Tried bringing my X1/9 back to life this morning and found I could not disengage the clutch.
Last time I drove it I did notice that the clutch was feeling very different. The pedal was extremely light and it was only disengaging right at the bottom of the travel.
Checked the hydraulic system and it seems to be OK. No oil leaking anywhere and the slave cylinder is moving around 2cm as it should, I think. But there's no way to get the car into gear.
Any thoughts? Tomorrow I'll try starting the car in 5th gear while depressing the clutch pedal, just to see if I can free the clutch. I hope I can get it moving and get a new clutch in.

Before you do anythings big first try to bleed the hydraulic system, you will need an asistant for this job, pump the pedal 10 times then keep it fully depressed, while its depressed open the bleed nipple on the clucth slave and observe hw the brake fluid comes out. If the system is ok, you should get a powerful squirt of fluid, if there are air bubbles then you need to keep bleeding until the air lock is gone, then if the fluid that comes is black ths means one or more of the clutch kits is worn out and you will need to replace it
I hope ths will help

Maybe the pressure plate has bound to the flywheel. After doing the check that lancepbul outlined above, put the car in 4th gear, and try to turn it over while standing on the brakes. This should shock the clutch into releasing.

The other cause that comes to mind instantly is a broken thrust bearing carrier (I was once given a plastic one which lasted all of a month before failing)


Like you though, my clutch only disengages right at the full extent of the pedal travel, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.

Thanks for your advice. As I said, the movement of the slave seems to be OK, although I'll have a go at measuring it tomorrow.
Regarding the disengaging at the full extent of the pedal travel, the older models require adjustment through the threaded rod of the slave cylinder. Check it out.

Try starting the car in gear repeatedly with the clutch depressed. If the slave cylinder is working to full deflection then the clutch should pop free with a bang after a few tries.

If the slave cylinder is only partially deflecting the clutch release arm then adjusting it via the threaded stock is only going to make things worse as it means the arm will be allowing the clutch to slip as it you are riding the clutch pedal.

Keep in mind that the clutch is notoriously tricky to bleed and you need to make sure it isn't the master cylinder on the way out. If the slave bleeds just fine but you still can't get pressure then it is likely the seals in the master cylinder have failed and you are just pushing the plunger in and out without moving any fluid (this happened on my 2 year old Abarth 500 last year - thankfully still under warranty).

Just a short status report. Tried cranking the engine in 5th gear and crashed against the wall.... Just joking! In reality I tried cranking the engine and got the clutch to slip, but could not disengage it fully. Double checked the movement and it now seems that the slave cylinder is actually only moving around 15mm, so its bleeding the system this afternoon.
Anyone knows if pressurizing the clutch oil reservoir is a "good idea" to bleed the system? I have a few spare reservoir caps and was considering connecting the reservoir to the tire and just opening the nipple.... Bad idea?

ppalma said:

Regarding the disengaging at the full extent of the pedal travel, the older models require adjustment through the threaded rod of the slave cylinder. Check it out.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I knew that. The nut that adjusts it is wound all the way to the end already.

jimbro1000 said:

Keep in mind that the clutch is notoriously tricky to bleed and you need to make sure it isn't the master cylinder on the way out. If the slave bleeds just fine but you still can't get pressure then it is likely the seals in the master cylinder have failed and you are just pushing the plunger in and out without moving any fluid (this happened on my 2 year old Abarth 500 last year - thankfully still under warranty).

Click to expand...

Is there any other signs as to the master cylinder failing other than as you have outlined there? I think this may have happened to me today.


Also, as a minor aside, how does the pushrod that acts against the clutch arm attatch to the slave cylinder? Is it simply held there by the opposing forces of the slave and the arm, or should it actually be held by the slave cylinder on its own? A read through the Haynes manual doesn't appear to answer that for me.

If the master cylinder was failing you wouldn't be able to keep the clutch disengaged, as the fluid would "slowly" seep past the master cylinder's plunger.
As far as I can tell, my slave cylinder holds its position nicely, so I'm betting on bleeding the system.

Unfortunately it seems I lost my bet. Just finished bleeding the system and there was absolutely no change....
I guess the next step is the master cylinder. I'm looking forward to it.

bludvl_x19 said:

Also, as a minor aside, how does the pushrod that acts against the clutch arm attatch to the slave cylinder? Is it simply held there by the opposing forces of the slave and the arm, or should it actually be held by the slave cylinder on its own? A read through the Haynes manual doesn't appear to answer that for me.

Click to expand...

