jason_87924s

I don't know if my clutch is going out or what, but after a rough night last night...car didn't want to run on all cylinders at first. I took her to work today and it seems that the clutch may be on its last leg. It engages at the very...very...very top of its travel. Is this normal? I haven't driven the car in a month as I just got a new car and have been neglecting her!

Please post your opinions. Original clutch with 69k miles.

Thanks,

qoncept944

Mine really starts to grab right about the middle of its throw, and noticible differences in maybe an inch or an inch and a half either direction.

Mighty Shilling

My rule for when teaching someone who has never driven MY car before but knows how to use a clutch...

"have your foot halfway on the clutch pedal. push it down until you feel the footrest under your foot. the clutch is disengaged"

If this isn't the case, I'd consider a new clutch.

nine-44

If you decide to do the clutch, I got the tools and space if needed. Brian has my phone # if you need it. I haven't had a P-car on the road in 2yrs, couldn't even begin to remember where it engaged at? BTW, there is a local shop that can turn a stepped flywheel with no troubles, it was less than 20 bucks too.

Mighty Shilling

yeah. I had mine done at a local shop here in Littleton, cost $17.00 to have em turn my flywheel. good deal!

jason_87924s

I'd love to tackle this myself, with some help of course! Brian and I have talked about this before, but he seems too busy most of the time. If you have time to help out, maybe we could make a little party of this! I'm good on space myself (3 car garage), but may be lacking some required tools. I have a compressor, ratchets and impact wrench.

pete944

There's supposed to be 1/8" of freeplay at the pedal. It's easy to adjust the pushrod but not easy to get under the dash.
If it's been sitting awhile you may have a fluid leak at the clutch master cylinder. See if the level in the reservoir is low and look to see if there is any fluid on the pedal pushrod.

cpt_koolbeenz

i have a new clutch and it engages at about 1/3 travel... maybe time for a new one or some adjusting...

pete944

Your's sounds fine. Jason's is engaging at the end of the pedal travel. That's not right.
Mine was engaing high like that and a couple turns of the pushrod took care of it.
When you step on the pedal there should be about 1/8" of travel before you feel any resistance.

Mighty Shilling

does that mean mine is off?

Perry 951

It should start to grab about 1/4 way up on travel, and should be fully engaged by 3/4 travel. Since it grabs so high, we need to get it up in the air and take a look and see things are out of place. As Pete said, there is some adjustment that you can make, but if it is starting to grab that high, something is not right in there.

We can do a clutch job in a weekend. I am pretty busy, but if I know some time in advance, I can get the weekend off. You wanted to do the belts and re-seal the motor. If that is the case, pulling the motor is a better option. If you are not going to do that now, dropping the tranny is better.

You need to decide what you want to do, order all the parts, and let me know a few weekends that work best. We'll try and narrow down the one that works for the both of us.

Perry 951

If I recall.. he replaced them at one point. I could be wrong.....

jason_87924s

No, I have not checked or replaced them. Truthfully, I'm not even real sure where to look on these items.

=(

Perry 951

Thought you did. Check the clutch pedal for signs of fluid. If you look up in there, you'll see a rod that goes into the firewall. Check the rod and boot on the firewall for fluid. That is the push rod for the master.

I know the slave is not leaking.. you would have told me there were drips on the floor.