No Clutch !

This is long - but stick with it - made me think a bit.

I'm sure the 4wd gods drive Toyota's and are out to get us. They have tried several times in the last year but the Patrol keeps rolling and the issue almost invaribly turns out to be some sort of man made problem and not the cars fault, but I'm still trying to understand this one, maybe you can help ?

Briefly in the last few weeks we have bounced the car mercilessly over the Canning corrugations, run suspension torture tests thru local desserts and it has survived, so we took it on a typically Victorian winter mud slide recently which should have been easy on the mechanicals if less so on the body panels, then half an hour later while still on a slight downhill 4wd track I pushed
the clutch engaging 1st gear and the pedal went straight to the floor and didn't come back up.

Haven't experienced that since the regular clutch cable failures on a VW I had 40 years ago.

Before the failure I was coming down a moderate slippery slope, and I had to turn right to drop steeply into the bottom of a gully on Stillmans track.

Its a bad turn in these conditions, the sort where you just inch forward 3 or 4 inches and let the car stop and go again in an effort to not build momentum - there comes a point though where the car will just slide from the back end first thru the ooze, and you just have to turn into the slide.
I was only 20 meters from valley floor this time when the slipping began and turning into it directed the car to close to the edge where there were logs and branches the car had to negotiate.
You could feel the thumping underneath, but then a few seconds later its all over, your in the valley floor and need to accelerate fast to get the momentum to get up and out the otherside.

So first reactions !
Car is moving, clutch is on the floor but engaged, so I gently press the brakes to stall the car.

Its a whole 7 degrees and drizzling but I get out and look underneath - its clear, no caught up branches or anything.

What could have happened ?
Pop the bonnet, have I run out of clutch fluid ?
No ! there is no fluid on the ground either, so a hose can't have split.

Thoughts race thru your mind - I had the clutch replaced at 1/4 million clicks a few weeks ago and am a believer in the theory that whoever touched it last stuffed it up.

Ok, so I'm on the muddy but mild track by myself, its effectivily a dead end track but optimism shines, I got a phone signal, a full hot thermos, food in the car from last trip, I'm not going to die unless my wife finds out I got mud all over the mattress which is still setup inside the car.
This forrest is only 15km from Alexandra town, maybe for the first time ever I can get some value from that RACV top cover I took out before the Canning !
No thats not going to work - it would take a good 4wd rescue vehicle just to even get in here.

I have to get myself to somewhere where I can check things out more thoroughly, and that a tow truck has a chance to get to.

With the car still locked in first gear, I hit the starter and the car lurches forward and starts, I'm rolling at 5kmh, Yippee !
But you can't stop and I have to turn around to get out, and this track is narrow.

I note that I am sweating but have no choices but to take a leap of faith and stall the car and attempt a 3 point turn across this track, this will require multiple ingear starts and stalls on battery power on a slope!
Its a bit awkward, but with some tree touches I manage to complete the turn and begin a slow drive out to a flatter secondary dirt road and cleared area.

Get under the car and look around - something is strange, the clutch is operated by a lever that pokes out from the gearbox and is connected to a slave cylinder by a short pushrod.
It doesn't look right, the pushrod end should sit in a depression in the clutch lever, but its not , the pushrod appears to have popped out and is jammed alongside the lever.

Sorry about poor quality - but 1st picture is with the pushrod back in place and almost re-assembled.

2nd picture shows the slipped out pushrod to the left of the U shaped clutch lever.


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Nothing actually looks broken though.

Just maybe if I could pull off the slave cylinder and put the rod back in place I could limp home.
A 14mm spanner should just get in there - but the bolts are seriously tight and the spanner slips off.

Lying in mud, poor light and cold, I think - this is bad, I just want to get out of here !
I realize though that this situation could make or break my efforts, it would be very easy to round this bolt and it will be all over.

Rarely actually do this, but reinforced by Bob Coopers survival course message
at recent Exploroz Wiluna lecture I stop, sit down and take the time to have a warming cup of coffee.
I need to get this seemingly straight forward matter right.
Then take almost 1/2 hour in this awkward situation to slowly clean the bolt head and fully seat the spanner, tapping it home with a hammer.
With gloves on, braced against the fuel tank and pulling on the short spanner as accurately as I can I applied every bit of force I could, the nut cracked, instant relief, but my hand flew backwards ramming deep into a bit of sharp stick and blood flowed generously.

The slave cylinder came off but dirt blood and oil was all around and I had to get out and clean up.
For some reason the bandage wouldn't stick so I put several tissues over the hand wound and held them on with 2 rubber bands.

Back under the car, I try and push the pushrod back into the cylinder, but it won't go !
I place a G-Clamp over it in an attempt to force it back in !
Idiot, this is a high pressure cylinder with no leaks, nothing is going to move it, you have to release the hydraulic pressure first.
I should have known this but you couldn't see the hydraulic line and my brain just didn't connect up the dots.

Time for more coffee.

A bit later, the nut was cracked, and the pushrod and its piston glided so smoothly back in.

10 minutes later everything is re-assembled and we are ready to give it a go, after I used an eye dropper to transfer some brake fluid to the now low clutch reservoir.

It takes a while and some pumping but slowly the clutch pedal shows resistance as air bubbles or whatever work there way out and another minute later the clutch pedal feels almost normal and we are out of here.

Its about 10 days later now but following an adjustment and clutch fluid bleed everything seems normal, no parts have been replaced and clutch feels better than ever.

Its hard to believe a complete failure has been recovered from with no apparent issues.
But I won't be happy until I have some logical reason as to how this
could of happened and what preventative actions may be taken.

My theory is that clutch may always have been adjusted to high and that fluid pressure just popped it over the edge one day maybe under the influence of being hit by a branch or servre car body shaking.

It has also been explained to me that a couple of mechanisms exist whereby the clutch is operated, the pushrod moves forward, a blockage or something prevents it from fully retracting and when operated a second time the pushrod simply moves out beyond its travel limit and pops out.

I guess the pushrod rod could have fallen out and been lost, but it just jammed, so maybe I am wrong and the 4wd gods drive Nissans after all.