clutch cable snapped

The outer has a lining that wears. If the inner was rusty, consider what the inside of the outer must be like!

The end fittings are usually too big to allow the inner to be threaded through anyway.

It would be a false economy to fit just an inner.

cables come with both inner and outer, however you could cut the end off the new inner, thread it through and rejoin the end on. please let us know how you join the end on with sufficient strength.

MrCheerful

Pritt-stick and gaffa tape?!

Gloddy.

Yes it is stupid. What they should really do is just sell the inner cables along with a hydraulic clamping kit, the end nipples, some soldering equipment and include in the price a one day course at the local tech college on how to do all that. I'm sure it would still be less than £500 and you'd avoid having to buy an outer cable. It's clearly a rip off designed to sell you more parts than you really need. Congratulate yourself on being bright enough to have seen through the scam.

Any more flashes of genius you feel like sharing with the group?

Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines

Well they could make the cable have a screw threaded end which is small enough to fit through the outer casing. Or just make the clutch cable a little easier to get to. Whilst working on this car I've found it to be designed quite well in terms of ease of service and general maintenance and this clutch cable thing surprised me a little. I do have some idea of what I'm talking about as I design these things for a living.

Sorry I know I sound stupid but I'm just annoyed cos I thought "Oh it's only the cable that'll be easy to fix" but without a solid floor, axle stands even a decent jack I've got no chance of being able to do it!

Now I have to fork out for a tow to a garage and lose a days pay too.

Regards,

Gloddy.

You're quite right. But it'd be nice if they did a sort of 'temporary limp home clutch cable repair kit'!?

Maybe not,

Thanks.

Gloddy.

Well that is what happens when you buy an ancient piece of French rubbish.

MrCheerful

Well I think clutch cables do break on non-French cars too. And considering my tiny budget I can at least say it is better than the ancient piece of English rubbish it replaced.

Gloddy.

Any half-decent car would have a hydraulic clutch. No cable to break.

(but you just know your slave cylinder will let go when you're

How do you put a screw thread on a bowden cable?

I don't know why you need a tow. Whever it's happened to me I've driven it home, and other peole's cars also.

Rob Graham

You've got a bit of cheek, taking other peoples' cars home just because your clutch cable broke. :)

I know, but I 've been getting away with it.

Rob

Interestingly enough, it only takes 30 minutes to change the clutch cable on a 'ancient piece of French rubbish' Renault 5. And that's with no tools other than a long bit of string to tie to the end of the old cable, so you can pull the new cable back through the engine bay and through the bulkhead hole.

I've done this myself on three R5's now (not all mine!), and have known people change clutch cables in the dark at the side of the road, in the rain.

Of course if we didn't fit heavy Volvo 480 clutches to 200bhp R5 GT Turbos, we wouldn't break cables so often.... :o)

Rich.

Only seals in the slave cylinder to go instead spewing fluid over the lot.

Must have a big drive.

How the hell do people find out that things like this work? They must be some sort of madmen.

Personally, I hate hydraulic clutches - they offend against my "minimise the component-count" philosophy, with all their seals, springs, pistons, vibration- dampers and stuff. A cable is far simpler and, ergo, far less likely to go wrong [on the basis that bits you don't have won't fail].

I've had plenty of hydraulic clutches fail [it's not fun when the thing goes and fills the bellhousing with fluid!] but only once had a cable clutch fail, and that was when the outer part of the cable pulled through the bulkhead due to VW's under-engineering of the surrounding metalwork.

??

???

Hydraulic clutches are considerably more reliable than cables. I've seen plenty of cables break under 50k miles; I've yet to see a hydraulic clutch fail under 100k miles.

In addition, they 'feel' much nicer to use, much smoother than a cable. Cables just don't do that well for heavy load applications.

There's a very good reason your brakes are hydraulic, not cable driven.