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Trouble Shooting
Here are some quick and easy troubleshooting tips for common complaints about performance clutches we have seen over the years.
Clutch Slips
It’s probably wearing out. Sometimes this can be caused by cable adjustment on cars so equipped. Go to the arm where the clutch cable connects to the throwout fork of the transmission. Wiggle the cable, it should feel slightly loose. If it is drum tight, loosen the adjuster as per the service manual for your car and put a little play in it. On hydraulic clutches, check the adjustment of the rod from the clutch pedal to the clutch master cylinder, this might be adjusted or staged too far out. On some cars the rod between the throwout arm and the slave cylinder is adjustable. If the clutch stops slipping you are most likely ok for a while. Otherwise you need a new clutch. If you just added a lot of power to your motor with nitrous or forced induction, it probably needs a HD clutch!
Clutch Pedal is suddenly real stiff
The clutch cable is wearing out and is about to break or needs lubrication. The fraying broken ends of the cable are jamming into the housing and gumming things up. You need a new cable. On both cable operated and hydraulic clutches the throwout fork pivot may be seizing up or about to break, inspect lubricate or replace this part.
My clutch pedal sticks to the floor when I speed shift
Your clutch is overcentering. You need to reduce the cable pull so the clutch pedal will only pull enough cable to just disengage the clutch. Likewise on hydraulic clutches, you may have to adjust the clutch cylinder staging at the pedal to limit its engagement.
Clutch pedal engagement height starts to change all of a sudden
The throwout bearing fork is bending or starting to break. This can happen if you have a heavy duty clutch with a really heavy diaphragm spring.
Engine starts to make a deep knocking noise which changes when you push the clutch pedal in.
You poor bastard. The crank thrust bearings are starting to fail. This can happen if you have a clutch with a heavy diaphragm spring and is a good case for using a twin disc clutch rather than a really heavy diaphragm spring single disc. Second generation DSM’s are prone to this.
