my clutch pedal vibrates and you can hear it whining almost as if the clutch cable is too tight so its contstantly putting pressure on the pressure plate. how can i adjust the clutch cable so it has the proper slack in the clutch fork?
First thing, is the quadrant mechanism as slack as it can be? Putting a toe under the clutch pedal and pulling up will take slack out of the pedal and it may be that the adjuster is too tight. Take a look and see if all is well. Are you using a stock (Motorcraft) clutch cable? If not, the replacement may not be long enough. Stock cables are hard to beat.
If the quadrant adjuster is as loose as it can go then you may need a firewall clutch cable adjuster. Not too pricey and you can get your clutch adjusted exactly like you want it. Steeda and UPR make them (along with other manufacturers). Run a search on the interwebs and you will find a bunch to choose from.
theres slack at the clutch fork so im thinking i need a throwout bearing which is terrible because the clutch only has 4500 miles on it....i let a friend drive my car and he was letting the clutch out slow like he was trying to get into first gear at like 90 with the rpms high im guessing thats what did it. what do you think? this is why you never let someone besides you drive your car. never again haha
I think your friend did not harm your clutch. The TO bearing is a wear item. Yes, it is unusual that the TOB would croak in 4500 miles but any mechanical part can fail prematurely. Is it a stock (Motorcraft) part or aftermarket? What about the clutch (what brand)? Although it's been a while since my last manual car (all before my '98GT), a bad TOB can be silenced sometimes with just a light touch on the pedal. Did you have the flywheel resurfaced when you put the new clutch in? I don't think a poor mating surface will cause a lot of noise but it can cause vibration.
Not much help, I'm afraid, but let's keep chipping away.
its just a motorcraft stock replacement, and no i didnt have anything done with the flywheel. It did start with just a vibration in the clutch pedal, but has progressed to a squeel. it doesnt do it all the time but when it does its loud. Im thinking throwout bearing. i was reading something on a forum earlier that said possible pilot bearing too. i dont think its the fly wheel because it was fine when i first put the clutch in except when i shift into 5th gear if the rpms are over 2k it will grind a little bit going in but if you let them come down it goes in fine....weird i want to do it soon but i dont know if i should do the whole clutch or just the tob i dont wanna drop the trans just to have to do it all over again you know...thanks for your time by the way
My 03 did say thing....started out intermittently (if I held slight pressure on pedal it was quiet), then got really bad....pulled trans and it had totally came apart. Car had original clutch with 60k so I just did everything
if it's squeeling and your feeling pedal vibration then you almosts definatly have a bad tob, if your going to pull it apart it's a judgment call by you to if you want to replace the clutch or not.
If it were me however I would replace the clutch and flywheel or at least have it resurfaced. (don't forget to replace the pilot bearing to when your under there.