clutch keeps readjusting itself

[Asha'man]

My clutch keeps readjusting where and how smoothly it grabs. I have a FWA and adjustable quadrant on there and I've had to tweak the FWA after a time of driving, or a time of sitting. For instance, the other day I had to adjust it all the way out because my clutch was still grabbing almost to the carpet. Today I took the car out and it wasn't grabbing until the top of the pedal movement. Is my cable stretching and contracting or something? It's annoying as hell because it even changes during a drive, which means my driving/shifting really sucks because it's constantly variable as to grab height. It's a JY cable, btw, that I picked up for the swap.

Ash

 

[Asha'man]

Theories?

Ash

 

[351wcoupe]

I had problems that sounded very similar to that on the V8 car. but My problem ended up being a bending/flexing clutch fork.

 

[rvracers]

One more thing to check on. The clutch fork will wear out where the throwout bearing slides across it's face. This will cause the throwout bearing to angle up or down and make the clutch next to impossible to adjust. Bad thing is the only way to find out is to remove the tranny and physically inspect it. New forks from Ford range in price fron $80 to $120 depending on volume.

 

[351wcoupe]

Bad thing is the only way to find out is to remove the tranny and physically inspect it.

I'm doing that now.

If you happen to pull the trans check the bearing retainer for a groove where the throwout bearing slides. This will also cause what rvracer said.

 

[Asha'man]

Alright, today the little ****er left me dead in heavy traffic on the way to work. I cannot get the clutch disengaged enough to shift no matter what I do. I've tweaked the FWA until it will tweak no more, and even tried putting the cable on the first quadrant hook with the FWA all the way in....no luck. Eventually had to drive home rev-matching to shift, and was almost an hour and a half late to my second day on a new job. My clutch cable is not broken, but I suspect it may be totally stretched. UNLESS there is something to do with the clutch fork or TOB that would do this. There was light tension on the pedal, lighter than usual, just no clutch disengagement. Thoughts on this one?

Ash

 

[Asha'man]

Busted/misrouted clutch cable turned out to be the culprit. Went to the junkyard today and got some goodies, put the "new" cable in according to the JY cars (which was totally different than the ghetto-rigged way I had it), and it works great. TOB still squeals, though, so I'll still have to deal with that.....but I can plan for that, which makes it a lot easier.

The goodies I got at the JY today: Ford clutch cable, two dogbone cables, four of the horseshoe/pin/cotter combos that hold it all together down there, a clutch fork, and a good piece of trim for my driver's side window. Total cost? $12.89

Ash