4kq, slipping clutch :(

[urq]

... it is true that the 4kQ clutches tend to be considerably more robust ... 
my former '86 4kQ needed a clutch at 204K, and that was because the 
throw-out bearing had worn through the fingers on the pressure plate!  That 
said, you don't know what sort of abuse the clutch has seen over its life so 
far.  Perhaps the car had an owner who drove with their foot on the clutch 
pedal, or there was some sort of problem that led the clutch not to clamp 
securely and wear prematurely.

... that said, it does indeed seem odd that the clutch only slips in 4th 
gear ...

... the failure of the pedal to return to the full up position is not likely 
to be related.  I'd imagine that you're getting a bit of leakage past the 
internal seal in the master cylinder ... I've found that bleeding the clutch 
can restore function, but it may require a clutch M/C swap.

Since we're talking about a car that is approaching its 20th birthday, and 
which very likely still sports the same clutch components it had when it 
rolled off the production line ... if you do decide to do the clutch you may 
want to consider replacing (or rebuilding) the master and slave cylinders 
and replacing the flexible line in the clutch circuit ...

Steve B
San Jose, CA (USA)
>
>   Greetings, all!  Been gone for a while, facilitated in no small amount 
> by the fact that my 100k mi '87 4kq had been operating almost perfectly. 
> *Had* been.
>
>  Today I noticed bad clutch slipping in 4th gear; it's repeatable.
>
>   This seems like low mileage for the clutch to fail.  Is there anything 
> other than a worn pressure plate/clutch disc than can cause a slipping 
> clutch?  No evidence of fluid leakage into the bellhousing that I can 
> see... Car shifts fine, though the clutch pedal doesn't always return to 
> the top of it's travel.
>
>   Assuming that I need a clutch, how immediate is this need?  Will the 
> failure progress slowly, will I suddenly have no clutch at all?