Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Synchros shot? Weird noises while shifting? Not sure what needs to be replaced?
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tankinbeans
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Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Post by tankinbeans »

Hello all -

I have a quick question about my brother's car. He currently drives a 94 Corolla DX 5 speed with 220k miles give or take. He is telling me that periodically he'll be driving and, when in 4th - not shifting into 4th, but cruising - his car will rev to 4k rpm and kind of slow down then it'll reengage and he'll be back on his way. I apologize if this makes no sense, but I'm relating this second hand. Is this a shot clutch? How hard is this to fix? None of us can afford to help him bring it to a shop to have it repaired that way.

Also, about 8 months ago a friend of mine help me replace my brother's rear brakes. In the process I think we forgot to reconnect his parking brake. I think this is so because you can pull all the way up on the lever and there will be no pressure whatsoever. Can this be readjusted/reconnected and what should it look like when done. He can't afford a new car right now and this is the best way to keep it on the road.

Thanks,
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Re: Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Post by Rope-Pusher »

Tell him he should be cruising in 5th!

I dunno if he has a Self Adjusting Clutch in that car,
Image
(note the ring behind the diaphragm spring fingers)
but if so, they sometimes can self-mis-adjust themselves so that the clamp load is reduced and the clutch can slip.

How far off the floor is the clutch pedal pad when the clutch begins to engage? Is this distance changing, or remaining constant?

Sometimes, this can occur after high rpm excursions. I've also heard of it occurring during mild-throttled cruise conditions.

What triggers it in your brother's vehicle --- dipping deep into the throttle pedal at peak torque RPM? Running it up thru the gears hard and then settling in to a sedate cruise?

Brakes - usually something to adjust back at the rear brakes (strut separating the brake shoes?). Anything in the owners manual about applying the foundation brakes or the park brakes while traveling in reverse? It was probably backed-off to get the new brake shoes to install and now needs to be tweaked. There may also be an adjustment feature in the park brake cable, near the park brake lever, or in the lever mechanism itself, but if the shoes are out of adjustment back at the rear brakes, there probably isn't enough travel in the front adjuster to get them to work.
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tankinbeans
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Re: Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Post by tankinbeans »

Rope-Pusher wrote:Tell him he should be cruising in 5th!

I dunno if he has a Self Adjusting Clutch in that car,
Image
(note the ring behind the diaphragm spring fingers)
but if so, they sometimes can self-mis-adjust themselves so that the clamp load is reduced and the clutch can slip.

How far off the floor is the clutch pedal pad when the clutch begins to engage? Is this distance changing, or remaining constant?

Sometimes, this can occur after high rpm excursions. I've also heard of it occurring during mild-throttled cruise conditions.

What triggers it in your brother's vehicle --- dipping deep into the throttle pedal at peak torque RPM? Running it up thru the gears hard and then settling in to a sedate cruise?
Judging from how my brother normally drives he very well could be driving like a raped ape and then settling down for the cruise. I don't believe he cruises in 4th all the time, but told me that this was when he started noticing an issue. I'm guessing it could very well be shot since the car has so many miles on it with presumably the original clutch (it was bought with ~140k miles, and he's not precisely kind to the bugger.
rope-pusher wrote: Brakes - usually something to adjust back at the rear brakes (strut separating the brake shoes?). Anything in the owners manual about applying the foundation brakes or the park brakes while traveling in reverse? It was probably backed-off to get the new brake shoes to install and now needs to be tweaked. There may also be an adjustment feature in the park brake cable, near the park brake lever, or in the lever mechanism itself, but if the shoes are out of adjustment back at the rear brakes, there probably isn't enough travel in the front adjuster to get them to work.
I guess this is something I'll have to look at when I have a little time and space. I'm not entirely sure when the snow is going to fly and don't want to tear stuff apart since there is not garage available to stash the car, and we don't have a spare for him to drive.
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Re: Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Post by theholycow »

Welcome to the greasy, rusty world of DIY auto repair!

