Skip to main content

Closed18 replies

Gears are grinding

M michaelbeaucage
Recently toward the end of a trip and at a stop light, I had some grinding going into first gear. Pulled into a parking lot reverse was worse. I noticed a excess clutch pedal travel so I took up a couple of turns on the clutch cable to get to the 1/2 - 1 inch paly territory on the clutch pedal.

Took it out for a short run, every thing OK, proud of myself and my tiny vice grips.

On the next trip everything seemed OK when I noticed, on the way home, the gears were shifting kind of hard. Went to the store and could not get into reverse, turned off the engine, put it in reverse, pressed the clutch and started the car. With the clutch fully depressed the car went backward slowly, first ground a little from a stop. Got home OK. Next day I checked and the gears are still grinding.

Wondering what I'm facing?

Cable, cable tube, syncromesh, not enough travel in the pedal, hmmm...

Any tips?

Michael the Davis Guy
1957 Vintage Speedsters(Speedster)
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

M michaelbeaucage
Recently toward the end of a trip and at a stop light, I had some grinding going into first gear. Pulled into a parking lot reverse was worse. I noticed a excess clutch pedal travel so I took up a couple of turns on the clutch cable to get to the 1/2 - 1 inch paly territory on the clutch pedal.

Took it out for a short run, every thing OK, proud of myself and my tiny vice grips.

On the next trip everything seemed OK when I noticed, on the way home, the gears were shifting kind of hard. Went to the store and could not get into reverse, turned off the engine, put it in reverse, pressed the clutch and started the car. With the clutch fully depressed the car went backward slowly, first ground a little from a stop. Got home OK. Next day I checked and the gears are still grinding.

Wondering what I'm facing?

Cable, cable tube, syncromesh, not enough travel in the pedal, hmmm...

Any tips?

Michael the Davis Guy
FM Former Member
you have the info req'd, now all you have to do is get motivated
and put aside some time(my usual problem). i hope its something simple. i used to have a lotus with the same problem, adjust it again
and it was ok for a while then adjusted again etc..where was my travel
coming from? turned out that my cable was unraveling "growing" till
snap. if your cable adjustment "grew" after you adjusted it, i
would start there. eyelet on cable end to pedal? wing nut thread condition? good luck.
Gordon NicholsGordon NicholsMassachusetts 1993 CMC Supporting Member
Bear in mind that these are shortened pans/chassis and need to have shortened clutch cables along with them.

There are several versions of the shortening hardware used - most are some sort of a threaded pin (which has the "Wing nut" adjuster threaded onto it) that also has a provision to slip the cable through it with some sort of locking mechanism (fancy talk for a big jam nut) to hold the shortened cable fast.

I'll bet serious money that your cable has slipped somehow in the shortener and has allowed the cable to get longer.

Take a look at the end of the cable at the adjuster and see if the cable can be adjusted separately to take up the slack.

gn
Alan MerklinAlan MerklinDrclock - Elkins, West Virginia Supporting Member
I've used a few different versions of the shortening process, after alot of trial and error they seem to let go at where they are bent int6o the shortening hardware. After a couple trips home clutchless
...this is where you shut the car off in neutral as you come to a red light and restart it in 1st gear, also how good you are at running up the rev's so that you can ever so gently drop in into the next higher gear without leaving major transmision components in the road
I now pony up and buy Kirk's Vintage custom shortened clutch cables that have the correct swedged threaded end as the German factory ones do.
jschlotzjschlotz
Cable shortening devices are worthless. The cable life is reduced significantly when these devices are used. There is a wire cable company in my area that will shorten stock cables to the desired length. I have a JPS pan based car and my cable length is 76 1/2 inches. I bring them stock clutch cables and the cable company carefully removes the pedal end fitting from the cable, shortens the cable, and swedges the fitting back onto the cable. I bought a shortened clutch cable from one of the builders, but the transaxle end was very difficult to get through the bowden tube. No problems with the cables I had shortened. I can supply cable company contact info if anyone would like, they are in No. Calif.

Good Luck, Have Fun
Joel
zumwollzumwoll
and if the changing the cable does not fix the problem then the fork that moving the throwout bearing as you depress teh clutch is bent and ggettting ready to break. Happened to me. Kept adjusting the cable shorter and shorter till there was no more. Hope that it is a stretched cable instead of the latter cause you have to pull the engine.--ugh!@
FM Former Member
As you're adjusting, and adjusting, and adjusting the cable, make sure the clutch tube (that's welded to the Pan or chassis) hasn't broken loose! The quick check is to see if the boden cable is holding it's sag. If it keeps straightening out as you adjust, you can assume that the clutch tube is no longer anchored as the boden cable keeps pushing it back into the pan / chassis.
Broken clutch tube = you'll never be able to adjust clutch.

Greg B
T TUBB
My clutch tube broke loose front and back. I cut inspection holes front and back in the tunnel and threaded a new cable thru and out the back. Its worked well for two years (about 6,000K). It looks really difficult to reattach at the back due to alot ot stuff between the tube and the top. I guess you could go in from the bottom. If the bowdin tube feeds back into the tunnel you could shim the opening with a small washer. When the bowdin tube looses it curve, you'll know it as the clutch release becomes very violent.
ed
M michaelbeaucage
Thanks for all the info, I'm going after the cable and will report what happens. Will really pay attention to the shortening device.

Gordon - I'm gonna look for that slippage.

Alan - I know how to drive clutchless - learned on a '63 Beetle, I kinda do it a lot when driving around, third to fourth is kind of a regular sans clutch routine for me.

Yes I will get a cable from Kirk.

I had a gas cable in a K-Ghia go once. Might be smart to have the two cables along with the fan belt just in case. Naw, I'll just call AAA from the cell phone.

Thanks again - MB
FM Former Member
Guys, a clutch pedal in a '69 Ghia that I had pulled the same little number for me; exactly like that. In those days you could get new ones from the VW/Audi dealerships so I got me a new one, put it in along with the retaining pin and it worked like a charm. It seems with years of use the metal gets fatigued in that area.
FM Former Member
Glad you found an easy fix. I posted a similar story back in Novemeber and had a mechanic buddy sort it out. My CMC had a combination of all the things that could go wrong with the except that the shift rod bushing was the only thing NOT bad in the entire system.
On mine the clutch cable was worn and stretching where it hooked to the lever on the gearbox, the Bowden tube was broken loose from the tunnel, BOTH motor mounts were cracked and the cable adjuster was damaged. Since we had the engine loose a new clutch was installed at the time and I added a Scat DragFast shifter to close up that loong throw of the shifter and it frives like a dream now.
New project is to lower it down a bit with drop spindles and then get the rear adjusted to level things out.
These little cars sure will keep a person busy (and broke)!
Tony Miller
Post Content
Remove This Ad

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×

Access to this requires a premium membership.

Supporting Member

Please help keep us running!

Supporting members have donated about $4.00 a month ($49.00 US per year) paid annually.

  • Priority support
  • Removal of inter-page (between thread) advertisements.
  • Access to Build Manuals
  • Access to Knowledge Base
  • Access to Supporting Members events.
  • Access to Leveraged Group Buying from site Merchants.

AUTO RENEW: You membership will auto-renew after 12 months. If you prefer not to auto-renew, you can cancel your premium membership at any time and it will remain in effect until the end of the 12 months. To cancel, sign in at SpeedsterOwners.com and navigate to: (Your User Name)  > Premium Membership.

PLEASE NOTE: Your credit card will receive a charge from CROWDSTACK PAY, the payment processor, not SpeedsterOwners.com.

$49.00 per 12 Months (plus tax if applicable)
×