Frozen clutch?

[Maximilian55]

Yesterday I drove my 85 4Runner around no problem. This morning I went to start it up, the transmission was in 5th gear, push in the clutch, and she wouldn't turn over and she would lunge forward as I was trying to start it up. It was like the clutch pedal wasn't even pushed in. So I pull it out of 5th gear and into neautral, and she starts up like a champ. However then when I would push the clutch in and could not shift into any of the gears, again it felt like the clutch wasn't even there.

Normally my clutch pedal is pretty stiff, but I noticed it was extremely soft and would just go straight to the floor with minimal pressure. I'm wondering if this could be something caused by cold weather, we recently had a large snow storm and at night the temp would drop into the low teens.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wallytoo]

Yesterday I drove my 85 4Runner around no problem. This morning I went to start it up, the transmission was in 5th gear, push in the clutch, and she wouldn't turn over and she would lunge forward as I was trying to start it up. It was like the clutch pedal wasn't even pushed in. So I pull it out of 5th gear and into neautral, and she starts up like a champ. However then when I would push the clutch in and could not shift into any of the gears, again it felt like the clutch wasn't even there.

Normally my clutch pedal is pretty stiff, but I noticed it was extremely soft and would just go straight to the floor with minimal pressure. I'm wondering if this could be something caused by cold weather, we recently had a large snow storm and at night the temp would drop into the low teens.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

unlikely to be related to outside temperature. it was 1* here this morning, but the clutch in my '87 4r worked correctly, as it has in the past in temperatures of -20*.

 

[Maximilian55]

unlikely to be related to outside temperature. it was 1* here this morning, but the clutch in my '87 4r worked correctly, as it has in the past in temperatures of -20*.

Yea I was just hoping it would be a freak easy fix. I'm guessing it's the slave, I just don't want to spend every night this week laying in the snow working on the truck

 

[junkyardbiker]

Hey so I literally had the same thing happen to me last week, except it was in traffic. Turned out to be a broken clutch fork. Cheap fix but pretty labor intensive since you have to pull the trans to replace it. Go underneath and pull the rubbber boot back around it and look inside. You can see the fork and throwout bearing and all the clutch components if you get your head shoved up by the framerail. Check to see if the fork has come off the pivot ball. Theres a spring clip that is supposed to hold it on there.

 

[Immrtl86]

Yea I was just hoping it would be a freak easy fix. I'm guessing it's the slave, I just don't want to spend every night this week laying in the snow working on the truck

Yep, it's likely the slave, or maybe the master, but the problem is very likely in the hydraulic circuit.

Hydraulic fluid adborbs moisture out of the air and generates sludge which raises havoc with the seals. Check the fluid for level and color first. Like me, most people never change hydraulic fluid, brakes or clutch. If the fluid is dark, it needs changing. You can try topping off the fluid and bleeding the clutch to see if you can get any action, or, if you can see evidence of fluid leaking, you can just skip the diagnostics and go straight to replacing the component. If it's the master, you should see fluid leaking to the driver side floor. If it's the slave, there will probably be fluid leakage on or around the slave.

The good news, it probably won't take every night this week. I've had my 86 for 29 years, and I've replaced both master and slave at least once. I changed a slave in about two hours this past summer, and that included the trip to the parts store to buy the replacement. Irony was that it was in a Chevy dealers lot (you can't pick where clutch failures happen) . Be careful threading the slave flare fitting...the tube is stiff and and it is easy to get it cross-threaded.

 

[Immrtl86]

Yea I was just hoping it would be a freak easy fix. I'm guessing it's the slave, I just don't want to spend every night this week laying in the snow working on the truck

Yep, it's likely the slave, or maybe the master, but the problem is very likely in the hydraulic circuit.

Hydraulic fluid adborbs moisture out of the air and generates sludge which raises havoc with the seals. Check the fluid for level and color first. Like me, most people never change hydraulic fluid, brakes or clutch. If the fluid is dark, it needs changing. You can try topping off the fluid and bleeding the clutch to see if you can get any action, or, if you can see evidence of fluid leaking, you can just skip the diagnostics and go straight to replacing the component. If it's the master, you should see fluid leaking to the driver side floor. If it's the slave, there will probably be fluid leakage on or around the slave.

The good news, it probably won't take every night this week. I've had my 86 for 29 years, and I've replaced both master and slave at least once. I changed a slave in about two hours this past summer, and that included the trip to the parts store to buy the replacement. Irony was that it was in a Chevy dealers lot (you can't pick where clutch failures happen) . Be careful threading the slave flare fitting...the tube is stiff and and it is easy to get it cross-threaded.