Ok well this morning being mothers day I treated the mum to a cruise up the coast and coffee at a local coffee shop. 26 degrees C, not a cloud in the blue sky, awesome weather for a morning cruise.

So my baby decides to start playing up. (That's my car, not my mum, you sickos). Idles great in neutral, stalls when in gear with the clutch depressed. Searched on here and found this can be caused by a failed clutch switch. Go to check it out and sure enough, when the clutch is depressed the rod only springs out about half way.

I bring the switch inside and test it with a multimeter - it is stuck open circuit, as if the clutch pedal was always up. IF I pull the rod out, I can get the contacts to close, so it's half working. Just the rod isn't being pushed out far enough to close the contacts, looks like the spring might be dead.

Pull the thing apart and sure enough, one very dead spring. Rather than go to the hardware store to search for a similar spring, I decided to take apart a pen to see what sort of spring I could find, as I figured they would be similar size. The first pen I found had a spring that fit and works great!

For those that might ask about the spring size - the diameter of the spring is smaller but it seems to fit perfectly, and the length/stiffness appear to suit the purpose well. Hell, it works. I didn't even pay for the pen I stole it off my brother who got it from his last job......sure beats paying for a new one. As for the durability of the spring - who knows, but it will be damn easy to replace if it breaks again.

Huge props to this damn fine website - I spent a total of 30 minutes pulling, testing, and fixing this clutch switch. And a good part of that would have been trying to take decent photos that weren't blurry.

 

Nice, I am having issues with my car shifting, I think the clutch travel isnt adjusted properly, its hard to shift fast...

 

Nicely done! This also causes the cruise control to not disengage when the clutch is depressed. I've done this to several cars including my own. The pen spring is also easier to find a replacement for when needed!
Art

 

Thanks Jeff. Your post just made those hot jesey days alot easier for me. My car USED to stall with the clutch all the way in, but with your help and a BIC pen I no longer have that problem. Now i just have to hook up the a/c back to my PFC so i can adjust the load for when the A/C is on and i am good to go. Thanks to You.

 

No sweat mate

 

Squeek sound when you push the clutch in??

my car does idle a bit high when its cold, and sometimes it will hunt when at idle...

 

I'm having the same stalling issue when the car is in gear and the clutch is depressed. I'm going to try this fix. Thank you

 

I was bored and Ray wasn't in today so I tried the fix and sure enough, it worked like a charm. I just saved myself $12.00 plus shipping.

Notice where I got the spring from

 

that's probably what Ray sells you for $12. he just pulls a spring from one of his pens.

that's a riot.