Does this sound a clutch cable problem?

S

Stern

Driving my Micra today in 5th at about 60kph, braked a bit and slowed down, pressed clutch to switch to 4th and I heard a funny noise can't really describe it, and the clutch just stayed down at the bottom. Couldn't change gear until I stopped and turned off the engine.

From what I've read this sounds like the clutch cable has broken, and it's fairly easy to resolve problem. Just wanted a second opinion if possible.

It's a 2001 K11 Micra, not sure about the engine. I ended up getting to a carpark by starting car while in second gear, it barely managed it.

Any help very much appreciated! My girlfriend has a business trip next week and I need to drive her to the airport at 4am (no taxis here) so the sooner I know what I need to fix the better!
 
yes, they,re a doddle (pedal end first)
yours should be fairly taut where arrowed in pic

 

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Where would I be able to get a clutch cable from? I googled our nearest Nissan dealer and they're closed on weekends.

Is this the kind of thing any decent garage should stock? Or are clutch cables very model/make specific?

Thanks!

Edit: Unfortunately I'm a tool and don't have a flashlight in the car, so I wasn't able to see anything under the bonnet. I'm at home now and the car is at a carpark about 15 miles away, so I can't check.
 
You can pick them up from motor factors shouldnt be too expensive. But if they dont have any and your pushed for time just grab one from a scrapyard and fit it temporarily til you get a new one.
 
i have a gear problem as well, started the micra today 98 1.0 and let it defrost,,hopped in foot on the clutch went for first and wouldnt go in tried all gears and wouldnt go, reverse jus gave a grind,turned the car off put it in first,, foot on the clutch turned the key and it hopped forward,im thinking the pressure plates is ####ed or the clutch is stuck to the pressure plate as it hasnt been moved in a week or so,,anyone ever have this?
 
Gotcha. So if it's loose I'll find a garage with a spare cable. What kind of tools would I need to get at where I need to replace it? My Dad has offered to drive up (he almost has his own garage by now, but he's about 2 hours away) so if I can save him the trip by doing it myself I'd like to, if I have the tools.
 
10mm open end and a torch, you can flick the pedal end over the hook with your fingers (it looks pretty inaccessible but is easy really) then adjust the thumbnut and 10mm nut so that you can just about hook it onto the clutch arm under pressure :grinning:
 
Alright, thanks everyone a lot for your help! I will try this out tomorrow and let you know how it went. It's been our first 'problem' with this car and it's nice that it's (apparently) a very minor one.
 
Grevs said:
i have a gear problem as well, started the micra today 98 1.0 and let it defrost,,hopped in foot on the clutch went for first and wouldnt go in tried all gears and wouldnt go, reverse jus gave a grind,turned the car off put it in first,, foot on the clutch turned the key and it hopped forward,im thinking the pressure plates is ####ed or the clutch is stuck to the pressure plate as it hasnt been moved in a week or so,,anyone ever have this?
Click to expand...

i,ve had a few cars where the plate had stuck together when left, and always free,d them off by jacking the front wheels up and running them up to 70 ish, then smacked the brakes on with the clutch down :grinning:
failing that, you may be right about the friction plate breaking up eh, or a mashed up spring :eek:
 
So, bought a cable, went to the car. The old cable was loose, good sign. The plastic nib/pin/thing that hooks onto the pedal had broken. So we pulled that out, and we detached it from the clutch lever on the engine. But I could not for the life of me get the cable off the mounting bracket on the transmission. I'm sure you guys are familiar with it, it's the clutch cable, surrounded by a hard plastic casing, and the casing holds in place a rubber 'wheel thing' that has a groove to slot it into the bracket.

No idea how they originally managed to get it on. We had to literally cut the rubber off with a knife so we could remove it. Couldn't get the new one on at all. Ended up cutting half of the rubber on the new one off so we could shove it into the mounting bracket from one side, then shove the cut off half back onto it. Once that was done, the cable seemed to short and clutch was constantly 'pressed' even while the pedal was up. When we pressed the pedal all of the screws just snapped off.

Clearly I have done something wrong, I don't know what it is, and I don't see how you can physically attach the cable onto the bracket that's attached to the transmission. I took a picture on my phone and I'll try to upload it.
 
retardedbracket.jpg


Edit: forgot to type. First of all, I didn't touch the bracket. I tried to unscrew it but it's on so tight I couldn't budge the screws.

You can clearly see the clutch cable, being held in the bracket. That rubber is a single piece, and is larger than the hole in the bracket, so you cannot push it forwards or backwards.

The white plastic inside the bracket is too large to fit out the bracket opening, so you can't push it outside.

The picture is of the old cable, before we destroyed the rubber and managed to get it out.
 
stern, the exact same snapped clutch cable end happened to me too. was giving sulur a hand but whilst reversing, heard a loud bang and the clutch pedal just dropped.

turned out that the pin that hooks the cable end to the clutch fork arm is just riveted on eventually weakens till it pops out, especially if a heavy duty pressure plates installed. when the pin broke, the loaded clutch fork/arm would spring back violently and becomes jammed and difficult to hook back up the cable. i had to fiddle the arm up/down/backforth for ages till i somehow hooked the release bearing back onto the diaphram and was able to connect the cable end

check my blog post #292 for how i fixed it.
http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/35251-PollyMobiles-Rebuild/page6
 
Um... not really sure how to check your blog post. I clicked on your name and it showed me your profile, but it said you had 0 blog entries.
 
Stern said:
Um... not really sure how to check your blog post. I clicked on your name and it showed me your profile, but it said you had 0 blog entries.
Click to expand...
Here:
pollyp said:
hey everyone, soz for the lack of updates cos I've been real busy at work and not much done to car as i'm just tryin to enjoy it.

Back at end of May, some of you may have read bout Sulur who needed to replace his damaged engine, so i drove down there with the spare cg13de from me garage, helped install it but in the end it didn't work out. neway we packed everything up and i was about to drive him to a nearby ATM to refund him. went into reverse and moved a metre backwards out the driveway when all of a sudden something went BANG!! the car lurched & rocked back, stalled, gearstick stuck and the clutch pedal dropped to the floor :eek:

What the Heck!? this was the last thing i needed while i was exhausted, had to drive home 180miles away for work the next day.

opened bonnet and saw the clutch bracket had sheared away from the clutch arm due to a broken pin. when the pin broke during mid-engagement, the clutch arm had sprung back so hard that it was jammed up. i couldn't move the arm back enough to reach the cable. oh bumma.

while almost panicing from the thought of having to maybe split open the engine/gearbox to fix the clutch, i looked up a pic of the clutch mechanism on me laptop to see what could be jamming and if the thrust bearing bracket could've seperated from the arm. i jiggled the arm up/down/sideways until eventually i could return it back to reach the cable.

but now the brackets missing the pin so i stuck an allen key though the hole, hook it up to the arm and test if the clutch still works and it felt normal. obviously i couldn't drive home like that so asked sulur if i could use the bracket from his SR that was parked with my spare smoking engine. installed and managed to get home, cautious bout the bracket breaking again.

here's the clutch bracket with the riveted pin sheared off
View attachment 15781

new clutch bracket with broken pin vs Sulurs used bracket that got me home
View attachment 15782

now the shiney new clutch bracket was installed just few months ago so why the heck has it failed? manufacture defect? or poor design? before the failure, the pedal did feel stiff and squeaky earlier that day.

here's the bush on the rivet pin thats worn from years of operation. i don't feel the pin is made secure enough so i'll replace it with a nut/bolt
View attachment 15783

drilled the hole in the broken bracket to 6mm and screwed on a threaded bar & nut to beef it up
View attachment 15784

hooked up and installed. hopefully this never happens again.
View attachment 15786View attachment 15785

yesterday a relative called me about doin a trackday at Rockingham in August 10th :)
i always wanted to take my car for a blast down the track and after talking to him for ages discussing about the whole thing we agreed on booking the session in advance next week.
website says £179 per car/person but more ppl per booking = discount down to £150
would be awsome if summore micras could join

i'll need to swap back over the original GTIR brake discs so i could get the grooved disc lip machined down by 3mm so it doesn't rub the calipers during the intense track braking.

He also recommended i upgrade my pads from mintex mdb1920 to either Ferodo ds2500 track pads or some Black Diamond Predator Fast Track pads as i'll need all the braking stamina i could get from a fast track.

i found some black diamond FT and EBC Yellowstuff in essex and Ferodo ds2500 on ebay
http://www.europerformance.co.uk/pages/products/product_info.mhtml?product=519797
http://www.europerformance.co.uk/pages/products/product_info.mhtml?product=3936345
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NISSAN-SUNNY-Mk-III-Hatchback-2-0-GTI-16V-FERODO-Front-/190401449177

anyone used or recommend any for mainly daily commute and occasional track use?
less dust would be nice for these white rims but good cold bite when commuting and high temp fade resistance when on track is more important.
maybe i should use the mintex for daily commutes then swap to high temp trackday pads when i'm at the track?
Click to expand...
 
I 'think' we've had a bit of miscommunication here. The bracket that was attached to the lever was fine. The pin was fine etc. The bracket that was attached to the pedal was plastic, and that broke.

My problem with the cable was that there is a mounting bracket (which is attached to the transmission) which holds the cable. And I was first unable to remove the old cable(until I destroyed the rubber) and then unable to attach the new cable (until I destroyed the rubber).
 
maybe your pedal end is different then stern, mine was a metal loop that slipped over the hook at the top of the pedal iirc
 
Yeah the new cable has a metal bracket with a pin through it. Just like the clutch lever end.

But my question is still, how on earth do you remove the cable from the 'mounting bracket' which is just before the clutch lever? Or even how do you get a new one onto it?
 
Stern said:
Yeah the new cable has a metal bracket with a pin through it. Just like the clutch lever end.

But my question is still, how on earth do you remove the cable from the 'mounting bracket' which is just before the clutch lever? Or even how do you get a new one onto it?
Click to expand...

yours looks fine in the pic stern, its probably just that the rubber is cold/rigid
 
retardedbracket.jpg

Red = hard plastic bit
Blue = Rubber bit
Green = bracket opening
Yellow = bracket

So, the hard plastic bit does not fit through the bracket opening. The opening is too small. The only way you can get it out would be by somehow removing the rubber bit around it, and pulling it out towards the car. But how would you get the rubber back onto it then? Or even get it off in the first place?
 
surely you lever the white plastic bit backwards, (out of the rubber) then slide the rubber through the slot (towards the nearside)
 
Ahhhhhhhhhh. I see. Well unfortunately we tried to cut at the new rubber bit a little to try and get it to fit before we realised the plastic was too large. So the rubber split in two. Have a backup cable though and my Dad is here now with proper tools so we will try it again. So when you are putting it IN you put the rubber in first, then slide the plastic bit through it?
 
Stern said:
Ahhhhhhhhhh. I see. Well unfortunately we tried to cut at the new rubber bit a little to try and get it to fit before we realised the plastic was too large. So the rubber split in two. Have a backup cable though and my Dad is here now with proper tools so we will try it again. So when you are putting it IN you put the rubber in first, then slide the plastic bit through it?
Click to expand...

yeh :grinning:
 
hi
is it possible to adjust the clutch cable, or are the self adjusting? jus my bite's near the top of the pedal. i have a 98 facelift micra twister. 1.0l.
thanks
steve
 
^yes at the end of the clutch cable is a thumbscrew. loosen the locknut then unscrew to thumbscrew to loosen the cable tension and lower the bite point till it's bout halfway
 
and my Dad is here now with proper tools so we will try it again. So when you are putting it IN you put the rubber in first, then slide the plastic bit through it?[/QUOTE]

just wondering what dad had to say bout this affair with the cable?
 
Sorry for the late reply,

Turned out I wasted about 5 hours of my Dad's time. The bolt that attaches the cable to the bracket at the clutch lever wasn't on properly and I hadn't tightened it near enough. The rubber in the bracket was fine (split or no).

Thanks for all your help guys, works fine now!
 

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