Clutch

[76 bird]

Hey guys, seem to have an issue. My clutch does not seem to be fully disengaging when I take my foot off. Today on the way home it drives as though the clutch is still pushed in somewhat. Does not feel right at all and I could also smell the clutch burning like when someone rides the clutch. The pedal its self has a little bit of play in it. I can take my foot off the clutch and then it has free play where I can lift it up an inch or so.


I don't have any clue on how or where to make the adjustment on a V6.

Thanks for any and all help!

[cjbiagi]

The adjustment is made on the bellhousing ballstud. Just because you have freeplay at the pedal dosen't mean you have freeplay where you need it which is between the throwout bearing and clutch fork. Here's a procedure I wrote a while back.
Ok, here goes. What many people do on these cars is mistakenly adjust the nut on the end of the cable to get there pedal freeplay. This happens because some people don't even know about the clutch ball pivot on the top right side of the bellhousing.
What you want to do is make sure that the clutch fork is pulled all the way to the rear of the car. The return spring should accomplish this, but just make sure it is all the way back. Now you want to adjust the cable by turning the nut at the clutch fork to remove all the slack. You must also make sure that the pedal is all the way up, it helps to have someone pull the pedal up against the rubber bump stop while you adjust the nut to remove any slack in the cable. What you are trying to accomplish is, clutch fork all the way back, pedal all the way up, no slack in the cable. Once this is done now you can adjust the pivot ball on top of the bellhousing. The best way to do it is to actually measure the gap between the clutch disc and the flywheel when the pedal is depressed to the floor. For a diaphram clutch you should have about .030. The only problem is there is no easy way to measure this without an inspection hole in the bottom of the bellhousing. I drilled a small hole in mine, big enough to insert my feeler gauge. It has to be drilled at the point where the disc mates with the flywheel. At this point you loosen the large locknut on the adjusting screw and turn the pivot ball to get the proper gap with the pedal depressed, then lock down the locknut. Since most folks don't have any way of measuring this gap, the more common method of adjusting the pivot ball to result in 1" of pedal freelplay will also work fine. The important thing to remember is that you want the freeplay to be the result of a gap between the throwout bearing and the pressure plate fingers. Having freeplay as a result of a loose cable is not what you want. That's why you want to make sure that there is no slack in the cable to throw off your freeplay measurement. With no slack in the cable, the clutch fork will begin moving immediately when you start to depress the pedal. The clutch fork and throwout bearing will also begin to move immediately, taking up the small gap between the throwout bearing and pressure plate fingers (which gives you your pedal freeplay) and all will work fine. With the cable and pivot ball properly adjusted the throwout bearing will not be in contact with the pressure plate once the pedal is up and there will be no chance of clutch slippage since the pressure plate will be allowed to fully engage. You can fine tune the stud to suit your preference but this puts you very close to where it should be. The important thing is to not have any slack in the cable when you are done, that is just wasted motion and it does not accomplish freeplay where you need it. Different brands of pressure plates and throwout bearings will effect where the stud needs to be. Some clutch assemblies are a little thicker and not all "short" throwout bearings are the same length. Hope this makes sense, if not ask me again!
*** I am adding this simple step by step process which summarizes the above.

1) Have someone pull the clutch pedal against the rubber bump stop.
2) pull clutch fork all the way toward the rear of the bellhousing
3) adjust cable nut to remove any slack
4) Loosen nut on pivot ball stud
5) adjust pivot stud to obtain 3/4" - 1" freeplay at clutch pedal.
6) recheck cable to make sure there is no slack

[Monzamaddogger]

It could be that the clutch is bad. When I looked at your car a few years ago I saw an oil drip from the bellhousing. It could be that the rear main seal dried up from all those years of sitting and was leaking. Oil may have gotten on the clutch disc. Just a thought. I could be wrong.

[Corellian Corvette]

Sorry to hijack, but a question, cjbiagi

I understand the procedure you outlined, but I don't understand what direction to turn the nut to reduce or increase freeplay?

The nut on mine appears to be all the way in - and the fork rattles quite a bit. I'm wondering if you turn the nut IN (clockwise) gives more or less freeplay?

I have made sure the fork is all the way back and removed all the slack in the cable. The fork still appears to be quite loose.

Thanks!

[hammerdown7]

Turning the stud in will tighten the fork.

Dick

[cjbiagi]

If the ballstud on the bellhousing is adjusted correctly and the slack is taken out of the cable the fork should not rattle much at all. The fork will pivot a bit on the throwout bearing but with the cable tight and the ballstud adjusted their should be very little play on the fork.