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Hi, All-
My wife called after work last night to say the clutch pedal slammed to the floor with a 'pop' sound when she went to start the car. I drove down, and gave the car a quick look, and it appears the clutch cable is broken right around the clutch fork. The car is parked on a busy downtown street, so could only give it a quick look.
I had this clutch replaced about 1.5 years ago, and have had the clutch adjusted 3 times since. The last time was just a couple months ago, and wonder if the adjustment put too much strain on the cable, or if it just failed from age/fatigue.
My inclination is to have it towed to the shop that did the clutch work (a respected Volvo shop) and have them fix it. That way, if something goes haywire or it needs adjustment, I can bring it back and have them do the work. The other option is to tow it home and do the job myself, with IPD being just a few minutes away and having the GEMO cable and other parts in stock. My question is what should the ballpark cost for a shop to do this work? What might have caused the cable to break post-adjustment last month?
Thanks in advance,
Aaron
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If you can get it out of traffic, eg. parking lot, you can install a replacement in about 15 minutes. Then you won't have to waste time at the shop.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb, M46 trans, 3:31 dif, in Brampton, Ont.
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Original Clutch cable.. Me too with over 300K on it. I think the fact that you startred to need cable adjustments is a tell-tale sign that the cable was breaking up. There then the one time I took teh Trani down, My cable has never needed adjusting.
I wouldn't fear the cable would need much attention after henstall, I'd do it myself.
It's tight up under the dash and almost guarenteed bloody knuckles on the sharp bracket ..but not terrible.
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.lyse.net/brox/TonyPage4.html http://cleanflametrap.com/tony/
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I have the Bentley manual, but it's currently in the car. And the car is downtown parked on the street. Does the Bentley give detailed instructions on replacing and adjusting the clutch cable?
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posted by
someone claiming to be CB
on
Tue Jan 29 16:39 CST 2013 [ RELATED]
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Depending on how far "downtown" you are----how many traffic lights and stops you have to make...
you can drive the car without the clutch.
start it in 2nd,....upshifts are no problem...don't downshift. turn it off when you have to stop.
if it's in a place where you only have to stop a few times...just drive the thing back home.
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Gemo cable is a must.
Don't fail to look very closely at your firewall. I've had two crack and was the sole reason I kept having to adjust my cable. If its not cracked yet I'd do some preventative stuff like adding a piece of metal used for framing. Its a square piece at homedepot used as a washer when bolting down the exterior walls to the foundation. Requires a little filing to round out the elongated hole. I would definitely do this even if its not cracked cause you'll hate it when it does.
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Hmm, Not sure. It's pretty intuative.
Pull the pin holding the Rod that holds the one end of the cable to the Clutch pedal. On the trani end, The broken one will make the connection loose already but put the new one on and 'loosen'the plastic hex(I think) to tighten the Cable tension.leave 1/8th " of push back on the fork.. done
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.lyse.net/brox/TonyPage4.html http://cleanflametrap.com/tony/
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I'm going to head down there now to take a look at it. I'll report back what I see. My inclination is to have the shop fix it, as they will likely offer to adjust it for free after a week or two of driving - as they did when I had my clutch replacement done. I'm sure I could do it myself, and would if I didn't need to have it towed to my house, etc. I'm fortunate that IPD is less than 10 minutes from my house, but in this case I'm leaning toward taking it to the shop.
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Because the cable is Broken, MAke sure the Attaching Mechanism down by the fork does not get lost in transit.
Slide under there and see if you can pull the heavy weight thingy Off of there.
--
'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.lyse.net/brox/TonyPage4.html http://cleanflametrap.com/tony/
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I had repeated problems with breaking clutch cables on my '86; this was just a few years ago. I went through a fair amount of effort trying to remedy the problem, including rebuilding the pedal linkage, replacing the rubber block at the clutch fork, working with the cast iron cable ball "receiver", renewing the fork pivot ball, etc. etc. Some of the cables felt really bad, requiring more than usual effort and exhibiting a kind of uncertain feel. I finally concluded that the most common brand of replacement clutch cable was simply a poor-quality part, high friction and short life. I bought a different cable, lubed it along its entire length with teflon before installing, and the problem went away - I could tell that it simply worked better from the fist use. (I think I was briefly the world's expert on Volvo 240 clutch cables.)
You may perhaps need to revisit the adjustment _slightly_ a few days after your initial setting, but if you have to adjust it very much or keep coming back to it over a short period of time - beware, the cable is about to break.
So, which brand or style is the good one and which is the bad? I apologize that I simply don't remember anymore, other than observing that the bad version is very commonly sold. (World-class expertise yields to memory loss).
If you need this info, I will get under the car and take a picture of the working cable - it can be differentiated by the style of the adjustment mechanism.
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As mine is busto, I would very much appreciate having a picture of the working cable. I have the Bentley manual and the illustration provided on the IPD website, but a real-world photo of the proper unit and setup would be infinitely helpful!
Thanks in advance!
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I'll try to get it tomorrow early evening, the car is at another location. Hopefully I can just stick my phone under there and get some clear snaps.
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This is a Gemo cable if I remember correctly. This one works, others including Scan-Tech were breaking repeatedly.
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Most likely just old age. My 87went in 1998 only 120k on it.88 has the original still with 180K on it. I keep one on the shelf. Gemo is the OEM supplier. You make no mention of the mileage?
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The car has over 300k. I'm not aware that the clutch cable has been replaced, and don't believe it was done when the clutch was done.
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well you got your moneys worth out of it. I guess it was overlooked when the clutch was replaced as it would have been very easy to pop a new one in there.
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