Hi
Background-
Just to give you a quick background, I am an amateur mechanic who is able to do basic work on cars such as servicing, fix minor electrical and mechanical faults etc. I am not a mechanic by profession.
I have a 1988 1.9 (I have owned it for 3 years now) with the lift up reverse BE1 gearbox. The clutch was replaced 5000 miles ago and I believe that it is still in very good condition as the car was driven carefully.
Issue-
The issue I have is that when the car is hot ( in this 30 degree london weather the engine heats up really quickly), like after driving it for 10 minutes or so, the gear changes are very hard and it is particularly very difficult to put it in first gear.
I understand that there is a clutch cable adjustment. I adjust the cable once a week to try and make the gear change a bit easier when the car is hot. This is really annoying.
When the car is cold (i.e. just after starting it), there is no issue, the gearchanges are good and soft.
It seems that the car moves on its own really slowly when the car is hot and in neutral, implying that the clutch has not been fully disengaged.
Additional information-
I have noticed that on the clutch cable adjustment, one of the two nuts has been seized and is stuck at the top of the adjustment. So, just one of the nuts does the job and the other is seized, so it cannot budge to hold the other in its place.
The oil pressure drops a lot when the car is hot.
Question-
I have checked some other forum posts for similar issues, but I cannot really link it to my situation .
The question is, how can I fix this? Is there something wrong with the clutch cable or something else? Is some metal expanding when the car is hot? Or will just one nut on the clutch cable adjustment not do the job and make the nut eventually move out of adjustment?
Hope someone can help. Thanks