clutch pedal *pop* i hear/feel

[Blackened302]

lemme give a little bg info: clutch cable snapped at the quadrant, replaced it w/ a cable off an 88 fox (no money and i got it for $10--gonna guy an OEM or MM one asap). ever since, there is usually a POP i can hear and feel at the clutch pedal.

wth is that popping sound that i'm feeling on the clutch pedal? when i'm under there trying to see what's hitting, it doesn't make the noise. it's making me feel very uneasy--i'm afraid the cable's gonna snap on me again on the way home to/from school or something.

i'm running the UPR triple-hook clutch quadrant and extreme Firewall adjuster, if that helps.


i found this thread in which GreenMustangGT has the same problem, but the cause doesn't seem to be identified clearly.
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=494851&highlight=pop+clutch

thanks, guys.

 

[HISSIN50]

Were there any burrs on the quadrant's hook?

Is the alignment of the quadrant and the hole in the firewall ok?

 

[Blackened302]

thanks for the reply, JT.

what do you mean by "burrs"?

i'll check on the alignment of the quadrant and the hole in the firewall. this wasn't happening before i replaced the stock broken cable w/ the fox body cable.

i noticed the fox cable is 1 or 2 inches shorter than the stock 94-95 one--the clutch adjustment seems fine, though...?

 

[HISSIN50]

I wasn't going to ask how that shorter cable was workin for you.

Is there any chance the cable is overextending the diaphram fingers (the pop would occur with the pedal at the bottom of its travel)? This could also start to try to rip the ferrule off the end of the cable.
I ask that stuff because I've had a pop before and I had a hard time narrowing the source down because of the way the thud reverberated throughout the cable.

Chances are there's not a burr or deformation at the quadrant's hood (a rough spot of metal that would chafe the cable). But again, it was worth asking. I think I had to clean up one of my quadrants once - the cable didnt want to seat nice in its hole. I was afraid it would cause the cable to fail if I left it.

I know that's not much help Paul.

Good luck.

 

[Blackened302]

hehe, nah, it does help--i sincerely appreciate it, man. glad to know we can count on your knowledge, experience, and expertise for even the most redundant and most-newb questions.

anyhow, i don't think the cable is overextending the diaphram fingers because the pop is in the middle of the pedal travel, if not closer to the top than the bottom.

i checked to make sure the ferrule was sitting properly in the hook of the quadrant, and i also made sure the cable wasn't being caught on the sharp edges of the quadrant during travel.

what's still left for me to check is the alignment of the quadrant w/ the firewall hole. i didn't put any spacers on either side of it to align it when i installed it. we kinda just let it alone so it could move side-to-side if it had to. should i have put spacers/washers on both sides that it won't move? could it just be that the UPR pieces are not that great, really? think it's worth buying a Fiore quadrant and fwa? that may very well be the problem--i hope it's that simple. i'll post up once i check that out tomorrow.

 

[HISSIN50]

Hey, I dont know why I didnt think of it sooner: have your G/F, buddy etc press the clutch while you watch the firewall from under the hood. See if the firewall is flexing. It happens upon occasion.

I was kinda scientific about the spacers and quadrant alignment on my last quad install (I had to do some machine work on the quadrant so I was watching things close). I did not use spacers at first and the quadrant moved not one bit! I have a *slight* preload on my cable (I set it to zero lash and then add about a half turn of tightness at the FWA) and that keeps the quadrant self-centered. It seems to me that the quadrant would want to self-center anyhow (it wants to pull straight rather than at an angle, as pulling at an angle would make it walk over to where it is pulling perpendicular to the plane of the cable pathway).

I wouldnt sweat using the spacers (I made and added some later on for the sake of doing so but they didnt help any that I know of).

WIth that short cable, maybe it is just firewall flex.

And thanks for the kind words. Right back atcha. I dont know as much as many have forgotten, but I do try to post whatever I can on the threads in case chatting through it helps someone. A couple heads are often better than one when we get a little stuck.