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vitara heavy duty clutch feel?

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:36 pm
by islandvitara
hi all

myself and a mate replaced my vitara's old clutch with a brand new exedy heavy duty clutch...problem was that after it was all in, the clutch pedal was really loose??? got under neath and tightend the joint nut on the end of the cable and that still wasnt enough to engage the clutch to change gears so my mate suggested we put spacers in using to 10mm nuts end to end then the joint nut on the end of that and tightend it till it stoped. that worked and was able to select all the gears, but still felt it was a little bit iffy....i tried this morning adjusting the pedal height so that its just in front of the brake pedal - that helped a bit but the clutch feel still doesnt feel right.

drove it t work this morning and found that after about 10mins of driving it was getting harder to select gears - as if the clutch wasnt engaging enough for me to change gears, it was only just letting me with a lil force. almost grinding gears!!!!!

is there something that could be wrong or is this normal for a heavy duty clutch??

is there anything more i could do to fix this???

has anyone else replaced there clutch or someles and found this problem???

any info GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!

thanks all, islandvit

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:30 pm
by suzimad
so how did you go moving the lever on the gearbox back mate ?

how the adjustment on the clutch should be is this ... when you put a finger on the pedal it should move freely for about 20mm before you feel any resistance (called clutch freeplay)

Also you want to check the cable ... get your mate to push on the clutch and check if the cable bulges out anywhere , this means the inner cable is flexing out the steel windings that are kept in place by the cable outer , this will also cause the clutch to not disengage properly when freeplay is taken out .

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:55 pm
by 11_evl
thankx suzimad.
i helped him install the clutch kit. now it was an exedy heavy duty one from atuobarn i think.
everything went in good, when it came time to adjust up, we had to tighten it up past really tight. when we first tightened it up the free play was really good but it wouldnt go into gear, so we checked all the cable mounting points and all seemed good, figured the cable worked on a stuffed clutch b4 so should still be ok now,(didnt check outter for bunching). also at that point the peddle was surprisinly soft.. but still couldnt get into gear.. than we adjusted it further by putting in spacers which felt like it was riding the throw out bearing a bit but let us put it into gear, went for test drive and the peddle was stiffer to push down. and the take up point was pretty much on the floor...
now its obviously getting worse hance his question!!!!

any thoughts for things to try.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:51 pm
by scooby_74
make sure the clutch pivit arm bolt isnt cracked, fitted heaps of h/d clutches, pedal feel isnt much different to std clutches also check the cable hasent stretched, but id look close at the pedal bolt, been caught out a couple of times with these. only other i to check is that the clutch lever is on the correct spline there should be a centre punch mark on the arm and on the shaft they should line up

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:08 am
by Bruzar
sorry to change thread, what are these clutches worth?

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:51 pm
by islandvitara
Bruzar wrote:sorry to change thread, what are these clutches worth?
$249.00 from autobarn (macgregor) heavy duty exedy :) yeah i have the day off 2moro n saturday so that gives me time to adjust the clutch - get a new cable from suzisport an go from there

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:10 pm
by suzimad
Whats that mate you going to suzisport for the cable and not getting one off me , lol ,....... i know what you mean though , hahah.

if the clutch is still heavy after a new cable id be ripping out the clutch and getting it tested , as someone else said , a heavy duty clutch shouldnt be heavy on the pedal , ive even fitted extreme heavy duty clutches with brass button puck friction plates , and even then the pedal was nice like you could drive the car all day long.(although they grab like nothing and are on or off)

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:26 pm
by islandvitara
hahahaaha i will 2moro mate 4 sure lol yeah i gota good feeling that the cable will fix the problem with a lil adjustment of the cable once fitted :)

see u guys 2moro :D

haha :lol: