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How To - Adjust Clutch Pedal


D4XNY

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If anyone is still having trouble with their clutch bite point/feel, you might want to try this.

 

This is a little mod I did on my Skyline 350GT, which is essentially the same as the Z apart from the body, it helped with clutch control and feel immensely, it may help if you're mechanically inclined.

 

Disclaimer: if you decide to go ahead with this, ITS AT YOUR OWN RISK! if you don't feel competent then don't bother.

 

I have felt for a long time that my clutch is rather heavy and too quick, as in short engagement window, and lack of feel, which spoils the driving experience, now I have already removed the clutch pedal assist spring, which did nothing but make it even heavier.

So with this in mind i went hunting on the US forums and came across a thread that a guy with some engineering experience came up with an idea of how to combat this, but basically altering the leverage/fulcrum point of the pedal, his opinion was as mine is, that the master/slave cylinder combo was mismatched, and didn't work well.

Anyway, his idea was to fabricate a rather over-elaborate method of shifting the fulcrum point further up, and so reducing the effort needed along with increasing the engagement window, which makes clutch control a lot easier.

Now at first I thought I would be lazy and see if I could order one of his kits, but he only makes them for LHD cars, so I decided to bite the bullet and pull out my entire clutch pedal and see if I could make a much simpler modification and achieve the same result, and the answer was yes I could with nowhere near the effort that he had gone to.

So its just a case of removing the pedal and disassembling, then marking and drilling a hole of the same diameter about 15-20mm higher up from the original clevis pin pivot hole, I actually just used the clevis and held the bottom edge of it flush with the old hole and using the original to make a mark, I then drilled this to the correct dia, so I could refit the plastic/nylon liner back in, thats it for that bit, you could probably put it all back together and live with the slight master cylinder rod misalignment, as it allows for a small amount.

However I decided that I dint want to live with it, and so I just fabricated a small metal plate drilled with two clearance holes to fit the same size as the master cylinder rod, the holes in my case where drilled again at about 15mm centers, so I have enough clearance for the two adjusting nuts, the pics will explain it better, but you get the gist I hope. :)

 

Just to avoid confusion, the lower bolt/nut are where the original master cylinder rod with the two lock nuts would go when it's fitted, the bolt was just there to check alignment etc.

 

And the result! well i wouldn't go so far as to say that it halves the pedal effort, but I would say it now requires about 35% less effort to depress the pedal, and the other result is to give a much wider engagement/disengagement window, which results in about 60% more feel, so well worth the trouble IMO.

Obviously, you will need a little mechanical know-how for this, but it's not rocket science, but I guess you will have to make up your own mind as to whether you feel confident enough to tackle this.

Vdd36v8.jpg

 

LwDkmsj.jpg

 

 

Edited by Tricky-Ricky
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On 18/11/2013 at 13:58, Tricky-Ricky said:

If anyone is still having trouble with their clutch bite point/feel, you might want to try this.

 

This is a little mod I did on my Skyline 350GT, which is essentially the same as the Z apart from the body, it helped with clutch control and feel immensely, it may help if your mechanically inclined.

 

Disclaimer: if you decide to go ahead with this, ITS AT YOUR OWN RISK! if you don't feel competent then don't bother.

 

I have felt for a long time that my clutch is rather heavy and too quick, as in short engagement window, and lack of feel, which spoils the driving experience, now i have already removed the clutch pedal assist spring, which did nothing but make it even heavier.

So with this in mind i went hunting on the US forums and came across a thread that a guy with some engineering experience came up with an idea of how to combat this, but basically altering the leverage/fulcrum point of the pedal, his opinion was as mine is, that the master/slave cylinder combo was mismatched, and didn't work well.

Anyway his idea was to fabricate a rather over elaborate method of shifting the fulcrum point further up, and so reducing the effort needed along with increasing the engagement window, which make clutch control a lot easier.

Now at first i thought i would be lazy and see if i could order one of his kits, but he only makes them for LHD cars, so i decided to bite the bullet and pull out my entire clutch pedal and see if i could make a much simpler modification and achieve the same result, and the answer was yes i could with nowhere near the effort that he had gone to.

So its just a case of removing the pedal and disassembling, then marking and drilling a hole of the same diameter about 15-20mm higher up from the original clevis pin pivot hole, i actually just used the clevis and held the bottom edge of it flush with the old hole and using the original to make a mark, i then drilled this to the correct dia, so i could refit the plastic/nylon liner back in, thats it for that bit, you could probably put it all back together and live with the slight master cylinder rod misalignment, as it allows for a small amount.

However i decided that i dint want to live with it, and so i just fabricated a small metal plate drilled with two clearance holes to fit the same size as the master cylinder rod, the holes in my case where drilled again at about 15mm centers, so i have enough clearance for the two adjusting nuts, the pics will explain it better,but you get the gist i hope. :)

 

Just to avoid confusion, the lower bolt/nut are where the original master cylinder rod with the two lock nuts would go when its fitted, the bolt was just there to check alignment etc.

