Clutch Peddle Loose

jolt · 05-13-2004, 04:59 AM

Alright.. story time

A few days ago I was driving home from a friend's house, and noticed the clutch peddle had a bit of a bounce to it after it was full disengadged. Didn't really notice it at first, so I drove down the street , hit about 45 and and was in fourth gear. I put my foot on the floor for a second and then brought it back up to put it into 5th as I was doing 55 or so.

When I brought up my foot, the peddle kind of came with me. That felt weird, so I shook my foot to get it unhooked and tried again. When I went to push down , the clutch peddle went all the way to the floor. That was a bit of shock, but I kept driving down the road, tappin' the clutch with my foot trying to figure out what the hell happend

Well, what did happen was the fact that the actuall rod that is attached to the clutch peddle that you see had slid out of the tube that its in ( not familure with the actual terms ) and was just hanging.

I came to stop and grabbed a flash light. Saw what the issue was and pushed the rod back in. No problems, except for there isnt anything that holds it in there and now the peddle bounces all the time and is quite annoying. I also worry that it'll happen again and losing control of the clutch at the wrong time wouldn't make for a postitive day

Was wondering if this has happend to anyone, and what fixes there are for it. i'm still searching for my repair book, so I thought I'd post on the problem

-- jolt

ian12 · 05-13-2004, 06:40 AM

if you could explain a bit more about this rod and where it came out of. did it just disconnect from the pedal or what? ill take a look at mine in the morning, but as of a manual, im looking at haynes right now and there is nothing. all it says is if there is a problem with the clutch release system, then all you can do is replace it since its sealed. id say a bolt or retaining clip came off, but ill check in the morning.

nevermind most of that now that i read it over. another thing i dont understand about the clutch coming up with your foot. mine forces my foot up and i always put it into the floor. my escort doesnt really do that, but i like the stiffer clutch feel of my sl2. also if you drove with that rod out, there be no way you could clutch. unless i still dont understand what you mean

**Ssicarman** · 05-14-2004, 04:05 AM

Best as I can get is that the actuating rod for the clutch master is not staying i the master. hold in clip likely broken, have never seen it before but there is a first time for every thing. still have warrenty? Get your local Saturn to see if it is covered under extended drive train. It being a new clutch master/slave assembly.

jolt · 05-17-2004, 08:35 AM

Its not covered under the warrenty. Its passed 36k or whatever...

Is there a way to pull it apart and put a new clip or reattach it or something?

cgeaghan · 05-18-2004, 07:13 PM

Hey Jolt,
I had the exact same problem with my 2000 SL2. I drove the car like that for a year, with a spring jerry rigged to keep the pedal in place. It turned out that the battery was leaking acid on to the hydrolic clutch mechanism, which is made of plastic. The acid slowly ate away at the plastic and caused the metal rod to come loose etc. Look under the battery. There is a black plastic tube going into the trans. See it it is damaged. Pull the battery from the tray and see if it is leaking.

**Ssicarman** · 05-19-2004, 02:37 AM

I don't think that the clip is sold seperate. See if you hit a wrecking yard and get the clip from a dead car. You may be able to remove the rod and clip together and install into yours.

jolt · 05-19-2004, 04:04 AM

alright cool.. thanks guys

Another question.. besides the haynes manual that you can pick up at any general automotive store, is there any other excellent source of automotive information on our 1.9L cars? What other sources do you pull from? Books? or is this all just from working on the cars?

-- jolt

Robert-sl2 · 05-19-2004, 05:42 AM

Best book to buy for info is a Saturn FSM (factory service manual). They can be bought from a dealership but they are expensive as hell. I think they are $75-100 / volume (body, drivetrain etc) watch ebay for them.

jolt · 05-21-2004, 04:45 AM

right on.. thanks.. I'll be looking for those!

-- jolt