fiestaturbo.com

[JoeyBoyden]

Pedal doesn't feel heavy, but the cable has snapped twice now on the nipple at the box end and it's doing my head in....What could be causing this? The AA bloke reckons the ratchet has seized and is causing it to snap as it wont adjust properly and is causing the cable too much stress. Don't know how the long the first cable was on, but had a new one put on after it snapped and has only lasted 4 weeks and gone again....Any ideas what to do? Spent so much money on this car already and don't want to have to put a new clutch kit in, clutch grabs fine and doesn't slip at all, pedal doesn't feel heavy or sticky at all either but I'm lost....

[Tweek]

This used to be a very common fault with all mk3.5 Fiestas back in the day. One solution is to grease up the gearbox end of the cable with copperslip which seems to prevent it.

[JoeyBoyden]

This used to be a very common fault with all mk3.5 Fiestas back in the day. One solution is to grease up the gearbox end of the cable with copperslip which seems to prevent it.

Yeah a lot of people seem to be saying that on the forums, so not actually a clutch fault then as pedal doesn't feel stiff or clutch slip? Going to do clutch ratchet tomorrow and new cable and carry a spare I think haha, also where should I be greasing? The nipple or the whole cable? Cheers

[Mav Singh]

same used to happen to me, but on the cable I got now the nipple end is hevily greased up and not had any issues yet. iv used both copper slip and cv grease combo.
when my last cable snapped it was at the nipple end on the gearbox ratchet. and the nipple was seized in. It took ages with pliers to remove it.

[snake]

I do remember this back in the day and I don't remember ever greasing the nipple end, I do remember something about the rachets causing the cable to snap though, so I go with the aa man with the rachet fault

[JoeyBoyden]

Cheers yeah, turned out the ratchet had failed so having the ratchet sorted and new cable put on, will also try grease aswell, just hope it doesn't keep doing it haha, two previous owners said they had no issues with the cable in the past so it's probably just worn out as it's ticked over to 81k now...the nipple was stiff to get out the linkage so I'm not surprised lack of lubrication could have contributed to failure again, that coupled with a non genuine cable. Clutch felt light as normal so can't imagine it being a fault with the clutch assembly, will update tomorrow see if it's okay but I think I'll be carrying a spare from now on haha

[Mav Singh]

how hard is it to change the ratchet out? and where get the correct ratchet from that doesnt chew up the clutch cables?

[fezzRS]

Haha i know this problem too well its tge nipple mate at tge gearbox end it chaffera at the end of tge gearbox in the lug you have to grease em mate so they move freely trust me it will cure your problem i coukd of change clutch cable in five mins for ya lol

[JoeyBoyden]

how hard is it to change the ratchet out? and where get the correct ratchet from that doesnt chew up the clutch cables?

Imagine painting a house through a letterbox and you've pretty much got how difficult and awkward it is to do...Had a go but gave up on it last night, got my other Fiesta insured for time being so will have another go when I've cooled down a bit aha

[JoeyBoyden]

Haha i know this problem too well its tge nipple mate at tge gearbox end it chaffera at the end of tge gearbox in the lug you have to grease em mate so they move freely trust me it will cure your problem i coukd of change clutch cable in five mins for ya lol

It's good to see I'm not the only one who's suffered with this and greasing is a solution...Will try that when I've got pedal box assembly all back together, the first cable that snapped on me was welded into the linakge and the most recent one that went was also stiff to get out so doesn't surprise me that it was a factor