Seating the Half Moon clutch cable fitting

[Nitrate]

1981. 2000. I've fooled around with cars quite a while but I can not, for the life of me, figure out how to fit the half moon fitting, on the end of the clutch cable, into the fork on the top of the clutch pedal. If your supposed to remove the pedal assembly I'm willing to do it. The pressed on fitting at the end of the cable, which includes the half moon, does not allow you to just drop the cable between the fork tines, it's too thick. It almost looks like you have to thread the half moon into the fork from where the fork begins but that would require twisting the cable to an almost impossible angle. I know you can vary the angle of the fork with the clutch pedal. I've tried that but no luck, maybe that's where I'm missing the boat. This is turning into a major ordeal. I thought once I got that gorilla spring out my troubles would be over. No dice. Can someone PLEASE explain how to get this half moon in the pedal fork?

[124JOE]

mabey you need to remove it from the tranny and set that end then the tranny end

[Nitrate]

Yes I removed the other end off the transmission. Yes I got the half moon seated, that would be a tough one to explain, you just have to fiddle with it every which way, and apply a good amount of hand strength. The one move that worked for me was to push the cable up where it entered thru the firewall and down by the half moon. Two hands needed. That angled the half moon just enough to push it into the fork, it took quite a bit of thumb force at the end to pop it in. Pedal all the way up.,RB

[narfire]

OK see if this helps




The little plastic thingy can be a pain, bad enough mucking about under the dash but putting that thing on, well......

[Nitrate]

Narfire, Huge help with those photos. Prior to getting the half moon fitted I found those thru a search. It's such a help being able to see what your working with, particularly the configuration of the slot on the fork. Thanks for taking the time. RB

[GeorgeT]

It would be a good idea to apply some grease to the fork where the cable attaches.

[Nitrate]

Yes I used some lithium grease, a bit tough to get it in that location.

[ebrown0104]

I'm currently in the middle of an engine rebuild - along with a more-or-less full brake system rebuild, and getting the new clutch cable connected to the pedal is by far the hardest task I've completed in the whole ordeal. It really is just a terrible job. There's no room, you can't see anything, and the cable has to make an almost impossible bend to clip in.

[Nitrate]

Yeah that could have been a bit better enginered. Just a ball fixed on to the end of the cable would do. Not to mention the gorilla spring, that I an not going to replace, that is also part of the process. All in all not the first thing a new owner should jump into.RB

[wubie317]

I've become rather an expert on putting in these clutch cables...Three in the last year! (I think that's the result of a badly worn clutch, actually...I hope to start on that project this week).

Two of the three times, I have had the exact problem you speak of...impossible to get the half moon to seat properly. The first time, the clutch pedal fork itself had been bent so badly, I had to replace it. NOT a job I'd ever like to do again!!!! The second and third times, I found the solution to be two different things. On #2 cable, I resolved it by carefully grinding the moon down just a little on my bench grinder. After spending 3 hours with no luck, it simply slid into place with no effort at all after the grinding.

On the third cable, I ground it down a bit, but it still didn't go in. On the advice of my wife (who knows absolutely nothing about anything mechanical) I worked a flat head screwdriver into the clutch pedal 'u' to sort of grind down the metal burrs which had been created when the last clutch cable fitting snapped off. Again, it popped in with almost no effort at all.

Bottom line is that the tolerances in that little mechanism are a lot smaller than we think. A little grinding, a lot of grease and making sure everything is smooth as possible is my recommendation.