Sounds like a clutch problem to me.

I looked it up. Step 1 of clutch replacement is "Remove the transaxle from the vehicle." Everything after that looks easy, until "Install the transaxle to the engine." Looking that stuff up, that looks like a whole lot of work...air cleaner, coolant reservoir, ball joints, halfshafts, exhaust pipe, engine mounts, stabilizer bar, subframe all need to be undone or removed to get to the transaxle and then you still have the usual transaxle stuff to deal with like mounts, shifter cables, clutch hydraulics, etc.

Better you than someone who charges $200/hr. Most of it is pretty simple but there's a whole lot of it to do, and more importantly, to keep track of. Watch youtube videos, study as many shop manuals as possible, etc. Invest in, borrow, or rent tools that make it easy. Photograph everything from every angle at every step of disassembly.

For the brakes, start by following the cables and examining the drums. Watch the cables as someone pulls and releases the handbrake, to see that they all move. At the drum make sure the cable is connected or goes into it. Jack the car and turn the tire by hand with the brake engaged and disengaged. If everything looks right but you can spin it by hand then the drum has to come off so you can examine the guts and/or manually adjust it. If you can't spin it by hand but it doesn't hold the car then it's merely out of adjustment; check a Corolla forum but there may be a procedure as simple as backing up and stopping hard with the handbrake. If not you may find an adjuster at the equalizer where one main cable connects to two cables going to the wheels.

-----------------------------------------------------

The good news is that Rope-Pusher posted. The bad news is that I typed up a bunch of now-redundant stuff while he did that. The good news is that I can add to my own post before posting, now.

Chilton shows adjustments for clutch pedal free-play, pedal height, and pushrod play. Some excerpts:
Pedal free-play wrote:Measure the clutch pedal free play and pushrod play by pressing on the clutch pedal with your finger and until resistance is felt. The clutch free play should be between 0.197-0.591 inch (5-15mm). Inadequate free play wears all parts of the clutch releasing mechanisms and may cause slippage. Excessive free play may cause inadequate release and hard shifting of gears.

If necessary, adjust the free play and pushrod play as follows:

Loosen the lock nut and turn the master cylinder push rod while depressing the clutch pedal lightly with your finger until the free play and pushrod play is correct.

Tighten the lock nut.

Check the pedal height.
Clutch pedal height wrote:Check that the height of the clutch pedal is correct by measuring from the top of the pedal to the asphalt sheet on the kick panel. The pedal height should be within these specifications:
1993-94: 5.61-6.00 inch (142.5-152.5mm)

Loosen the lock nut and turn the stopper bolt until the pedal height is correct and tighten the lock nut.

After the pedal height is adjusted, check the pedal free play and pushrod play.
pushrod play wrote:Push in on the pedal with a finger softly until the resistance begins to increase somewhat. The push rod play at the pedal top should be: 0.039-0.197 inch (1.0-5.0mm).
(No adjustment procedure is provided for pushrod play)

If it needs replacing and he's going to continue driving it all winter, he may need to invest in a replacement flywheel too.
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Re: Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Post by tankinbeans »

theholycow wrote:Welcome to the greasy, rusty world of DIY auto repair!

Sounds like a clutch problem to me.

I looked it up. Step 1 of clutch replacement is "Remove the transaxle from the vehicle." Everything after that looks easy, until "Install the transaxle to the engine." Looking that stuff up, that looks like a whole lot of work...air cleaner, coolant reservoir, ball joints, halfshafts, exhaust pipe, engine mounts, stabilizer bar, subframe all need to be undone or removed to get to the transaxle and then you still have the usual transaxle stuff to deal with like mounts, shifter cables, clutch hydraulics, etc.

Better you than someone who charges $200/hr. Most of it is pretty simple but there's a whole lot of it to do, and more importantly, to keep track of. Watch youtube videos, study as many shop manuals as possible, etc. Invest in, borrow, or rent tools that make it easy. Photograph everything from every angle at every step of disassembly.

