Changing the clutch cable

Ok.. here we go

clutch cable is looking a bit worse for wear and its going to snap one of these days ..

so going to change it myself

car is a 89 1.8 gti

don't have any specific question but if you have any advice on changing the clutch cable would be most helpfull

i know about the mrk 1 rust on bulkhead problem but mine is clean as a whistle

so just genral advice please

bit scared because i attempted this on a clio and well.. lets just say it was french and very stupidly plastic and difficult

thanks people..  

my dad did this about a year ago, it is not hard at all really, afternoon jobbie

the main thing i can recommend is to buy some cable ties and make sure you tie it so it is in a straight, unstressed loop therefore no kinks,

I  say this because on mine the wrong clutch cable was fitted before and it bent, causing the plate connected to literally wear away as the cable was sawing into the metal!

hope this helps

Thanks a bunch fella , very fast reply…

thats kind of dampened my fears of it being a biatch..

shall go see mr GSF shortly for a new one!

thanks  

its about a 1/2 hour job!! just make sure you dont lose the 3 pieces that hold the nipple bit at the g/box end of the cable!! you have to lift the clutch release arm to take the slack to release the cable, the metal piece has a slot cut into it,
hardest part i find is getting under the dash to connect the plastic bit on the pedal!!! there just no room and its blooming hard to see!!!

Topoftherange said

its about a 1/2 hour job!! just make sure you dont lose the 3 pieces that hold the nipple bit at the g/box end of the cable!! you have to lift the clutch release arm to take the slack to release the cable, the metal piece has a slot cut into it,
hardest part i find is getting under the dash to connect the plastic bit on the pedal!!! there just no room and its blooming hard to see!!!

Mine snapped a few weeks back, i got the misses under the dash to un-clip and clip it i just couldn't get to it plus she likes to help. So Paul if my misses can do it im sure you wont have any trouble

ha ha , ok i have no worries now at all , must have just been unlucky with my previous clutch job…

thanks people much appreciated!

To GTIjack

Does your wife have a single sister?  

I changed mine yesterday as boy its hard on your own. I finally got it fitted but now my problem is that the clutch seems to have a lot of slack on it. the bag said it was defo for the MK1 Golf but i am now wondering.it have the adjuster out to the last as u still have to push it in fully. very little responce until you hit the floor.

any ideas, as i can see under the pedals i'm wondering if i was supposed you attach the cable round something else first before connecting it.

all fun of learning.

MK1-GTi-Cork said

I changed mine yesterday as boy its hard on your own. I finally got it fitted but now my problem is that the clutch seems to have a lot of slack on it. the bag said it was defo for the MK1 Golf but i am now wondering.it have the adjuster out to the last as u still have to push it in fully. very little responce until you hit the floor.

any ideas, as i can see under the pedals i'm wondering if i was supposed you attach the cable round something else first before connecting it.

all fun of learning.

i'm having this exact problem now… did you ever figure it out? it seems so simple but i'm really puzzled about it

i'm not daft mechanically, but this has me stumped. there's nothing left to adjust!

i found that i am daft mechanically.

the cable is longer in the replacement that the original by about 4 inch. lol

Hi Everyone,

I'm having the same trouble. I have fitted a brand new VW clutch cable and had to adjust it right up so its on the maximum limit just to take up all the slack in cable.

When I push my clutch pedal down it has a lot of slack to take up before it actually bites and starts to lift the clutch arm. I now only have a very small amount of movement between the pedal flat to the floor and the biting point.

I have previously repaired the bulkhead with a bulkhead repair plate, which I stuck on with chemical metal.

Please can someone help, I don't know why this is happening and I need a solution.

Thanks Chris

i can tell you exactly what it is.

It's the wrong clutch cable. if you check it against the old one you will find that it's about 4 inch too long.

There are 2 different clutch cable part numbers and you need the shorter one of the 2.

That's all it is and i can assure you it's that after 3 nights of wondering what the hell was going on.

So i thought, back to basics - check it against the old one. It'll be longer.

Do you know where I can buy a shorter cable?

gsf. it's nothing special.

don't worry about your bulkhead repair either. you can't have done that wrong.

I went into GSF today to get the shorter cable and they typed all my car details into their computer and it only listed one cable for my model. They dug it out and we physically matched it up against the old cable I removed before fitting the VW cable. It was exactly the same length, it also had a part number that they used to cross reference the cables. It is definitely the correct cable.

I still have no idea what's going on.

check this…

ReleaseArm

is yours ok?

Yes I have seen this website before. Mine seems to be ok. I had a brand new clutch fitted early this year.

My clutch release arm sits at around the 7 o'clock position when the cable is not attached. It becomes stiff around 9 o'clock and cannot be lifted by hand. It can only be lifted when the cable is attached and the pedal is depressed.

According to brokevw this all seems ok, doesn't it?

yes.

at the moment i know what your feeling. You've exactly the same situation as i had. but… i found the cable i had was longer that the old one.

are you sure it's no longer?

The cable I took of the car was obviously not the original. I'm sure it was exactly the same length as the new VW cable when I matched them up.