 

And the result! well i wouldn't go so far as to say that it halves the pedal effort, but i would say it now requires about 35% less effort to depress the pedal, and the other result is to give a much wider engagement/disengagement window, which results in about 60% more feel, so well worth the trouble IMO.

Obviously you will need a little mechanical know how for this, but its not rocket science, but i guess you will have to make up your own mind as to whether you fell confident enough to tackle this.

 

tricky cluth pedal.jpgtricky cluth pedal 1.jpg

 

Nice.. I didnt know it was an issue i just thought my leg was weak haha.. thanks will look into it im 350gt owner too!

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  • 2 months later...

Hi, sorry to reopen this thread:

 

New here , first post - Just got my hands on a wonderful Zed, 2002 low miles. However I have the opposite problem, my biting point for the clutch is very low.

Its about 2 inches off the floor with the pedal when the clutch bites, and unless i have the pedal hard to the floor gear changes and unpleasant.

At first I thought the clutch might need replacing, but after reading here I am under the impression the biting point is very high when a new clutch is needed.

 

So the question is : Is there a way to raise the biting point another inch on the pedal? total Zed noob, so sorry for the question.

Edited by Lucutus
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  • 2 weeks later...

The problem I found with this mod is on occasion the pedal doesn't always flick back up, it seems a fine line when adjusting if you go to far the pedal doesn't always spring back

 

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

If the pedal doesn't flick back it means you've gone too low. Back in the nut one thread at a time and drive the car to appreciate the change. It can be deceptive just static testing the clutch.

I had a different problem with unpleasant gear changes after fitting a HD aftermarket clutch and SMF and found out lift the cluch pedal up got rid of the issue. I have only 1 thread showing and might even take it down fllush to get rid of a very tiny crunch I sometimes get on aggressive down shifts.

 

Recap:

more thread out = pedal up, firmer pedal and wider clutch engagement range

More thread in = pedal down, softer pedal and smaller engagement range.

 

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The other thing that has a profound effect on clutch feel is the clutch assist spring arrangement, I junked mine at an early stage, didn't really notice any great difference in the effort needed, this is one of the reasons for the odd feel if you over adjust the clutch disengagement point.

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gonna get the garage to take a look at this guide, as they fitted a new clutch last week and the clutch pedal is a lot higher than it was with old clutch, also noticed, now the biting point is very low (2 inch off the floor) with the new clutch, is this normal?

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  • 1 month later...

gonna get the garage to take a look at this guide, as they fitted a new clutch last week and the clutch pedal is a lot higher than it was with old clutch, also noticed, now the biting point is very low (2 inch off the floor) with the new clutch, is this normal?

 

If the clutch pedal has previously adjusted due to being worn, when fitting a new clutch plate its possible that the adjustment has caused the master cylinder to not return back far enough to uncover the fluid transfer port, so there is no fluid, or very little being drawn into the MC so its not moving enough fluid.

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  • 1 month later...

The two bugbears of the 350Z for me are trying to replace the dipstick and the height of the clutch pedal. This is a great,easy to understand process of how to adjust the clutch pedal and it will be something I'll be attempting to do this weekend. Thanks for a great write up.

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So i have been fine tuning the clutch pedal on my 2005 Z and although i have the bite point set about right for me i am now finding the pedal does not return back up to its rest position.

 

In some respects I do not find this a problem as there is too much travel between the point the clutch starts to disengage and the fully up rest position.

 

As it does not feel like there is much resistance in the first inch of pedal movement would it be ok to move the 'clutch pedal released' push button switch further in and use it as a pedal release stop and reduce the travel

 

or is there another way to change this

 

thanks

 

 

ps

 

the dipstick is just mental

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you would have to be careful with the adjustment of it further in as when I had my car in the air i realised my slave cylinder wasnt fully travelling and caused me all sorts of problems till I figured out the rod behind the clevis was adjusted far too much

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thanks for that.

 

i will be careful making any adjstments in future but would really like to get my clutch pedal in a nice position.

 

I have read about people removing the assist spring, a lot of people recommend it but dont really say how it changes the feel and if there is any problems with pedal return.

 

anyone done that mod and can describe what it is now like

 

thanks

Edited by Mr Zoot
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It's me again 3 weeks later after this adjustment ....

 

I went a little too far with the treads and clutch pedal would stick a little before returning to rest position... I had simply adjusted too much (about 5 treads)

 

However it only took a small adjustment (1 tread back in) to make the biting point perfect with a clean return back to rest...

 

Also adjusted the microswich in a little bit so as the stop the pedal from coming up to high... I have mine adjusted so it sits just a little below the brake pedal

 

A+++ Mod ... so much more drivable! Unfortunately the wife now loves it ... urghhhh !!!

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