Clutch disengagement issue???
 

For most of the time I have been running my truck the clutch had little top end play.... perhaps a half inch or so. My car had a worn clutch and had no play but you had to have the pedal squished right to the floor to assure a clean shift. Now the Dodge has fairly suddenly become a near the floor to disengage type. It seems to have two or three inches of pedal movement before any real pressure is applied to the clutch arm. Thinking seems to be that some kind of a linkage failure due to wear may have happened OR hydraulics are getting soft. The Master cylinder reservoir is down a little... perhaps 2/3's full. I have changed the fluid a couple of times in the past 5 years and it looks ok... a somewhat darker amber than fresh but not too bad. The starter cut out requires that the pedal be pushed right to the floor- this too is new. I don't believe that simple disk wear would affect the starter cut out. Advice??

Check for wear where the master cylinder pushrod attaches to the clutch pedal. There's a plastic bushing there that falls apart and drops the pedal.

The cute little white bushing is there and seems to be just like new. Should I be looking at the pedal linkage maybe? Or should I try a new slave cylinder? I don't see how a failing slave cylinder would make the starter cut off go lower. I am really thinking it would be the upper linkage somehow. Any idea's along these lines?

Why is it that these stupid engineers think that a plastic bushing is good? I replaced mine with a piece of 1/2 inch copper tubing but I'm thinking I'll go down to the local bering supply and get a brass one. Should cost about a dollar. The plastic one from Dodge is probably $20 if they haven't discontinued it. [laugh]

Edwin

[dummy] Good news. I got someone to press the pedal while I looked at the slave and clutch arm. First glance and I thought, Oh NO! it is activating as soon as the pedal is moved. Maybe a half inch of true "play" and then the arm was being moved. Just for a second I thought it was clutch wear that was causing the late disengagement. Then I noticed that the back end of the slave cylinder was moving an inch or more every time the pedal was pressed. One of the two nuts that hold the slave cylinder in place had fallen off. After that it took two minutes to fix. All is wonderful in gen one land today!

Hmmmmm. I better go check mine. :D

Edwin