Xantia clutch clip

Heard that dreaded twang, and the clutch pedal is now looking at you manacingly from the floor? You are in for some fun then.... This job is v awkward, but not difficult per-se. You can expect to spend at least a couple of hours on it, and to be scarred afterwards. Here's how to do it:

1. Remove the felt above the pedals and lower plastic trim piece from the dash.
2. Lever out the black pastic plastic cannister from the back of the brake pedal.
3. Arm yourself with a pair of 13mm spanners (one of the preferably a straight head ratcheting type) and climb into the foot well on your back - head right under the pedals You will now be able to reach up and undo the clutch pedal pivot bolt. Just. To add to the fun it's a nylock nut, so has to be spannered off all the way (hence the ratcheting spanner!).
4. Now try and wiggle the bolt out past the brake pedal - the end is chamfered so Malcom's method of twisting the pedal may be enough to get the clearance - alternatively, so you could gently lever the pedal box on the LHS so allow the bolt to twist a bit. Slim has had success with removing the bolt by lifting the brake pedal. If all these fail then you will need to cut the head off the bolt (as I did) - awkward but possible with a hacksaw blade in a pad saw handle (get one of the bi-metal flexible blades!).
5. Remove the bolt, then remove the pedal from the car noting how the spring is attached - whether it pushes down or lifts the pedal will depend on if it's a manual or auto adjust clutch.
6. Fit the new clip to the pedal, being careful to fit it so that the metal clip doesn't foul the pedal when pressed down - this can break the new clip. 7. Relase the clutch cable under the bonnet and push it right in, and secure it somehow (my mate helped here!). Offer up the pedal and guide the cable into the clip, then push down hard so the cable engages with the clip.
8. Now refit the pedal with the (new, if you had to saw it off!) bolt in the other way around. The hardest part of this is getting the spring back on - especially for manual adjust clutches!
9. Adjust the clutch (if manual), and refit the trim - don't forget the brake cannister or you won't have any brakes

Took me 3 hours when I did it, but with the ratchet spanners, and if sawing the bolt off could be avoided, it's certainly do-able in 90 mins or so first time.

Note if you fit a new cable, make sure you check it will engage in the clip BEFORE fitting it to the car. Some people have reported aftermarket cables have too big a nipple on them that won't engage with the clip - file a few mm off the end of the cable to make it go in.

Just a few additional notes - I relied on this post to get my broken clutch cable changed, so here are some things I learned on the way.

I removed the driver’s seat and laid some old sponge on the floor – a much nicer place to be. Take heed of the Haynes notes about disconnecting the battery and then waiting 10 mins before disconnecting the pre-tensioner plug under the seat. Didn't remove belt from seat, just laid the seat on the rear seat, still connected. Didn't remove plastic under steering column, only the bit of carpet.

I struggled with 2 spanners to remove the pedal pivot bolt, but then realized there’s room for a 4-inch extension and a 13 mm socket and ratchet drive from my 3/8 drive set. You can use this proper ratchet from the passenger side of the pedal box.

To poke the nipple into the plastic connecter I used a piece of bent wire (the indispensable clothes hanger from the dry-cleaners’) to act as a support for the plastic clip whilst threading the cable. Make a shape like a lower-case ‘y’ with a long tail.

Then fit the pedal pivot, then fit the spring clip to retain the nipple. This spring retainer can be inserted using snipe-nosed pliers, but you need to get it to the right ‘angle of attack’. I used a blob of solder on the horizontal bridge piece of the spring clip, so that when held in the pliers the clip assumed the required angle - pliers pointing up and back, clip pointing up and forwards.

I hope this helps. I can almost envisage doing the job for fun now – almost.

You won't believe this, but I checked my email an hour ago and saw that I had been notifed of a reply to this topic. Didn't read it until about two minutes ago.

That was because I just had a 'phone call from Mrs. Napoleon to tell me that the clutch pedal was 'on the floor'.! I have yet to see the car, as it's 30 minutes walk away, but this sounds nasty.

Here we go, boys and girls. I just got back from the poor Xantia.

Here's what I found on the floor:

Is this the dreaded 'clutch clip'?

Thanks again lads for the help Ive got the seat out and the nut off the bolt so Ill be up at sparrows wind tomorrow to get it done, so I will let you all know how I got on, again thank you all,

Hey guys nice work - again!

To note: I suddenly started hearing a loud click when I fully depressed the clutch leaver at the bottom of its stroke around two days before it broke.

Having started to remove the clutch cable I was having issues removing it from the bulk head, logged in here, read a few posts, stopped what I was doing and removed clutch pedal - bam broken clip.

Nothing wrong with cable. Pleased I didn't order a new one before diagnosis.

I didn't need to cut the pivot bolt - just needed to forcefully twist both clutch and brake pedals away from each other - in-a-kinda twisty forcey motion :/

(out of interest how do you remove the clutch cable from the bulk head? From engine compartment or inside the car behind the clutch pedal?)

