Stock clutch woes

[mikek2111987]

07 GT with a 15k miles motor and stock clutch. Car/trans/rest of the car has 55k on it.
I hate this clutch. It's very driveable when it comes to pushing it in, but the release is aggravating. It starts to lightly catch an inch or so off the floorboard, but doesn't actually grab until the top third of travel, and it does so abruptly. I would like something that grabs closer to the floor, any tips? Aftermarket slave/TO bearing any help?
There is also the pedal itself. I have to stand on the thing to engage the safety switch to start the car, but then on full release (not being used) you can flip flop the pedal around 1"-1.5" of free play nothingness.

 

[MrAwesome987]

then on full release (not being used) you can flip flop the pedal around 1"-1.5" of free play nothingness.

This is normal I believe. Both clutches I've had in my car have done this.

 

[1950StangJump$]

Yep . . . I'm not 100% sure about the '1-in off the floor' part, but having the bulk of the clutch engagement at the top of the pedal travel is pretty typical for our cars -- even stock.

Right now, I have a brand new RST on a T56 Magnum . . . and most of the clutch engagement is in the final inch or two; WAY WAY at the top.

When I had the Spec on the original 3650 trans, it was also way up top, though not quite as extreme.

 

[Racer47]

The clutch safety switch can be bent so it triggers earlier.

 

[06VistablueAZSaleen]

My '06 GT(160K, clutch replaced w/aftermarket of unknown variety before I bought the car) clutch grabs right off the floor, almost too quickly (1st to second shifts sometime grind due to clutch not being fully disengaged). One of these days I'm gonna open it up and probably install a shim to hopefully move the engagement up in the pedal travel range. My '12 V6 (78K) acts like what everyone else describes (engages in last third of pedal travel), so I'm assuming there's something not quite right with my GT.

 

[GlassTop09]

Yeah, my clutch grabs right off the floor as well but some aftermarket clutch packages are designed to give a low pedal engagement. I have an Exedy Mach 500 Stage 3 Grooved Clutch kit installed on an Exedy HP Chrome Moly Steel Lightened Flywheel in which Exedy put in writing (found inside package & on their web site) that this clutch package was designed to provide a low pedal engagement. The OEM clutch engagement was high but when this Exedy setup was installed it came out exactly as they said it would & I get the feeling of slight clutch drag at full pedal depression but the clutch disc will come to a full stop on it's own when in neutral. I found that some of this was actually my slave\TOB wasn't fully bled out (even after using a vacuum bleeder) & it eventually finished bleeding itself out over a month of use after the install but even now when the engine\trans is cold it still has a little clutch drag at full pedal depression but mostly goes away once all is heated up due to fluid expansion.

I have purchased a .156" shim from LMR to rectify this on the next time the trans has to be dropped.

In closing a low clutch pedal engagement is not always a sign of a problem (but can create 1) as some clutch packages are designed to give a low pedal engagement so when buying a clutch package I would suggest to go to the clutch manuf's web site & look for any materials they provide on a particular package to indicate the anticipated pedal engagement height designed into it as to date I haven't seen any info given in any clutch kit sale description on pedal engagement height on any seller's site. Then you can make the determination to get a shim ahead of time to raise it a little if desired.

I now know that Exedy does.

FYI...……………………...

 

[mikek2111987]

Interesting. So maybe I'll get one that engages close to the floor, and shim it right off the bat

 

[rocky61201]

After changing clutches and ToB multiple times I've finally got mine set up to engage damn near in the middle of the pedal travel. This go around I actually took the time to measure Throw out Bearing preload and IIRC it took 2 shims to get as close as I could to 1 inch of ToB preload. My current setup is an exeedy billet steel flywheel that's been in use for about 150k miles and a new stock replacement style clutch and ToB setup from NAPA.

Do yourself a favor and search for the instructions on measuring for ToB preload on this forum and take the extra 5 minutes to measure properly next time you have everything torn down.

Also get a rubber sink stopper from Home Depot about the same size as your master cylinder hole opening to use so you can properly bleed the air from the brakes and clutch master cylinder. There is a you tube video on it you can search for.

 

[mikek2111987]

So as I'm fiddling with my clutch and trying to pay more attention to it, I'm noticing what I would refer to as "clutch bounce." Seems like in first and second, possibly even more prevalent when cold (like I said still messing with it) once the clutch catches it feels like it's bouncing off the pressure plate and causing the car to be jerky. Anyone experience that?

 

[rocky61201]

I used to rave about how comfortable to drive my Mustang was to friends. Lately I've been daily driving my GF's Hyundai Elantra with the crappy CVT automatic . Drove the Mustang to work this morning for the first time in a few weeks and I realized how much of a pain in the ass it is to drive. Like comparing a steak knife to a samarai sword. I realized real quick the mustang better be pointed in the right direction and I knew exactly where I wanted to go for anything over half throttle. Super fast throttle response built in the tune with 4.10s and 295 Nitto's in the back and BMR stuff everywhere. Compared to the Elantra everything on the Mustang feels grabby and jerky, even turning up the radio.

 

[GlassTop09]

After changing clutches and ToB multiple times I've finally got mine set up to engage damn near in the middle of the pedal travel. This go around I actually took the time to measure Throw out Bearing preload and IIRC it took 2 shims to get as close as I could to 1 inch of ToB preload. My current setup is an exeedy billet steel flywheel that's been in use for about 150k miles and a new stock replacement style clutch and ToB setup from NAPA.

Do yourself a favor and search for the instructions on measuring for ToB preload on this forum and take the extra 5 minutes to measure properly next time you have everything torn down.

Also get a rubber sink stopper from Home Depot about the same size as your master cylinder hole opening to use so you can properly bleed the air from the brakes and clutch master cylinder. There is a you tube video on it you can search for.

Yeah I’m learning all this myself as well as this is the 1st Ford vehicle I’ve owned & the 1st manual equipped vehicle that uses this type of hydraulic clutch design. I assumed that Exedy would design all to OEM specs w/ all their clutch packages but after installation & discovering the low pedal engagement I then went thru the paperwork & found the documentation where they specified this as this setup is considered a performance package, not an OEM one & is preferred due to a low pedal engagement helps reduce/eliminate clutch chatter according to Exedy. With this clutch design it would be nice if Exedy would include at least 1 shim w/ the kit if a low pedal engagement isn’t wanted to shim out to the OEM std.