Clutch problems.
 

Hi, my 2l diesel manual has been suffering from intermittent clutch problems where at times, you can't select gear or if in gear, can't get out of gear. This got worse where the pedal started sticking down. With the help of a learned friend, we tried to bleed the clutch. The master cylinder seemed to have a lot of gunk in it - probably the remnants of a cill?? There would appear to be a blockage as we couldn't get fluid through the system - again what was coming out had a lot of black gunk in the fluid. We the tried to back fill via the brake system - it appeared to pass fluid through to the master reservoir (and overflow) but on putting it back together, the clutch pedal now doesn't return at all..

Any ideas??

We the tried to back fill via the brake system - it appeared to pass fluid through to the master reservoir (and overflow) but on putting it back together, the clutch pedal now doesn't return at all..


Where are you checking the clutch fluid? under the steering wheel column inside the car?

If you are checking the reservoir under the bonnet that is the Brake master the two are not connected so you cannot back bleed the clutch via the brake master cylinder :shrug:

We checked the reservoir by the clutch pedal.

Thats OK,But you said you back bled the clutch VIA the brake system!!!! Which is impossible.

We did by running a tube from the brake bleed nipple to the clutch bleed nipple and by forcing fluid from the brake s to the clutch reservoirs. Fluid seemed to transfer and overflowed from the clutch master reservoir...

Changed the master cylinder and the clutch now works. Small knocking from the engine when clutch is depressed - I used to call that the first motion bearing on my first car. Runs like a dream.

Which master cylinder did you fit ? The Tazu all-metal one with a copper pipe will transmit some diesel knock into the cabin when the pedal is depressed. A good reason not to use the Tazu master, or to replace the copper pipe with a flexible brake hose (a bit of a faff).

Pete

Yes we fitted the all metal Tazu with the copper pipe... Where does the diesel come from? Looks like I may need to revisit this soon....

Diesel Knock is the noise that all diesel engines make due to the very powerful compression on these engines. It is usually suppressed (as on the 75) by good sound absorbent engine mounts and soundproofing. The original clutch set up on 75 diesels used plastic components (slave, pipework and master ) that do not transmit much diesel engine noise into the cabin. However, fitting the Tazu all-metal components (slave or master, particularly with metal or copper pipework) allows some diesel noise to be transmitted into the cabin, usually as a knocking noise when the clutch pedal is pressed down. It is more annoying/irritating rather than a real problem, but if you want to avoid it, only fit original spec clutch hydraulic parts, such as genuine Rover master cylinders and slaves made by LUK or AP/Delphi (although these now come with metal pipework in place of the original plastic pipes, unfortunately).
Pete