[g259fsg]

The clutch cable on my 1990 214 GSi has disintegrated at the gearbox end and the cable has pulled through the abutment on the gearbox. I noticed the clutch felt a bit odd with the bite point moving closer to the floor and then increasing difficulty changing gear. Nearly got stranded stuck in 2nd gear, but did a work around by holding the clutch cable outer with a mole-grip against the abutment.

It's easy to get the faulty cable off as it's loose, but how do you remove a working cable? It's self-adjusting on the 1.4 K series. I'm a bit confused as the Haynes manual and the Rover WSM both talk about removing a C-clip on the cable, presumably to release the self-adjusting ratchet. The old one on my car and the new part from Rimmers (UUC101240) do not have the C-clip, it's just a smooth metal ferrule that has been pressed on to the cable outer next to the cable spring. Looks like a simple job to replace the old cable, but how do you release the self-adjuster if needed?

Hope someone can help me work out what to do.

Thanks,

Hugh

[crepello]

It's a bit of a mystery to me how the self adjuster works, given the relative strengths of the spring in the cable and the clutch.
However. Connecting/disconnecting the cable at the gearbox end is not too hard, it's a matter of pulling sufficient of the inner cable forward against the self-adjust spring in order to permit the inner cable to slip through the slot in the clutch release lever.

[g259fsg]

Thanks, Crepello. I'll take another look at the old cable tomorrow. Maybe the earlier cables had the C-clip as a stop for the spring, and removing it released the compression in the spring allowing to slide over the ferrule and down the cable. I notice on the cables I have that the spring is firmly pushing against the ferrule and would not be able to slide over it. Presumably compressing the spring and removing the force on the ferrule would have the same effect.

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Which 214 are we talking about? the Peugeot box on the R8 has a spring on the end so doesn't have any free play.

[g259fsg]

It's a 1990 214 GSi, early SPi model. I fitted the new cable today without any difficulty, apart from wriggling around in the footwell trying to reach up to the hook on the clutch pedal, which is a challenge for an old geezer. The advice from crepello was correct and I was able to pull through enough inner cable against the spring on the cable outer to connect it on to the gearbox. The main observation is that the outer needs to be free to move, so don't fix it to any restraints until it's all connected up I'll have a go at dismantling the old cable to see how the top the self-adjustment feature works. Anyway, the main thing is that the car is back to normal. I think the cable had been deteriorating for a while as the gear changes now feel smoother.