Mk2 1.8 8v Clutch sticking

[Skid]

Chaps,

Had a strange one today. The clutch pedal stuck at the bottom of it's travel and momenterily would not return.

Now the roads locally are terrible with a lot of building work and new roads being built and the car is coated on the outside as well as the engine bay in thick muddy grime.

I'm wondering if this is causing the mechanism to stick, or whether there is a problem with the cable operated system.

The cable appears to be working through its normal length of travel.

Now what I haven't mentioned so far is that the clutch, box and engine have all done 180k hard miles without change so sooner or later I'm expecting failure, especially with the clutch, but clutch slipping is expected, not a sticking pedal.

So what do you guys think? Is there now component failure somewhere in the linkeage mechanism or the clutch itself? Or is it a need for a good jet wash of the engine bay?

Oh by the way the secret of making the 8v clutch last so long is lots of high rev gear changes but all wth heal and toe down and slight double declutching going up. Makes you nice and fast too

[Jay]

Change cable or squirt wd40/oil down the tubing of the cable to free up any muck, so make sure the wd40/oil runs straight through.

[Skid]

Can it really be that simple a fix?

[rubjonny]

takes a lot to make a mk2 clutch lever stick, the springs in the clutch are very strong!  I'd say either the splines on the release finger are gone, the finger is cracked or your clutch release plate has or will die in a big way soon
http://www.brokevw.com/TO.html

is it back to normal now?

[Skid]

takes a lot to make a mk2 clutch lever stick, the springs in the clutch are very strong!  I'd say either the splines on the release finger are gone, the finger is cracked or your clutch release plate has or will die in a big way soon
http://www.brokevw.com/TO.html

is it back to normal now?

Yep it's back to normal within seconds. It happened momenterily yesterday and for a moment I thought I'd wedged my foot in the floor mat when I lost feel, but today it was noticably a sticking pedal with it wedged fully at the bottm.

Hmmmm. will be jet washing the gear box and external mechanisms and then liberally applying with WD40 as soon s I can but bit worried it's going to go. My ambition is to get the whole engine clutch box package to 200k with out being opened.

so close.... so far

[rubjonny]

hmm, if its back to normal it does point more to a sticky linkage somewhere, 1st thing I'd do is put on a new clutch cable and have a good look at the pedal area for owt strange.  If its got an auto cable the mech could be about to pack in or the clutch is so bad its at the limits of its adjustment