Clutch

Hi everyone, please help.

The gears are extremely difficult to engage and there is almost no resistance to the clutch pedal .
The clutch reservoir appears empty.
When the ignition is off I can select the gears, when the engine is started I can’t select any.

Is this a sign that the clutch has gone?

I’m going to top up the clutch reservoir to see if that makes any difference.
Should I buy any particular clutch fluid, or will a universal one do?

Thanks
Bob.

I would guess since the clutch reservoir is empty, I would start by topping that up and bleeding the system if it is spongy, or any suggestion of air in the system. From memory, I think any DOT4 fluid will be adequate.

I’ve topped up the reservoir and the clutch pedal is beyond spongy, there’s no resistance at all.
I can start the car in gear and it gets it moving.
I assume the clutch has gone.

I suspect that the hydraulic fluid needs a good bleed . Air tends to get stuck in the pipe run from front to back of the car , plus it also gets stuck in the end of the master cylinder . Its possible to bleed the system by yourself but it is far easier to have an assistant to help. Even after I did mine I found that there was still play at the top of the pedal which was due to air been stuck in the master cylinder . By tapping the end of the cylinder with the pipe nut slackened , I got a big burp of air out from the end of the cylinder when the pedal was pressed. Hope this helps .

John

Hi John, I hope you’re right, I’ll give bleeding a try, it’s by far the cheapest option.
I should have mentioned that I’ve done 50,000 miles, which obviously isn’t excessive for the original clutch.

I would agree with sworkscooper, but I (and I suspect most others reading your first post) am asking) "How did your clutch master cylinder reservoir come to have an empty reservoir". Logically, there MUST be a leak somewhere, and that will HAVE to be found and remedied to arrive at a long-term or even medium-term solution. I strongly recommend that after re-filling and a bleeding of the system, you park your car over a clean sheet of cardboard or whatever, and check for puddles after operating the clutch pedal several times. If the bleeding does not yield a temporary fix, and there is no sign of leaks at the gearbox end, a new master cylinder will be the next thing to try.

Has this just happened, yesterday all was well, today it's nackered or has it deteriorated over a while?

It sounds like you have a clutch fluid leak, this can happen over time by the seals failing on the clutch slave cylinder (attached to gearbox) or the master cylinder (mounted under the bonnet and has the reservoir). Your lack of pedal will coincide with fluid loss. Toping up the fluid and bleeding your clutch may return your pedal for a while (depending on how bad your seals are and how much fluid is getting past them). Its most likely to be your slave cylinder as the master cylinder could Leake fluid into the drivers footwell (but may be absorbed by the carpet). The only real way to identify the fault is by getting under the car and checking the slave cylinder, if its wet around the rubber boot the seals have gone. If the slave cylinder is dry, then you may have a perished flexible hose.

A few years ago my next door neighbour had no clutch in his MG Midget, he couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work as he couldn’t find any evidence of leakage.
He sought my assistance in diagnosing the problem.
What I found was the problem was with the clutch hose itself, the outer hose sleeve had split but the inner hose liner was still intact, so when under pressure the outer sleeve would open up and the inner liner would balloon out through the spit in the outer with no loss of fluid.

1. Look up the location of the clutch slave cylinder so that you will be able to find it quickly.

2. The easiest access is to undo the rear clips so you can fold the back of the hood forward, unscrew the engine cover then remove the air filter assembly (assuming your car has the original air box and not a pipe to an after market performance cone type air filter). You should now be able to access the clutch slave cylinder from the top. .

3. Preferably with 1 or even 2 assistants bleed the air from the clutch slave cylinder. The slave cylinder has a bleed nipple the same as you would see on a brake caliper. Ideally use a tube from this running to a jar or container under the car to catch the fluid. Or just slide a big tray of some sort under the car if you dont have tubing that will fit. Ensure the fluid reservoir is full and check periodically during the process. Get an assistant to push down on the pedal whist you open the bleed nipple. Close it before the pedal is raised. repeat multiple times. Keep checking and topping up the fluid level as it will quickly go down during this procedure and you dont want to suck air back into the system and have to start from scratch. If you have access to a one person pressure bleed system you wont need to be at the back of the car but you will still need to pause from pushing the pedal to check the fluid level.]

4. Check the state of the clutch slave cylinder and it's flexible hose for signs of a leak. This may only be evident when the pedal is being held down. If in doubt replace the flexible hose and the clutch slave cylinder. Both can fail and if they havent been replaced for several years just do it anyway. They arent difficult or expensive to replace. As Cobber said check the flexible hose for ballooning under pressure.

I'll just throw in that the most common clutch fault is the clutch lever arm seizing in the bellhousing causing the the slave cylinder to disintegrate or spew its contents out.