Manual Gear Change difficult

[PeriRollah]

Afternoon all,

I have been enjoyed bombing around in my manual 4x4 bongo since the txfer and gearbox replacement back in May with new clutch and gear oil. I have had approximately 700 miles of problem free driving

But after a warm day of driving around Cornwall the bongo gearchange was notchy then impossible to put into gear when the engine was running.

- The clutch pedal felt light disconnected 80% of the way down

- Pumping the clutch pedal brought some resistance back in the pedal but it would stop or slow down with 20% left to the upright position (then spring back up or helped up by foot)

Sounded like Master or Slave cylinder perhaps but

The problem went away after an hour or so (after waiting for breakdown recovery) , and so wondered if heat related (with in-town driving on a hot day up and down Cornish hills?). I was able to drive around onto and off the recovery truck fine (albeit only a minute or so of driving).

So could this be bad fluid, soft failed hoses perhaps (introducing air bubbles when warm, not providing enough pressure to operate clutch , or perhaps need a bleed)?

Has anyone encountered this before?

Any ideas / input would be welcomed.

Thanks again

Dek

[g8dhe]

Not a problem I can recall hearing about before, but there aren't that many manual's around of course. Does sound clutch system related however from the description.
Some diagrams for the clutch system are listed here https://www.lushprojects.com/bongoparts ... A05in.html
this one might give you some ideas as well https://www.lushprojects.com/bongoparts ... mgno=.html

Might be worth a search like this one https://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/sea ... mit=Search

[PeriRollah]

Thanks Geoff,

I will take a look at those see if they provide some pointers of where to start looking .

[PeriRollah]

So it does look as if the seal/o-ring in the clutch slave cylinder has failed and allowing fluid to seep past the piston. Enough to reduce pressure applied to the clutch plate and ability for the spring to return the piston to its home position.

The effect of seal failure worsens as the transmission, hydraulic fluid and slave cylinder gets warmer, especially when the bongo is put to work across those Cornish roads!

I am hoping the replacement resolves the issues but I will test at length locally before venturing too far for the next trip!

[g8dhe]

Ah that sounds likely, hope it works for you let us know how it works out so others can find the cure or not in the future!