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MG MGA - No Clutch Pedal

Went to start up 1600 for spring. No clutch pedal. I assume I have a hydraulic issue. Several pumps on the clutch pedal produced 0 improvement. Am I correct in assuming the master cylinder is dual purpose, both clutch and brake? Where do I go from here? Is there the possibility there is a slave I need to bleed? If so, how does one access it? Thank you in advance for your help. Bob Rowe
Bob Rowe

Bob, is there fluid in the master cylinder? You are correct that the M/C is duel purpose with the hydraulic fluid reservoir being common to both the clutch and brake systems. Chances are good that you do not have brakes either. You will have to find the cause of the lost fluid. In my case it was a leaking rear brake cylinder. Once you have corrected the cause of the lost fluid, you will have to bleed both clutch and brake lines. The clutch slave cylinder is mounted below the engine on the passenger side of the car. Just follow the hydraulic line and you will see it from under the car. Before you get too far into the project, take a good look at Barney Gaylord's web site: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/ (you will have to paste that URL into your browser.) You will also find a lot of good information in the archives of this web site but you have to join (free) to be able to access them. I could have written a lot more, but the information you need you will find between Barney's web page and this site. Keep us posted on your progress. Good luck.
Don Carlberg
D. R. Carlberg

Yes, the MC is dual purpose open it up and see if its dry or very low.

There are a couple of possiblities

1) the clutch piston could be seized.
2) the fluid could have run out.

Are the brakes working as they should? if so I would suggest its the clutch piston. If the brakes are not working then I suspect you have a leak. Fill up the system, bleed and then track down the leak.

You can double check to see if its a hydraulic problem by having someone press the clutch pedal and you lie underneath looking at the actuator arm on the slave cylinder, which is on the transmission.

Good luck.
Tysen

Quite probably the clutch pressure plate is stuck to the flywheel. See www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/clutch/ct_104.htm for how to unstick it.
I got lucky with a much simpler method, leave the ign. key off, select reverse or 2nd gear (whichever way you can go safely) and pull the starter, the torque usually unsticks the plate for me.
mgajoe

Mine went out with a clunk. The po put the clutch plate with the wrong side facing the flywheel. It tore out the springs and bound up the pressure plate.
John
John Cline

No hydraulic pressure can not be caused by a faulty clutch plate unless the failure is so catastrophic that the slave piston has popped out. It may be that if the pressure plate has stuck to the flywheel (very likely too) that the pressure is so low (no backpressure from the pressure plate) that you think there is no pressure, so try freeing the plate as suggested by others.

You need to find the leak if this is not the pressure plate sticking. It could be internal to the master cyliner (seals not holding so that the fluid is not pumped), so you need to check levels and rebleed if necessary. If there are no leaks and you still get no pressure, suspect the MC.

Look in thearchive to get the tricks to easily bleed the clutch system.

On the MC, the systems are separate even though they share the reservoir. This means that if you have brake pressure after bleeding, and no pressure can be achieved in the clutch, then the fault must lie in teh clutch hydraulics.

dominic clancy

This thread was discussed between 29/03/2006 and 30/03/2006

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