[FrencheGTV]

Ok i've got good news and bad news. Yesterday my dad and I bled the clutch to see if we could get any improvement as when I tried to start it (in gear, handbrake off, foot on clutch) the car lurched backwards a few times before starting but running very roughly, I guess that the clutch is now never fully diss-engaging (verified this by starting in neutral, depress the clutch then slowly try to put it in any gear, would not go in, could just hear it shredding what's left of the synchros). We gave up on bleeding it when we couldn't get any improvement in the pedal. Also I noticed when I was under there that the clutch fork wasn't moving very far, maybe 1cm at the most as measured by the Mk.1 eyeball where the s/c rod hits it, this struck me as a rather small amount. So that led me to believe broken pivot ball as the master cyl was replaced a few years ago (also when bleeding fluid came out so I gather it is pumping fluid) and since the slave was pushing against the rod I assumed it worked.

Got up nice and early this morning ready to remove the transaxle to fix the problem however before I started I thought it would be a good idea to remove the slave cyl and clutch fork to verify that the ball is actually broken. Well after getting myself covered in brake fluid as the slave cyl blew itself apart 30sec after being removed from car (insert favorite swear word here lol) I removed the clutch fork and guess what?? pivot ball still in place and still covered in grease (verified by checking spare transaxle, it looks exactly the same).

So now I guess the either the master or slave is shot, unless i've done something seriously wrong to the clutch, which I doubt as it was running and driving for several days even with this problem. The slave looked nice and shiny inside, no dirt or rust but I only had a quick glance, might be time for a better coat of looking at. I have the master cyl that was removed, was told it was good and was replaced when clutch was replaced as a pre-caution, I might try putting that on and getting a new slave cyl.