replacing the clutch master cylinder (inside car, attached to top of pedal arm below the pivot point).

I had to replace the hydraulic clutch line between the clutch master and slave cylinder (end near the slave cylinder was split and about to burst). This involves removing the driver's side carpet and snaking the line through the body floorboard to the underside where the clutch slave cylinder is attached to the side of the transmission.