clutch adjustment is maxed

[droppinbottom]

I have been reading trying to find my own solution but no luck so far. My clutch pedal adjustment is maxed to the point where I dont want to try to adjust it anymore. It was done this way by the shop who installed my 2600 about a year and a half ago. Before anyone flames the shop, it is a very reputable shop who knows what they are doing.

Lately the tranny has been a little harder to shift and my engagement seems to be about 1" off the floor. I decided to see if there was any adjustment left but to no avail there is none.

I have been reading about clutch pedal assembly welding and am wondering if I actually need this. while sitting in the car with the clutch out, I can not lift up on my pedal. Am I checking properly? When I look up underneath I put one hand on pedal and one hand on the pushrod and when I start to move the pedal I feel the pushrod start to move. There may be a slight bit of freeplay like this but not much.

Opinions? I am thinking that it may be time to just replace the master and slave to see how it goes but dont want to be taking this whole thing apart twice if I need to weld assembly in the first place.

 

[eclipsh]

I was facing this exact problem in my car. Turns out I didn't adjust my master cylinder right even though I thought I had.

Does your release point stay about an inch off the floor no matter what you do with the master cylinder push rod? I fought with that for ages until I found a thread on tuners that explained it fairly well. I'll summarize.

Try threading the push rod into the pedal as far as you can until it starts to actually pull the pedal down towards the floor.

Pump it once or twice like that with the master cylinder cover off. Then start threading the rod back out of the pedal and adjust the freeplay from there.

I had way too much freeplay before. I never even felt resistance until I was half way to the floor. Doing this resolved it for me. It turns out if you don't go past a certain threshold it never really balances the cylinders out right and can never adjust the release point properly. Give that a shot, it made a world of difference for me.

 

[droppinbottom]

Thing is I get resistance as soon as I start to push on clutch pedal. My problem is that my clutch starts to engage about a inch off the floor and on the adjustment if I turn the nut any farther there may not be any more threads left on master cylinder pushrod.

 

[Black_Bullet]

Braided clutch line and brand new master and slave cylinders and adjust the master cylinder rod to the very last thread so you get max travel... If that doesnt do it then find a hex nut that has the same exact threads as the master cylinder rod in your clutch assembly and then weld that hex nut onto the pedal assembly were the rod would screw into, and then screw the rod to the tip of the welded on hex nut.
Make sense?

Doing this gives you that much more distance with engagement when the pedal is engaging way too low to the floor... Worked for me when i used to have a gst and had a 2600. I plan on upgrading to a 2900 in my awd so i may have to do it again.

 

[eclipsh]

Sorry but extending the rod is exactly the wrong thing to do. If you have the rod that far out you always have pressure on the system so it can't balance out and will never function properly. Just thread the rod all the way into the pedal as far as you can with the cap off the master cylinder and then slowly turn it back out and test it as you go.

 

[Black_Bullet]

Sorry but extending the rod is exactly the wrong thing to do. If you have the rod that far out you always have pressure on the system so it can't balance out and will never function properly. Just thread the rod all the way into the pedal as far as you can with the cap off the master cylinder and then slowly turn it back out and test it as you go.

That didnt work for my gst, the assembly was out of wack and had a lot of play in.
Welding the nut on was the only fix without going thru the trouble of taking pedal assembly apart
and not to mention it always worked well afterwards.
The only other solution would be to take apart the entire pedal assembly and fix it that way but these old 1g pedal assemblys grow very "loose". Meaning it wasnt under pressure when the pedal was all the way up like your thinking and that the rod wouldnt even start moven into the master cylinder until the pedal was at least a inch pressed down which isnt right.


Im just speaking upon my experiences with what worked for me, not whether its right or wrong. The stuff i referenced him at the begining at that post was the right way to do it, and then i said if that doesnt work - and directed him to what i did with the nut...

Not trying to spread misinfo.

 

[boosted spartan]

I am having the same issue, replaced both masters and slave cylinder adjusted the master cylinder to the last bit of threads. I am going to try what eclipsh suggested, give that a shot if not could it be a bent clutch fork?

 

[droppinbottom]

At this point I am willing to give both a try.

It is not unbearable for normal daily driving with the way that it is, but take it to the track and get the clutch a little warm and you can give up on getting good times.

 

[boosted spartan]

i believe my problem is my pedal assembly i push the clutch in...let it come back up wait 5 seconds, put my foot under it and i can actually lift it.

read it on vfaq...i am really not looking into doing this.

 

[dnhieu]

i believe my problem is my pedal assembly i push the clutch in...let it come back up wait 5 seconds, put my foot under it and i can actually lift it.

read it on vfaq...i am really not looking into doing this.

bad clutch pedel assembly. i belive this the guy who created this thread has the same problem.

if you can push your pedel to the floor then lift up on the back of the pedel and the pedel lifts up your clutch pedel assembly is bad...

 

[boosted spartan]

thanks man, you have a pm.

 

[droppinbottom]

bad clutch pedel assembly. i belive this the guy who created this thread has the same problem.

if you can push your pedel to the floor then lift up on the back of the pedel and the pedel lifts up your clutch pedel assembly is bad...

Thats what puzzles me. You push the clutch to the floor and let off of it just like if you had shifted gears and then put your foot under the pedal and it does not come up any higher.

