I felt a pop through the clutch pedal, now clutch cable is too long

I was depressing the clutch pedal today when I felt a pop through the pedal and now there is about 6" of freelay at the pedal.

I'm assuming that some of the strands have broken in the cable and that as they unwind, the cable lengthens?

Does this guess sound likely? Any other possibilities?

I'm ordering two cables, one for a spare.

Cole

The only other thing I can think of is if you have "cable clips" holding two parts of the cable together at the aft end in lieu of a proper sized fixed length cable, they may have let go.

Cole.... If the cable itself is not the problem, it could be the throw out bearing fork / arms giving way, or the cable tube inside the tunnel has popped its mounting tab and is now flexing when the clutch is used..... Let 's hope its just an adjustment slippage problem....

If someone installed one of the 'cable shorteners' because of using a too long OEM cable it might have slipped or let go. Or the clamps as described by David.
It doesn't take much movement at the clutch to have the pedal go very loose but 6"? Seems like that would be on the floor or very close to it.

When mine went I started to notice that the pedal needed to be depressed further to make the clutch work and then a couple of days later it went. In your case since it's a newer VS car I suspect you just have the shorter Vintage cable (no clamps or shorteners) so maybe it's just ready to give up the ghost. Just replace it.

Okay, I found the problem and I doubt anyone has seen this before, neither me or my mechanic has. The wing nut jumped the threads and that's how I lost most of my clutch pedal. Here's the story;

First, we had a very difficult time getting the wing nut off and when we did and pulled the cable, it was not frayed or partially broken. That had us stumped, where did all of my pedal go then? Upon inspection we noticed that the threaded end was bent and the middle portion of threads were worn down with the diameter smaller, which was perplexing.

As we installed the new cable we hit some snags, literally. The cable stopped dead in It's tracks and when forced, you could hear the clicking of the threads as each one cleared some obstruction. We couldn't get it through and suddenly the bend in the pulled cable took on some meaning. After bending our threaded end and spending a lot of tine rotating its position and forcing it, we got it past the obstruction...only to find a second one. This one was even more difficult and we were about to give up and shorten the threaded rod by 1/2 inch when suddenly, we found the right angle of attack and it went through. (We are now about 90 minutes into this "quick" clutch cable change.)

However, when the cable came out you could see that the threads took some real abuse, not as much as the original cable but it was clear what happened to it and why the threads failed. My mechanic thought there was an obstruction in the tube from when the frame was shortened and the tube welded together. However I talked to Kirk and he said they don't weld the tubes anymore, they shorten them, so that wasn't it.

My mechanic wondered if when they tack the tube to the frame if the weld burnt through a bit and caused the obstruction? Like I mentioned earlier, you could hear the threads clicking by the obstruction one-by-one.

So now the mystery is solved, the wing nut jumped the tracks. And the why is solved too; the threaded rod was worn down by forcing it passed the obstruction. But the question remains; what can I do to clear Out the obstruction from the tube? Over time, might the snags wear down the cable?

The only idea I had was to build a roto-rooter with a little grinding head on it and try to rotate it with a drill. But I don't know what type of cable or shaft that small would work. My mechanic says to leave it alone.

Any ideas?

Anyone seen anything like this before?

I've said it b4 & I'll say it again...clutch cables blow. Go hydraulic.

Hijack, any advice for me with prevention of this issue? I am not sure what goes with the 911 915 Carerra Trans. I know its a different clutch bit I assume I will have a cable too. Any one out there know? or should I just ask Henry. Thanks.

Call me Mr. Broken Record, but I'm with Tom. Once you go juice, you'll never let it loose.

Ok, that's the best I could come up with, but I'm serious about the hydraulic clutch. It feels better and is less troublesome.

Id would have been willing to bet Leon is right the clutch fork has cracked.

when they crack the petal drops and it will get worse and it will wreck the clutch and pressure plate.

Thats to costly not to inspect I usally play it safe and check it.

I have pulled them out die grinded the crack bend it back right and weld it up. and its fine.

But I prefer, to also add additional welds and reinforced it to make it beafyer.

I also think the obstuction is a weld that went through.. I dont know what to tell ya.

Tom is also right some hydrolic kits are nice .

Ask Lane what he used on his.. From what i have seen ihis turned out nice.. OH lane Guess what i found hanging in the rafters yesterday..

another nice petal and foot feed set.. I thougt i had 2 spares

Giday, Barry. If one was to upgrade to a heavier squeeze clutch kit like a Kennedy stage 1 or 2 would it be a sensible thing to weld up some reinforcement on that throw out fork before the shyt hits the fan ?

Yes, David. Fairly common upgrade, actually.

Cole..... With an obstruction that bad, I think "replacement" of the cable tube would be called for..... Big, Ugly project to me..... I would look seriously at a hydraulic clutch conversion, as it will probably be less of a hassle to install.... Check with Lane A. as he has all the part numbers and knows where the grimlins hide....