Hello Everyone,

New to the forum but have had my 05 Ion 2 for 6-7 years now. I'm running into a bit of an issue while bleeding my clutch. I was bleeding the brakes and clutch and while I don't have an issue with the brakes my clutch petal needs a bit of work.

Currently about 1/2 down is when I feel pressure and have to get the petal to the floor before I can cleanly shift the car. Now the car shifts and drives fine like this but I'd like to have more feel in the petal.

I've been researching and I see the following things to try:
* push clutch to the floor, open the slave bleeder, close, pump clutch do it again
* get a mity vac (which I don't have, only a hand vacuum pump.
* Use a mity vac or homemade vacuum and put pressure on the master cylinder
* try tapping the clutch petal with the master cylinder cap off (suppose to release the air in the clutch and come through the master cylinder)

So what I've tried so far.
* tapping the clutch petal - did this for 30 minutes or so, didn't seem to make a difference
* hooked up my hand pump to the slave bleeder and bleed fluid from there but again it's not impacting the petal.

My next step was to try and buy a master cylinder cap, drill a hole in the middle and put a connection piece in the cap so I can attach a hose that will also attach to my hand pump. Make sure I get a good seal on the master cylinder and then put 10 PSI of pressure for two minutes and see if I get any air bubbles in the master cylinder. Pump the clutch petal and repeat the process. I'm hoping to draw whatever air that is in there up through the master cylinder.

SO... questions...

Am I crazy for trying this? Or missing something? A step or process?

I do plan to sell the car soon and don't want to spend more than I have to.

Thanks in advance!

 

OK - the issue isn't with bleeding, it's the clutch petal. The plastic clutch petal must be worn on the back side and the metal pushrod is moving up and causing the petal to move forward until it has enough resistance to push the metal pushrod in.

So... how do fix this? Any ideas? replacing the clutch petal seems not so easy.

 

The clutch pedal simply wears out in our IONs... Mine is just about gone too... Best route is simply to replace it... Unfortunately, a new clutch pedal is pretty expensive...

 

Thanks for the post.

I'm going to try and replace the bushing first, part # 22697429, about $7-8.

A friend of mine, a GM mechanic, said I should be able to loosen the clutch master cylinder from the firewall to get the push rod far enough away from the clutch pedal to put the bushing in.

Part is ordered, should have it tomorrow and I'll update once I'm done.

 

I haven't owned a stick shift in about ten years due to knee and back problems, but am curious to see if this works out. Please let us know.

 

sounds like goalie n bones will want to know the outcome of this.
please let us know where you ordered it from

 

Oh, I am all over this thread! I will totally order the bushing if it fixes my clutch pedal...

 

Actually just be the middle man and make a tidy profit

 

The bushing came today from my local GM dealer. Had the part next day for $7.50.

To get the bushing in was difficult. The clutch master is in the engine compartment and it twists into the firewall, problem is its blocked by the round vacuum component for lake of better words. You can twist it a little but not enough to remove it, so I was told you need to remove the line attached to it and then you'll have enough clearance. Removing the line meant bleeding the clutch so I went underneath and was able to pull the clutch pedal forward enough that I could get the push rod down out of that compartment in the pedal. I then quickly put my bushing in and put the push rod back in place.

Now I'm not sure how that bushing is to be positioned in the pedal and probably don't have it the right way but after attaching the clip my engagement point is back towards the top, way better than before. Now I do feel a slight bump which I think the end of the push rod isn't clipping to the bushing 100%. Like I said though its way better than before.

If this fails again I think I might try epoxy putty and jam a bunch of that in there, put the push rod back and move the pedal forward enough to make an imprint of the end of the push rod. Then wedge the pedal forward and let it dry.

 

anyone have access to Alldata or similar that might have a diagram/picture/replacement procedure written up.

If you think about it, if they sell the part separately, it means you should be able to replace the part and restore whatever it is to full functionality. If they thought that individual replacement of that part would not serve any useful purpose, GM would make you buy the whole pedal -- like they will not sell a shifter bushing without a new set of shift cables on an S car.

Thank you for taking the time to document the parts, the process, and outcome of the replacement/install

Seems you've done a great service to the Ion community on this forum--Thank you!