I have a bit of an issue.

Today, while I was driving, I heard a pop when I went to push the clutch pedal, and over the next minute found the clutch pedal to be gradually getting more slop with the engagement/disengagement point moving further down, until finally engagement was happening with less than an inch of distance between pedal and floor. As I was just pulling into my garage, the clutch pedal quit completely and the car stalled. Great.
The clutch pedal could flip between completely up or down with hardly any resistance except from the spring, and would stay at either extreme if you left it there.

I removed the lower panel and took a look to find the white plastic bar of the master cylinder completely disconnected from the pedal. Upon further inspection, I found that the stud which links the pedal to the master cylinder was broken, but that if I slipped the remaining snapped off end of the stud into the hole in the pedal, the clutch could operate more normally (albeit with a bit more slop than usual due to the sheared stud) until it popped out again, of course.

I guess my master cylinder is still ok, and the stud is the only thing that broke I hope...

So, my question for you all is: where can I buy this stud, and how do I replace it? I thought about taking it to my mechanic, but if I can easily replace the stud at home, I'll just do that.

Additionally, I noticed a bit of residue of hydraulic fluid on the black rubber boot where the white plastic rod connects to the master cylinder. It looked quite old and had a bunch of carpet fuzz and hairs stuck to it, making me think it wasn't anything new. I haven't had any clutch issues until today (no soft pedal or anything), either. Do you think my master cylinder is ok?

Thanks in advance!

1995Volvo850

 

Well, I ended up towing the car to my mechanic. Hopefully that stud will be cheap and easy to replace, and hopefully it's the only issue!

My question about the clutch master cylinder still stands: is the seemingly old hydraulic fluid residue a sign of a bad master cylinder, or is a bit of collected weepage normal for 161,000 miles?

 

I would vote normal weepage, based on my experience, and in theory also. All seals must have fluid between the moving parts. There's no way around it.

 

Well, my 850's old clutch pedal with the snapped stud has now been replaced with a brand new clutch pedal for $35, which is the same part number and is identical in every way except the stud is now reinforced with two more welds located on the side of the stud that connects to the clutch master cylinder in addition to the single large weld on the opposite side of the stud. After some searching, I realized I was not the only one who had this clutch pedal stud break, and Volvo too must have realized that it was a weak point, so they updated the part with two additional welds. Now, this new one should last at least another 161K miles!

And most importantly, my clutch master cylinder is OK! Nothing locked up, and it doesn't have any leaks. The stud simply broke on its own accord due to 161K miles worth of shifting gears. All is well now, and the car drives and shifts just as well as before!

The take-away for you all is this: buy the updated clutch pedal with the reinforced stud if you are doing a manual swap or have the factory clutch pedal fail on you!!! The part number is 9173742. Note: the pedal does not include the plastic pad that your foot presses on, so if you buy the pedal you need to either buy a new pedal pad or reuse the old one.