Anywho... cheers for the posts 8) !!!

!!! £10.27 + VAT for a friggin tiny bit of metal >:$.. I'll give them %$*#! - "not got one.. could get it here in a couple of days"...ngggrrhhgg!.. sodding deliver it to me on a velvet pillow for that *&$@! price >:(..

Just had to do this job myself and used the tips on here to do it, it is very doable once you get over the fact that you are working on your back in the dark with no room at all - heres a few additional tips for anyone doing this job for the first time...

1) STUFF NEEDED - It can be done... have faith you will need a little patience, you will definitely need the following...
1.1) ratchet spanners would be preferable, but i used a normal spanner and a ratcheted socket with small extender bar do almost as well 'seedy' posted on here.
1.2) a very GOOD light source, preferably mains operated inspection lamp, or you will be working in the dark and its virtually impossible to do without alway on light.
1.3) You are definitely going to have to move the clutch cable in and out, so get the air filter housing out straight away (needs removing 1 jubilee clip i all) the other end of the clutch cable lies under that and can be pulled free from its mounting to allow you to push and pull it manually from under the bonnet, best to have a friend there doing the pushing and pulling whilst you align the clip in the footwell.
1.4) Get all the housing off from round the footwell carpet and plastic, its only about 7 bolts and plugs, you will need the room.
1.5) i removed the drivers seat but actually found myself out the drivers door more than lying in the car so this may be unnecessary.

2) HOW TO GET THE SPRING MOUNTED ON THE TOP OF THE CLIP - I looked at every posting on this topic, and in ALL of them the person mounted the spring onto the underside of the clip, when put on in this way the spring hits the clutch pedal on full depress, and my pedal had wear where this had been changed before and mounted incorrectly, the spring and clip has been meeting for a long time and i am sure contributed to the clips early demise, the spring needs to be fitted to the topside of the clip, BUT this is hard because that puts the clip up even higher into the footwell.

I tried a few ways to engage the spring to the clip, i made things out of coat hangers and string and allsorts, there is an easy way to do this and once i tried this it took 4 attempts to engage it as follows...

3) PEDAL MOUNTED OR UNMOUNTED - I did mine with the clutch pedal free that is to say loose and not mounted, as for my technique with the spring (see below) i had to pull the pedal in and out a few times to get it right, although it may actually be easier to mount the clutch pedal with all its stuff back first (if you are happy to risk putting the spring on the underside on the clip) and then engage the cable in the clip and this brings the clip into perfect connection with where the cable is - someone try and feedback.

4) POSITION THE SPRING FIRST - it is difficult to push the spring onto even the underside of the clip let alone the topside, and i wasted a lot of time making mounting tools and poking sticks as per other posts lol, the easy way is to get the pedal out and half push the spring onto the top of the clip, so that the jaws have not quite engaged but with a little push to the top of the spring they will. Then gently put the pedal up into position being careful not to knock the spring off or into fully engaged. Then get your cable lined up and into the clip (mine wouldnt go in all the way and i had to get a long thin screwdriver to push it hard up fully into the clip), as i held the cable in there tight i pushed the pedal and the spring clip onto the bulkhead of the car and it clipped down and engaged - job done, then just mount the pedal, was like 2 mins and i wondered why i hadnt tried this first!!!! arrrrrrr!!!!

AlTERNATIVELY - i reckon you might be able to even fully mount the spring on the top of the clip (that is fully engaged) and then just use my screwdriver technique to push the arrowhead of the cable very hard with the screwdriver into the clip, the spring should give to let the cable engage before clicking back into place to stop it pulling out - i thought about this way afterwards - someone please try and feedback.

NOTE: always check the cable is secured before mounting the clutch pedal, and pull it hard, mine had a habit of pretending it was engaged and then popping out.

5) WHAT THE HELL DO I DO WITH THAT SPRING ON THE PEDAL - mount the spring in the correct way (diagram at the bottom of this post) then mount the pedal, then use a screwdriver to force the spring round into the engaged position (which is in opposition to the clutch).

below is pic of the pedal (btw that plastic low friction collar - goes over between the pedal and the spring with collar facing out, to provide a buffer for the spring)


Hope this helps a little, most of this stuff will sound like gobbledegook until you start pulling the car to pieces, then it will hopefully make sense - i reckon this job is doable once you know what your doing in around 60 mins, for a novice triple that time.

heres is the definitive pics of the assembly (note the mounting spring (item 5) fits to the topside of the clip (item 2))
this was my series 1 i reference to in here

not sure what these are but there are other variations...




have fun

mac

diagrams from above arnt clickable so trying again
http://s1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee4 ... tchped.jpg
not sure what these are but there are other variations...
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee4 ... tchped.jpg
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9 ... y9FPdCgbvi
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm23 ... 142250.jpg