I remember a high school buddy who taught himself to speed shift (shifting without a clutch) in a then-late-model Triumph TR7 (a thoroughly rotten car, built during an era when TR meant TRouble). After a little while he got the hang of it. In a strange and coincidental turn of events, the transmission needed replacement a few weeks later.

Moral: If someone wants to teach you how to speed shift, use THEIR car.

I forgot to tell you one thing that you mentioned. Do not rev up the enging and try jammimg the transmission in gear. Not only will it not go into gear but you may damage the gears. You have to stop the engine put trans in low gear and turn key or pullstarter handle until the enging starts and you start to move. When you want to stop you push the shift lever to neutral before the car comes to a stop. You also have to warm up the engine before you can do this. ~~~~~~~~PEH~~~~~~~

Hi

when I drove off this morning i shifted from 1st to 2nd and the clutch petal stayed to the floor,,I made it home like that and started to investigate the problem ..the 1st thing I did was pull the petal back up now it won't go back down..You can push on it with 2 feet and it won't budge..so before i get into this problem where should i start 1st?...I would appreciate any help I can get
This is a 1982 240d By the way..

thanks for your time

Coy,

U have to remove the master clutch cylinder and rebuild or replace it. It is located under the steering column.

P E H

If your clutch system is similiar to mine, you have 1. Clutch slave cllinder (lives next to gearbox) and role in life is to disengage clutch throw out bearing. 2. Under the steering coloum above the clutch pedal is a small vertical master cylinder which is connected via steel tubing to your brake fluid resovoiir lives on top of Brake master cylinder for brakes -triangular plastic container) seperated into two compartments, small front area - clutch, rear brakes. When you depress your clutch - brake fluid from the master cyclider resovoir in your engine bay is forced down to the slave cyclinder off the side of your gearbox, extends push rod in slave cylinder and disengages clutch via throw out bearing. There is a bleed nipple on the side of the slave cylinder, it should have a small rubber cap on it. If not remove any crud in the nipple, connect a clear plastic line from your nearest front brake bleed nipple of a brake caliper, to the nipple on your slave cylinder, crack the brake nipple first, then the slave nipple and have someone depress the brake pedal, this forces brake fluid through the slave and back out the top of the master cylinder. Reverse bleed your clutch first before considering replacement, watch the tubing does not blow off and see how much crud comes out the top of the master cylinder. Lock both nipples closed and Retest your clutch operation after bleeding, it may just fix it. If it does, bleed your brakes until the system has clean fluid. You can't bleed Merc clutches in the conventional way, they don;t gravity bleed, they like all the goo and crud back flushed. Hope that helps.

280SL Euro

I think that's a bit of a design deficiency the way Mercedes had the clutch pedal/clutch master setup, I think there's too much force on the master cylinder piston. Mine actually broke and had to be replaced, but that wasn't too hard or expensive.

__________________
5 speed '91 190E 2.6 320,000 mi. (new car, fast, smooth as silk six, couldn't find any more Peugeots)
5 speed '85 Peugeot 505 2.5l Turbo Diesel 266,000 mi. (old car, fast for a diesel, had 2 others)
5 speed '01 Jetta V6 (new wifes car, pretty quick)
5 speed '85 Peugeot 505 2.2l Turbo Gas 197,000 mi. (wifes car, faster, sadly gone just short of 200k )
5 speed '83 Yamaha 750 Maxim 14,000 mi. (fastest)
0 speed 4' x 8' 1800 lb Harbor Freight utility trailer (only as fast as what's pulling it)

I didn't have anything better to do while waiting for some good advice . I went out and took the panel off to look under the dash and looked it over under There..I saw a steel line at the bottom of this cyclinder so I decided to crack it open after i did that the clutch petal went down again and came back up by the spring .however when I snugged the line back up it was still the same .Now that I think about it I remember it felt like something snapped while pushing the clutch petal down..If something broke which would it likely be ? The clutch itself or brake master cyclinder , the one under the dash or by the gear box?..the brakes work fine I can still drive the car just can't use the clutch is all..
thanks