The push rod *is* the slave cylinder plunger. The slave cylinder itself is about as simple as it gets, a single open ended cylinder with the hydraulic feed and bleed nipple at the closed end. The plunger, complete with threaded stock just presses in the end and a dust seal fits over the end of the tube to stop contamination.

The only thing stopping the plunger from pushing out when actuated is (as you say) the clutch release arm. If operated without that restraint the plunger would just pop straight out (if you are servicing one this isn't too bad a way to get it out in the first place but is obviously pretty messy too - the same applies to brake calipers).

The most complicated thing in the design of the cylinder is getting the mounting points in the right place (obviously the bore of the tube is pretty important too).

Is it worth rebuilding the master cylinder? Can't seem to find any repair kits advertised as such. Do they use the same seals as the brake system?
I'm thinking about doing the master and the slave cylinders, plus all the hoses. If I'm going to make a mess, might as well do it just once.
The rod of the slave cylinder is actually a separate item

I rebuilt my slave and master cylinders today, well worth it IMO, pedal pressure is so much better than beforehand (before the seals failed anyway...)

I couldn't get hold of a kit either, but I found a brake/clutch specialist who was able to match the O-rings for me and made one up for me. He even fitted them to the shaft for me, just because
Cost wise, it was $AUD35 for both the kits, and that was cheaper than getting a single slave cylinder.

Did you flush the system completely before dismantling?

Ah...no. Now that you mention it, that could have been a good idea The fluid in there was fairly new however, as I have been having clutch problems for a while.

Just finished dismantling the slave cylinder and decided against replacing the seals. For some reason the cylinder is badly corroded, although it shows no signs of having failed. But now that the plunger is outside, I don't see any way I can get it back in without scratching it and/ or damaging the seals.
Next comes the master cylinder! Can't wait to see how it looks....

A bit of clutch fluid to lubricate the seals, and the cylinder; and then some gentle persuasion got mine in. But you do have to be gentle, like you say the seals can be easy to damage.

Personally, I think that while you have it apart, you may as well change the seals; it doesn't take much extra effort, and you know when it was last done.

Trust me on this one, my slave cylinder is scrap!
In the meantime I've disassembled the master, and it seems repairable. The seals are definitely gone, particularly the big one from the plunger. It just dances around and its hard to believe that it ever functioned. I'll check with my corner shop to see if they have new seals and hoses and all the stuff, but I'll have to wait for the slave cylinder to get here before I put everything back together.

I'm beginning to hate my car...
Quick update: just finished putting the slave cylinder back in place. I figured it would be clever to take the coolant reservoir out to get some access, just to find out that the coolant reservoir is held at the bottom with two screws and nut, which of course require the nuts to be held while one is trying to undo the screw. Not a clever solution.
To compound the pain, when I disconnected the hose from the thermostat housing, the the steel coupling or whatever that is called just disintegrated, rotten. This is a problem with my car: some 12 years ago, when I bought it, the engine was quite corroded and it had a blown gasket and no thermostat. Despite regularly changing the cooling fluid, the harm is done and it seems all steel fittings are corroding away. Anyone knows where to get those things to a decent standard of corrosion resistance? I had some done years ago, but it seems it's again time to replace them.

Final update, before I try to start the car: I think I have finished tightening all the nuts and bolts, and the car should be ready to go as soon as I charge the battery.
Ended up replacing both master and slave cylinder, as I f*cked up the master plunger by dropping it on a stone floor... It's made of really soft aluminum, which I found surprising, to say the least. Anyway, bleeding the system requires some patience, but it seems to be operational.
Took the opportunity to replace the brake fluid reservoir that had the top cracked for two separate reservoirs, identical to the clutch reservoir. This is a solution adopted in early X1/9 and 127. I still have to get the warning light operational on the second reservoir, but it should be straightforward. I sourced the reservoirs from my friendly Lada parts dealer some years ago and had them lying around, waiting.
Replaced the earth strap from the gearbox to the body in a futile attempt to improve the electrics.
Rebuilt the thermostat housing with new brass fittings. Decent work from "Rectificadora Moderna" in Lousa (just in case someone in Portugal is reading this...). Put a new thermostat in, found a place that sells real gasket material, not cereal boxes!
Thought about replacing all the hoses, but decided against it and replaced only the elbow that connects the thermostat to the water pump. Nevertheless I did replace all of the hose clamps I could get access to and generally speaking tidied up the engine bay.
Can't wait to get it started!

Success! After a week off I managed to start the car and free the clutch! Tomorrow I'll go for a test drive and start tidying up the car. It badly needs a wash and some detailing....