Fiat 124 Clutch cable/linkage problems

The Fiat 124 uses a cable-operated clutch. On my car, this has been problematic -- I think I've replaced the cable 3 or 4 times in under 30k miles that we've owned the car. Also replaced the pedal once, because it was bent.

Now, it's broken again.

The cable end broke off at the top of the clutch pedal; the pedal is bent at the top where the cable attaches, the firewall may be cracked where the cable passes through it, the return spring on the gearbox end has fallen off. It's a mess.

When it's all put together right, it works nicely -- smooth, light action. But that never lasts very long.

So, does anyone have suggestions -- model-specific or otherwise -- on what to do? Other, deeper causes to investigate?

The current plan is to remove the pedal, straighten it and weld it up, with reinforcements against the direction of the current bend; pull the brake booster/MC out of the way and weld some sort of reinforcement plate to the firewall; and otherwise replace the missing or broken bits.

Other possibility: anyone converted one of these to a hydraulic clutch?

Thanks, Matt

I wonder if you could use some mix of parts that honda guys use to convert to a cable to a hydro.

It's possible. Here's a pic I found of a hydraulic conversion on a 131 transmission in a 124 like mine... similar trans, but not identical.

The tricky part I think is packaging the clutch master cylinder.

Anyway, here's one person's solution on the slave cylinder end:

Okay; hotlink worked for a little while but seems to be down now. Link to the forum page:hydraulic clutch

The pedals cause most of the failures. Properly welded up they usually last. I also recall reading somewhere that if the engine ground isn't adequate the clutch cable will act as a ground strap and cause premature failure .

You may be better asking at www.mirafiori.com or flu.org. Those places are littered with 124 owners. For the record, mine never failed on any of the dozen or so I owned.

I think I've read that the bad-ground thing would melt the cable sheath and make added resistance in the cable... I've never seen anything like that.

The pedal is a mess (and so was the last one) and they chew the ends off the cable. I'll check the ground -- might as well -- but I think job 1 is fixing the pedal, then fixing the firewall before it gets worse.

Matt