I got a replacement clutch cable from Napa (I hope it's the same one IPD sells.. Says GERMANY on it (the bag it came in said Made in Poland.)

Looks identical to the one that was on my car that broke... Pay phone looking metal outer with the black plastic screw adjustment thing.

Anyway, I lucked out that my clutch cable broke in a driveway the last time. The damper weight that stays in place only by the pressure of the clutch cable fell right to the ground when the tip of my clutch cable broke off.

Not really wanting to ever lose that dampner, have any of you come up with an innovative way to retain it? Or am I missing parts that do retain it?

In my case, it falls right off of the clutch fork with another rubber block as two separate pieces.

I was thinking about welding a nut to it and using it as an eyelet to cable tie it to some secure part of the car.

Am I being overly paranoid about losing it?

The rubber part looks like its available aftermarket from IPD

http://www.ipdusa.com/uploads/images_products_slideshow/fullsize_5788.jpg

The part in question being the thing I surrounded by a green box. This is not a photo of my car, just a photo I found online.

Looks like it's all there. There is only the rubber piece and the cast iron damper.

Below is the one on my '89 wagon.

I have never really thought about a fail-safe for this but it is a good idea.

The only thing that comes to mind is a zip strip or two. I'll have to experiment.






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'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon

I ended up welding a nut to it and using the same cable I was using as my temporary clutch cable to tie it to my home-brew engine brace bar. If the clutch cable snaps, hopefully I won't lose the damper.

Luke ,great idea and tks for the pics as well I have 2 240s both 5 speeds have replaced the 87 years ago when it broke. I believe my 88 is the original cable still and the only place that has the (GEMO OEM) cable it seems is IPD. FCP and EEURO only have aftermarket crap for 20 bucks.

Napa Auto Parts here in town had a 'German' option and an 'Italian' option. Their website lists the German one being Gemo brand.

I think it's the right one. It looks identical to what I removed. The cheap Scantech one has a different looking outer. The adjuster on the cheap one travels on plastic. The 'nicer' one travels on the cable outer itself which looks like payphone cord.

This is the cheap one:




This is the 'good' one:

Well, Gemo is the OE, as you probably already know.

The "cheap one" in your post looks identical to the Sachs cable that FCPG used to sell. I actually have the Sachs version on my '89 wagon.

Quality does not seem to be an issue but it was a pain to install. Literally. Even adjusted to the limit of it's travel it was not possible to connect it to the fork. As I think back it was because the cable was not long enough to extend past the damper without moving the clutch fork forward. That was the painful part. I think on the earlier models the Sachs style would install just fine.

I do not know if Sachs makes the Scan Tech cable. But everyone hates Scan Tech anyway so it's probably doesn't matter.

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'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon

Do you have the NAPA part number? My napa can't ever find the part and I am tired of the scan-tec parts. Pauli

The Napa part for the Gemo is: ATM 1377669

Beware, it's 70 bucks. IPD sells it cheaper.

The Napa part number for the crappier version, supposedly made in Italy is: ATM 0742801