So I left work last night and got about 4 miles of my 25 mile drive home under my belt. Then at a stop sign, I made a left and shifted to 2nd and then when going for 3rd (leisurely) my foot goes to the floor with a pop! Thought my clutch cable snapped. I shut her down on a beautiful stretch of road with a nice flat shady shoulder, called my insurance for a tow, and pulled out my sling chair and read my emails for a half-hour. The guy showed up with a nice rig and I was looking at my XR2 backed into my garage 20 miles away in another half hour. I had been planning on pulling the engine and trans to get at the head gasket leak and maybe do rings, and replace my clutch since the engagement had risen some on me a few months ago. I had adjusted it to start to grab at about an inch of the floor. My only problem was effort. IDK what was wrong but that clutch had become a killer to push. Maybe some leverage angle had become too steep?
So tonight after work, I tore into it after doing a double check on the earlier compression test I had run. This time I got her hot enough to kick on the cooling fan, pulled the plugs and set the throttle wide open. I started with #4 and got a healthy 148lbs, 3 had 135, 2 was 143, and 1 was 145. A nice even test compared to last time. Happy with the rings, I turned my attention to the cable.
After getting the battery and tray bracket out of the way, I finally got the cable out only to find that it was NOT broken! It is fairly difficult to slide in the shieth, seems gummed up, but not broken. Now I have to put it back together to see what was wrong with it! I can't see the top of the pedal assembly to check the hook for the cable yoke, but I doubt it would have broken off before the cable would snap. I will have to try again tomorrow with my iPhone camera to see if I can get a look at the hook. I doubt that the fork assembly broke in the trans, it is still stiff. The pedal was loose, and all this seems to point to the hook at the top of the pedal.
Any thoughts on this or tips for getting at it?