Clutch Pedal Adjustment
 

While poking around on Scuderia Ciriani the other day I came across this how-to on adjusting the clutch pedal:

http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/c...djustment.html

I recently was re-reading Senna's Pricipals of Race Car Driving and was actually thinking it'd be nice to have the clutch pedal even with the dead pedal, so I figured I'd try it out.

Well once I was done I went out for a quick spin around the block and wow is it different. There's only about 4" is pedal travel now, and the friction point is almost immediate when you touch the pedal. I actually stalled the car backing out of my garage because it's so touchy. After driving around for a few minutes I got a little more used to it, but I'm still not sure I'm going to leave it. It was raining most of the day so I didn't go out to really have a good test run. I'll give it a week or 2 and see how I like it and report back.

Has anyone else done this? Any feedback on if you like it?

If you have your clutch engaging too soon on the throw, you will be engaging the throw out bearing full time. This is bad because it will cause the TO bearing to wear prematurely. A little bit of play is necessary to avoid this.

Is there a good way to tell if the throwout bearing is touching the pressure plate when running?

This looks interesting. I may have to try it. Give us a report after a bit of driving - any major change like that will take some getting used to.

The biggest problem with it that I see is the issue of clutch wear. As the clutch wears, the engagement point normally migrates up. If there's not enough space for it to migrate, you could end up slipping the clutch slightly as it wears down and starts pressing against the throwout bearing - you'd probably need to adjust this setup on a regular basis.

-=Russ=-

Thanks for pointing out the clutch wear issue, in my limited knowledge of mechanics (learned more since I bought this car than I've ever learned) I didn't even think about this. When I push the clutch pedal down, I guess it goes about an inch before the clutch starts to disengage, once I press it further it fully disengages. Don't know if that helps you guys in trying to determine if the throwout is touching the pressure plate while running or not.