Hi Guys.
I do not know if anyone of you have similar experience and can maybe give me advice.

I drive a 94 volkswagen mk1 that still uses the old clutch cable method of depressing the clutch.(mk1 still also being made here in South Africa).
They have a reputation of not being one of the softest clutches in the world due to the cable usage.
My problem is that my datsun's original 77 clutch cable's age and wear got to it and I needed to replace it.
I bought a non genuine clutch cable after going to Nissan to check out the genuine cable.
The nissan cable looks exactly the same as the non genuine cable even on the inside but costs 6 to 7 times more.
My problem is that it it is very hard to press when shifting.
I have used engine oil with only minor effects and after driving a day or two it is still difficult to use.
I cleaned it out and used dry lube that I bought for my mountain bike's chain.
(I do mountain biking over weekends)
It is a wet wax that flows like a liquid and after 5 hours the liquid has changed into a wax deposit.Great dry lube.
I applied it over a time frame of 5 days.
Every day I come home from work poring some into one end until it comes out on the other end.
The 5th day I applied alot of copper compound grease to the ends and installed the cable.
It made a HUGE difference.Much lighter.
Much better to use the clutch in traffic.
But after 3 days now it starts to come back to being a effort in using the clutch.
It is not that difficult to press but it is a little bit heavier than my Mk1.
Is yours also a bit heavy?
If not any suggestions on what I must do to get it lighter.
My problem is that I have felt alot of people's A14 utilities.
They are much lighter than my clutch.
The clutch is not a culprit because it was replaced a year ago.
It had no effect on the old cable then indicating that it was the clutch.

Maybe the long term answer is to go to the gym and do more leg presses!!

Amazing how cables can bind and you wind up having to put double the force just to move the clutch...maybe the genuine cable would have paid for itself by now...sounds like youve spent a bunch of time on it already

How long is the cable side of yoyr clutch pedal? being that its not a datto perhaps the lever length is wrong making it hard work.

Everything in the datsun is 100% standard.
The pedals was never removed from the car.
The non genuine cable I bought and went to Nissan to compare to a genuine Nissan cable from the utilities.
It is exactly the same length everything.
Even the cable on the inside is the same.
To give you an idea.
We work here in South Africa with the Rand as money.
The non-genuine cable was 60 rand.
The genuine one is 400 rand.

i havent worked out what the problem is yet

im still trying to get past the "i drive a volkswagon" bit....

tried adjusting the clutch.
If your old clutch had stretched due to natural aging, you may have adjusted the clutch cable.
With the new clutch cable, when you press the cable. you may actually have full clutch disingagement BEFORE your foot reaches the floor. Once fully disingaged, (if you are pressing the clutch further) you are actually now trying to bend/strech something.

I do not think my clutch cable is incorrectly adjusted. I have done it according to the manual that is on this site.
It is as if the cable is binding due to insufficient lubrication or asif the clutch is sort of heavy duty. I wonder if it is not the clutch that is of poor quality and causing more preasure than other clutches to disengage.

It is a LUK clutch kit that was installed a few years back.
My clutch I am going to replace with a VALEO as someone told me LUK is not that good.
What do you guys think of VALEO clutches.
I was at their website and saw they give a 2 year guarantee while LUK gives a 1 year guarantee.

My book says that a worn clutch-cable can result in heavy pedal effort.

On the other hand, a clutch cover (pressure plate) that is high-effort, is usually not because of poor quality but usually because it has more clamping force on the disk. That is to say it is high-performance.

VALEO and LUK are not brands I've heard of before.

Quote:

Generally speaking, a poor quality clutch would be made of inferior material & / or be badly made. The results of this could include, clutch slip, rapid wear resulting in a short service life, & shudder.
Since you don't mention any of these things, i will assume that the clutch is up to specs.
You say that after spending a lot of time geting some lube into the cable, it was good for a little while, then it went bad, That makes it sound like a cable problem to me. You also say that the "Genuine" cable was seven times more expensive than this one.

One of the features of our Datsuns was not only a low purchase price, but very cost effective service parts as well. Is it possible that the non genuine cable is really just a cheap quality part? You have it with you, so you will have to determine that for yourself, but if the sheath of the cable is made from soft material, the inner wire could wear a channel into it, With all that lube, i would expect it to last longer than a week.

Dodgeman.
I hear what you are saying.
When I bought the non-genuine cable, I went to Nissan to compair to the genuine cable.
It is exactly the same length and contruction.
I pulled the cable on one end to see what the cable looked like that is inside.
It looked exactly the same.
Even the turning of the cable matched the non-genuine one.

I would gladly buy the genuine cable IF I knew it will solve my problem.
But I just cannot pay so much for a cable and maybe get no better results.
That is why I posted my problem here to find out if there is something I am missing or doing wrong.

thanks anyway for everyone's help.
Here is a place that I found out about that makes cables.
Maybe I can take it to them and ask them if they can do something to make it smoother and less grasping when used.