Noticed tonight as I drove home, when I let the clutch pedal up from the floor, there is a creaking noise comming from the center tunnel about 6 inches behind the shifter. Does the clutch tube run that far forward in the tunnel? Should I be worried? Will I ever play the piano again? What should I do?

Muchos grassyass.

You betcha, and worried big time! Your clutch cable tube is tearing away from its mounting points at one, two, or all three places. Fix it as soon as you can! The Cap'n

Capn nailed it.

The middle mount is breaking as we type. The front one probably has already let go. Take the shifter out and see if it has been rubbing on the shifter.. or see if you can move the tube by hand. You shouldnt "easily" be able to see the tube.



B

QUOTE (Brad Roberts @ Apr 18 2005, 04:03 PM)

You shouldnt "easily" be able to see the tube.

reminds me ....

you ever found the pictures from the clutch tube repair on my car?
Andy

This may have been some of the trouble with keeping the clutch in adjustment???

Bob

QUOTE (BIGKAT_83 @ Apr 18 2005, 04:22 PM)

This may have been some of the trouble with keeping the clutch in adjustment??? Bob

Gee, ya think?

Well, I knew there was a 98% chance that would be the answer, but I had a real swell day at work, so I was hoping maybe it was just low blinker fluid or something easy like that.

My heater control lever is out of the car, so I went to push on the tube through that opening and found it surprisingly solid. Couldn't move the tube at all. Seems like a good thing. Came back in the house, found Brad's "Friday Live clutch tube repair thread, and decided the front is probably just starting to break loose. After a couple industrial strength vodka & tonics, I couldn't make much sense out of some of Brad's pictures, so I decided to go out and look at my car, to see if I could put them in perspective. After carefully peeling back the glued down carpet, I found this:

previous repair. Go check the tube where it enters the tunnel at the fire wall in the engine bay.

Looks like somebody has been here before, and they might have been drinking too.
The good news, Bob, is that the tube hardly moves at all when depressing the clutch. At most, 1/32", and towards the middle of the car rather than front to back, so that had nothing to do with the adjustment issues. So Mark,
Just kiddn' dood, I'm glad. I would have felt pretty stupid if that was the source of my stage III train wreck.

Tough to make out here, but the hack job involved welding a piece of scrap to the bottom of the tunnel, then to the clutch tube. The creak is coming from the tube edging sideways against the remnants of the original bracket. I'm not sure why they stuck the extra piece of metal in there rather than just re-tacking to the pretty health section of the bracket that is still there. Give added strength I suppose. But it looks like one good bead to secure the whole thing laterally to the braket, and I should be good to go.

Time to get that new MIG welder I got for Christmas out of the box.

QUOTE (vsg914 @ Apr 18 2005, 08:13 PM)

previous repair. Go check the tube where it enters the tunnel at the fire wall in the engine bay.

Clean and solid as a rock in the back. That is why I would have felt like a real meathead if this turned out to be why I couldn't get that Stage III to fly.

yeah can you feel it from the clutch pedal when this happens? I think mine squeaks from the cluster, but am I just a confused and misguided teenager?

QUOTE (bd1308 @ Apr 18 2005, 10:08 PM)

yeah can you feel it from the clutch pedal when this happens? I think mine squeaks from the cluster, but am I just a confused and misguided teenager?

Confused? probably, but your being guided in the right direction.

spray some metal-ready into that center tunnel, this rust in there makes me

QUOTE (SirAndy @ Apr 18 2005, 11:20 PM)

spray some metal-ready into that center tunnel, this rust in there makes me

I'm on it Andy.

Looks worse in the pic than it really is. I grabbed a hunk of steel wool just to assess the mess, and I could get clean metal after about 10 seconds of rubbing. Almost looks like it was filled with standing water (or gas ) just one time, long ago.

Must have gave gotten missed somehow during the factory galvanizing process.






badum bum. I kill myself.