This leads me to believe it is not the assembly. Either way I have a new master/slave cylinders on order and new braided lines from the master to the slave. If this doesnt fix the problem I am going to pull the assembly out. I am not into temp fixing problems.

 

[dnhieu]

Thats what puzzles me. You push the clutch to the floor and let off of it just like if you had shifted gears and then put your foot under the pedal and it does not come up any higher.

This leads me to believe it is not the assembly. Either way I have a new master/slave cylinders on order and new braided lines from the master to the slave. If this doesnt fix the problem I am going to pull the assembly out. I am not into temp fixing problems.

sorry about that. definetly not a bad assembly. i read a little fast and it looked like you said that you COULD lift back up on the pedel. have you tried bleeding the lines yet? check the boot at the slave cylinder's to see if any are leaking fluid. have you even checked the fluid?

 

[dsmsucks]

Is this a oem master cylinder. Non oem tend to have less threads than oem. I know first hand.

 

[droppinbottom]

Yes I have checked the fluids. It does not appear to be a leakey master. I originally thought that so I checked and have been keeping a close eye on fluid levels.

It may or may not be oem master cylinder. I am second owner of the car and there is currently 256k on the odometer

 

[eclipsh]

My master and slave are both non-oem and work fine. Don't worry about that. They aren't exactly complex pieces. Have you tried adjusting the push rod like I suggested?

 

[droppinbottom]

No I have not tried that yet. I already ordered all new parts and was just going to live with it the way it is untill I get all the new parts put on. If it is still not the way I like after all the new parts go on, then I will start trying other ideas.

Thank you for the information though as I will remember to do that when installing the new lines and master/slave cylinders. I also just ordered the ss line from jnz that goes complete from master to slave. Will see how I like it when it comes in.

 

[dnhieu]

didnt you already check the clutch adjustment. hence, the title of the thread "clutch adjustment maxed"?????

 

[eclipsh]

didnt you already check the clutch adjustment. hence, the title of the thread "clutch adjustment maxed"?????

That is just it, if it is threaded out that far then it is probably too far and not allowing the system to work properly, leading to the pedal disengaging right at the floor. Trust me, I just fixed this in my car after a lot of digging to diagnose it.

 

[dnhieu]

please dont take my above comment personally.

everytime my clutch has been adjusted like that it caused my clutch to slip at higher rpms and grab right at the top of the clutch pedel assembly...

 

[Drifte]

Theirs some good stuff in here. But it would be easier to follow with just a step by step what needs what fix.
1st, make sure the master and slave are not leaking.
then, check adjustment on the master cylinder. If it is adjusted all the way out their is something else wrong. Does the slave cylinder have an extension on it? If your pedal comes back up with no issues dont blame the pedal assembly. Typical warn parts that should be replaced but usually arent and cause the problem: clutch fork and fulcrum pivot ball. While replacing those replace the TOB. BTW, having the clutch adjusted all of the way out is bad, if you find you need to do this you need to find out why.

I have had the same issues. Parts that can be to blame:
Master cylinder
slave cylinder
soft clutch line
clutch adjustment
slave extension
fulcrum pivot ball
clutch fork
tob
bad spring in frictional disc (much more obvious issue)

Theirs some good write ups on here if you search. Just remember you shouldnt HAVE to adjust it all the way out, and its an expensive problem to throw money at.

-best of luck to everyone enjoying a dsm.

 

[Drifte]

Sorry but extending the rod is exactly the wrong thing to do. If you have the rod that far out you always have pressure on the system so it can't balance out and will never function properly. Just thread the rod all the way into the pedal as far as you can with the cap off the master cylinder and then slowly turn it back out and test it as you go.

BTW, I'd like to hear more about what you know. It sounds like your saying he should:

Return the master adjustment all the way back (losing pressure). Bleed? Pump a few times then start adjusting out. And this will allow adjustment between master/cylinder to be able to even out. It seems to make sense, I'll have to remember that.

 

[Morphius]

please dont take my above comment personally.

everytime my clutch has been adjusted like that it caused my clutch to slip at higher rpms and grab right at the top of the clutch pedel assembly...

You were getting pedal pump up.

 

[Morphius]

BTW, I'd like to hear more about what you know. It sounds like your saying he should:

Return the master adjustment all the way back (losing pressure). Bleed? Pump a few times then start adjusting out. And this will allow adjustment between master/cylinder to be able to even out. It seems to make sense, I'll have to remember that.

I think what he's getting at, is if the pedal assembly had no slop and it was good, with the M/C adjusted all the way out (or with an extension of some sort on the input rod), it would force the pedal to bottom out upward forcing the system into cut-off. Thus, leading to more issues.

The ultimate check if you question if it's adjusted too far, is to climb under the car and push the S/C rod into the body of the S/C. If you can't, it needs adjusted so you can.

 

[eclipsh]

I think what he's getting at, is if the pedal assembly had no slop and it was good, with the M/C adjusted all the way out (or with an extension of some sort on the input rod), it would force the pedal to bottom out upward forcing the system into cut-off. Thus, leading to more issues.

The ultimate check if you question if it's adjusted too far, is to climb under the car and push the S/C rod into the body of the S/C. If you can't, it needs adjusted so you can.

Yeah, that is pretty well what I was getting at. I think we're just explaining it differently. You are dead on with trying to push in the slave cylinder rod. I'd forgotten about that check method.