Diagnosing a Clutch Problem... help.

CornerCarvin67

New Member
Dec 30, 2004
246
0
0
I have a stock 92' 5.0. Late last year on a few occasions it seemed as though I may be losing a clutch. It would slip on hard pulls... meaning the rpms increase wouldn't match the speed increase properly. The car went into storage with nothing done about it. I've had it out for about a month now and it seems to be a growing issue. This morning on the way to work I got up to around 60mph in 4th gear... around 2500 on the tach.... and punched it. The rpm's grew rather quickly and the speed only gradually. It was surely slipping.

So here are some facts: It's stock... and ONLY has 42k miles on her! I don't know why this would be occuring so quickly. The clutch pedal feels the same as it did when I had 36k on the odometer. The pedal engages closer to the floor than to the top. The cable is OEM. Is there an adjustment that needs or can be made? One tip I found thru search is to slide under and check to see if there is a slight slack in the cable when engaged. Meaning that it's fully engaged, right?

The car shifts fine. No issue there. I'm not seeing any leaks on the garage floor to possibly indicate I have a rear seal leaking into that area and causing slippage.

Any other ideas or free checks are welcome. I'd hate to drop a few hundred and day under the car for a clutch that doesn't need replacing.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME!!!
 
  • Sponsors (?)


Sounds like a clutch to me. I have 160k miles on my original clutch and it still grabs great, but it comes down to how the car was driven and who drove it. Is there any free play on the pedal ?
 
Yep... depends on what day of the week it was built too, hey?? ha ha.

Anyhow.. a little bit of an edit (I just took it to lunch and back). The pedal engages more at the top than towards the floor. I'm not sure how this effects anything. Is there a way to adjust the factory setting. Forgive my ignorance as it's been years since I recall this. It may have been on a different Mustang that I previously owned. Or maybe it was an aftermarket adjustable mechanism?

My wife did drive it last summer.... not that she'd compt to any fault. ha!!
 
There is a white plastic adjuster on it. You literally push the clutch in and pull it back with your hand to adjust (if I recall). You may want to check the clutch cable as well.

But realize that the padding on that clutch disk is about 20 years old now.
 
Yeah that's sound somewhat familiar. I'm a big guy... so maybe I'll do that when I get home in case I break something. Ha.

I'm pretty much going with the idea the clutch needs to be replaced. If the cable was being stretched... wouldn't that mean the longer cable is allowing the clutch to engage as much as possible?

I was told the higher pedal engagement might be a good sign the clutches are simply worn out. I just want to get it home safely now.

I went to Summit's site. Mcleod and Zoom both offer a street/strip kit for $250. The Mcleod uses organic... Zoom uses Kevlar.

Any opinions?

Or for the basically stock engive should I save $50 and get a "street" version?