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soft clutch pedal

5K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  dmtinker 
#1 ·
I get about 2-3" of play in my clutch in the morning, after about 10 mins it usually feels strong with very little play. Is this air in the lines or something else?
 
#2 ·
Get a buddy and have him help you bleed the clutch. Not terribly hard to do and very well could be the problem. When we did it with my car we had to bleed it twice to get all of the air out but it will just depend. If that doesn't fix it then maybe a bad slave or master?:confused:

Also, check and make sure that all of your lines are sealed well.
 
#4 ·
I did a search but didn't really find anything. I probablyi did't phrase it correctly. I'm suspicious that the fluid needs to be changed. It may be compressing because its dirty.
 
#5 ·
woywitka is correct IMHO.

This happened to me and its the death of your slave cylinder, its easy to replace if you are good at some handy work.

when engine and oil is warm it can work fine but its only a matter of time before you wont be able to intput a gear and then your stuck, royally stuck!

Slaves are cheap, dirty brake fluid would not cause this much sag, replace all of it anyway.
 
#7 ·
ShadowWorks said:
woywitka is correct IMHO.

This happened to me and its the death of your slave cylinder, its easy to replace if you are good at some handy work.

when engine and oil is warm it can work fine but its only a matter of time before you wont be able to intput a gear and then your stuck, royally stuck!

Slaves are cheap, dirty brake fluid would not cause this much sag, replace all of it anyway.
I'm handy enough, I put a clutch in this car when I got it 2 years ago and I put clutches in both my wife's 9000's. I'm just "not in the mood" if you know what I mean. I should probably do it before it gets cold......:confused:
 
#9 ·
sounds like you do.

Actually, it was relatively easy to do. Its is probably one of the easiest clutches to replace. I would recommend a few things. I would go to the Saab dealer and get new bolts for the cover. Mine were rusted and it makes it much easier when you are putting it back together, but that's just me. I like to put in new bolts generally.

The only real bugaboo I had was removing the allignment shaft. I used a ball joint separator. Part of the procedure is to screw in a bolt and washer to pry out the bar. I would highly recommend that you use 2 hard washers. On the end of the pickle fork, I had an 8 foot extension. When it finally separated, it sounded like a gun shot.

Also, I would surface the flywheel. A smart thing to do is to arrange for someone competant to surface it before hand. It will save you a lot of time....OR you can get one from a junk yard and have it ready. This helps if you can't have a lot of down time.

All in all, it was pretty easy.
 
#10 ·
oh yeah, and another thing. I would recommend you have a dremel with a cut off wheel. The whole spacer thing didn't work for me so I cut off the fingers on the pressure plate. It worked pretty well.
 
#11 ·
This is funny to see this post. I am currently waiting for a new clutch and have my car apart. It all stated when my clutch had about 1 to 2 inches of free play. Then two months later it started to leak fluid at the slave. I ordered a new slave cylinder kit, and the spacer ring form eEuroparts. the car only has 120K km so I thought the cluch would be good. I took the hood off all the turbo piping, the left rad fan the plastic clutch cover (what a pain). Now the real work starts I took a MTB bike tire tube cut it about 12 inches long with the valve in the middle. Tied a knot in one end and pulled the other over the filled brake resovor and wraped it with electrical tape. Pressured the system up and bled the slave. This got the cluch working well, no free play. But could not get the spacer in. I tried moving the slave ahead, by loosing the bolts but no luck. I then tried the method I found on this site, Buy 3 8mm bolts that are around 30mm long with nuts. Unbolt the pressure plate and put the longer bolts in with the nut between the pressure plate and the flywheel. Pry the pressure plate away and spin the nut out, until the spacer ring fits then take the bolts and nuts out. This works great and only takes a few minutes. On to the next job, Shaft removal. Cdaly said to make sure I protect the rad while pring out the input shaft. Good Advice!!!! I bent two pry bars, there is a clip inside the chain drive system that you need to force off. I bought a Big pry bar, filed the end so it just fit over the 8mm bolt, I needed to use a five pound sledge hammer to get it off, and when it let go, Let me just say I was glad I had some wood protecting the rad!!!

When the shaft is out you just lift the clutch and slave all out. The clutch plate was a little thin and after getting this far I thought I would order a new one. Eeuroparts site is not working so I ordered the clutch from Auto parts wholesale. I did not get the kit as the pressure plate does not have a mark on it.

If you had all the tools, and a helper you could do this job in under four hours. In actual work, I have everything apart and have spent less than two hours on the car. Unfortantly the car has been apart for almost 3 weeks. I hope I remember how to put it back together. I have done some other cluch Jobs and this one is the best because you do not have to work under the car!!!!! Which is IMO a PITA! Good luck.
 
#13 ·
Matthew said:
I can't believe that you guys have had so much trouble removing the input shaft. Are you sure that something wasn't mis-aligned?
No, mine was just stuck as were a lot of people's. I don't see how it could be mis-aligned.....
 
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