Yesterday, while driving, I pushed on the clutch pedal, heard/felt a POP and the pedal suddenly just fell to the floor and stayed there.

It was working just fine before that, no loss of pressure, so I assume it is the cable or spring or something else involved in making the pedal spring back up to place after you push it.

I haven't looked at it yet because it's still on the side of a busy street, where I left it after people helped me push it out of traffic. I've been reading how to drive a manual without a clutch, and will try to get it home so we can look at it and figure out what has to be replaced/reattached.

BUT, it's a 1983 242, which had a 1985 engine put in it at some point before I got it. I don't know if this is normal when an engine is replaced, but there are a number of sort of dangling cables or unhooked up connections or hoses that go nowhere. Maybe none of that matters to my question, which is, would they have had to replace the way the clutch pedal attaches? Because I believe they changed this in 1985.

I don't know what fell off when the thing broke the other day, so if there was a spring that broke and fell off, I won't know if I need to replace a spring.

Does that make sense? I've been looking online to see what the parts are for this clutch pedal assembly, and reading forum posts, and realized there are two different types of assembly, one using a block and one using the spring. And I am just wondering how I will figure out which it should be since the original would've been version one, but maybe the new engine would've used version two, or maybe not.

And maybe nobody can tell me without looking at it. And maybe I will give up and take it to the mechanic. Then again, maybe someone can help me figure out how to look at this and make sense of it.

Thanks!

 

depending on various things, yoyu could have a cable or hydraulic clutch. your failure mode sounds like a cable clutch, and the cable broke, I've experienced this exact thing on Volkswagens.

I would have someone who knows older Volvos go through those hoses and cables and identify all the loose ends, fix what needs fixing, and remove what doesn't need to be there.

 

I thought it felt like something snapping, so that makes sense.

I agree about the hoses and wires! I was really concerned about them all and I asked my special, holy Volvo mechanic when I had him inspect the car, but he said none of them mattered. He has a pretty thick Swedish accent, so I didn't even understand what he said when he explained what a few of them were.

Maybe I should pay him for a half hour and have him look at each one of these weird things with me, and explain how to fix the clutch. I'm trying to learn how to do this all myself, and I am sure I can, but it is complicated when the engine doesn't match anything I see online or in books. And I am still learning what all the systems do and how they work. Most info I find is for people who already know something.

 

Buy a Bentley manual for the 240.

Also kjet.org has green books for them. Download them and read through them.