Clutch Spring

[aj81spider]

My clutch pedal does not return when I press it down (by hand, the car's not running right now - I'm putting it back together slowly). Although the clutch spring was not taken off and the pedal used to work when I started the restoration, I'm having trouble figuring out how it should work. I did a search and found some diagrams and pictures that show the spring installed, and mine is installed that way - with the hook going over the top of the pedal mount.

However when I look at it, it seems like when you depress the pedal the connection point for the hook moves up. This would seem to actually move the hook to shorten the spring - so not returning would be the natural consequence. Since it used to work and since the pictures I've found on the forum show it connected that way my analysis must be wrong.

Can anyone explain how that spring is supposed to work and why it would return the pedal? This will hopefully help me figure out why it's not returning.

I do have the spring underneath the car connected to the clutch bar coming out of the transmission.

[vandor]

The clutch spring *at the transmission* helps to return the pedal.

The large one by the pedal is a helper spring, once you push the pedal down 1-2 inches it starts to pull the pedal down to decrease pedal effort. Pretty neat!

[aj81spider]

That could explain things. I haven't adjusted the cable yet, so I suspect the spring underneath isn't creating any return force to speak of. I'll try that this weekend.

Thanks Csaba!

[aj81spider]

I adjusted the clutch today, tightening the nut on the cable until there was only an inch of play and that solved the return problem.

Thanks Csaba for the insight!

One step closer to a running car.