For the brakes, start by following the cables and examining the drums. Watch the cables as someone pulls and releases the handbrake, to see that they all move. At the drum make sure the cable is connected or goes into it. Jack the car and turn the tire by hand with the brake engaged and disengaged. If everything looks right but you can spin it by hand then the drum has to come off so you can examine the guts and/or manually adjust it. If you can't spin it by hand but it doesn't hold the car then it's merely out of adjustment; check a Corolla forum but there may be a procedure as simple as backing up and stopping hard with the handbrake. If not you may find an adjuster at the equalizer where one main cable connects to two cables going to the wheels.

-----------------------------------------------------

The good news is that Rope-Pusher posted. The bad news is that I typed up a bunch of now-redundant stuff while he did that. The good news is that I can add to my own post before posting, now.

Chilton shows adjustments for clutch pedal free-play, pedal height, and pushrod play. Some excerpts:
Pedal free-play wrote:Measure the clutch pedal free play and pushrod play by pressing on the clutch pedal with your finger and until resistance is felt. The clutch free play should be between 0.197-0.591 inch (5-15mm). Inadequate free play wears all parts of the clutch releasing mechanisms and may cause slippage. Excessive free play may cause inadequate release and hard shifting of gears.

If necessary, adjust the free play and pushrod play as follows:

Loosen the lock nut and turn the master cylinder push rod while depressing the clutch pedal lightly with your finger until the free play and pushrod play is correct.

Tighten the lock nut.

Check the pedal height.
Clutch pedal height wrote:Check that the height of the clutch pedal is correct by measuring from the top of the pedal to the asphalt sheet on the kick panel. The pedal height should be within these specifications:
1993-94: 5.61-6.00 inch (142.5-152.5mm)

Loosen the lock nut and turn the stopper bolt until the pedal height is correct and tighten the lock nut.

After the pedal height is adjusted, check the pedal free play and pushrod play.
pushrod play wrote:Push in on the pedal with a finger softly until the resistance begins to increase somewhat. The push rod play at the pedal top should be: 0.039-0.197 inch (1.0-5.0mm).
(No adjustment procedure is provided for pushrod play)

If it needs replacing and he's going to continue driving it all winter, he may need to invest in a replacement flywheel too.
Thank you for all of that. This definitely seems like a project for this coming spring/summer, assuming he has the car that long, since I have no place to park a project car and these are his only wheels. Also, the funds have to be gathered up to do this. Stupid money. :badgrin:
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Re: Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Post by theholycow »

I would definitely look at/adjust everything now, and if the clutch really needs to be replaced then that would have to wait.
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Re: Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Post by tankinbeans »

theholycow wrote:I would definitely look at/adjust everything now, and if the clutch really needs to be replaced then that would have to wait.
Do you know if the Chilton's for a 92 Prism would work? I know that in 94 the Prism and Corolla were mechanically identical, but I'm not sure about 92. I ask because there is a Chilton's manual for the above-mentioned Prism for $8 at Half Price in town. I'm kind of old-school and like having a book to peek at. :D
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Re: Clutch Shot? No Parking Brake

Post by Bill B »

I had a 95 Escort Wagon a while back. Was a 5 Speed as any car should be. I had a problem with the E brake after taking it to Meineke to replace the rear brakes. They never could get the E brake fixed and said that it must have been a defect from Ford because they could not get it to hold. When you drive a manual, you need your e brake to warm the car up in the winter time. They would not give me a refund claiming it could not be fixed and I would have to take it to Ford. I called Meineke's corporate office several times to complain, and the said that this location was a franchise, so there was nothing that they could do about it. In my 34 years of driving and getting car repairs, this was the only time that I felt like I had really been cheated at a car repair place. Only satisfaction I received was to tell people not to go there for any car repairs.
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