well when you lower the engagement point, you lower the travel as well. I turned the fork thing about 1.5 turns, and the clutch woudnt come all the way up. I dont think the dealer messed with anything, they said it just had too much freeplay, whatever that means.

 

hmm. that's odd, cause I turned mine 2x and it came all the way back up. I think I noticed the excess "freeplay" that's why I adjusted the bolt that the pedal arm stops against, to make it stop shorter. Maybe I'll try putting that back to the stock setting and see what happens.

 

can anybody confirm about the cruise control problem after adjusting the clutch level??? I am considering doing this mod but if it messes up my cruise control then i'll stick with the high clutch eventhough it's a pain in the ***... I'm getting better with it tho....

 

Just loosen the bolt on the CC switch, and adjust it so that when the clutch is released, it still pushes in the switch. Take a look at it, and it will make sense.

 

thx, I just looked at it and it makes sense now. By the way the setup looks, I am more confident about this mod now. I don't think it'll contribute to premature clutch problem if done right.

 

I haven't done the mod yet, but i tried another method in solving the high clutch problem. i tried not depress the clutch all the way to the floor when shifting and that smooths my shifting somewhat. that could be an alternative to do this mod, gonna try it out for a little longer...

 

Forgive me for not following all the way with your reasoning. So, you did not press the clutch in all the way when you were shifting before? You should always be doing that. That's really the true way of assuring you're fully disengaging the engine from the drivetrain. Anything less than that is just driving laziness

On another note, I did the adjustment over the weekend. It's very easy to do. Once you look at the assembly, it becomes really obvious. Marked the rod, loosened the tightening nut, did 2 full turns, tightened the nut and vwola! Done.

Impressions? My clutch was high originally, really high. It was so odd that it took me a lot of time to get used to the 1st gear and the modulation to be able to comfortably operate it during various driving consitions like stop and go, normal around town driving and more aggressive take offs. It was just difficult to get consistant feel for it due to the way my brain and the clutch meshed together...and I am by no means a newbie when it comes to driving sticks. If I can get 150K miles and going out of original cavalier clutch and tranny , I can operate a Z. 2 turns made a noticable difference in engagement. I can now easily operate it and perform various modulations at will, with ease. There is just something more predictable about it now. My brian now knows exactly when it is engaging and I can make the take offs smooth so my wife does not complain and I can launch the car out of a stop light for some daily driving fun without jerkiness.

To conclude, this mod is worth doing if you feel your clutch is difficult to work with. It is also not a case of "if 2 turns are good, 4 must be even better". If you turn too far and bring the plates too close together, you will destroy your clutch. 2 turns seems to be a good, conservative asdjustment that seems like no one has issues with. And yes, I did read through this entire thread I also performed the flat surface, in gear with depressed clutch test to make sure the car was fully disengaged when the clutch was pressed all the way in to verify that 2 turns was indeed not too close to engagement point. Everything looks fine.

I also adjusted the pedal travel to bring the clutch pedal to the same level as the brake pedal. Combined with this adjustment, the overall drivibility of the car has improved significantly.

 

how do you adjust the pedal travel?

 

Look at the clutch pedal arm, about 1/2 way up from the pedal pad. You should see a whilte plastic bumper on it, there's a bolt that it stops at, when the pedal is released. Break the lock nut loose, iirc it's 13mm, and turn the bolt clockwise with your fingers. The more you turn it, the shorter you adjust the travel. Once you have it where you want it, tighten the lock nut back in place. I adjusted mine, so when fully off the pedal, it stops slightly closer to you, than the brake pedal.

I'll see if I can get a pic of it for you.

 

finally after weeks of procractinating I finally did the mod tonight. It feels so much better! Now I won't have to rev like hell to get foff the lina at stop lights or driving in heavy traffic, it grips like my old MR2 did and feels nice!

It appears almost too smooth to even believe, I hope that I didnt lower it too much thats what I'm affraid about. I didnt mark the rod, just started turning, but I think it only went maybe 2-3 or so. But my clutch pedel is lower than my brake pedal, and it was LOWER even to start with.
-how are people making the brake pedel even? As I said my clutch pedal was lowere even to start out before the mod...

 

I think the best guideline for adjusting if you didn't mark the turns is to just adjust the clutch pedal to be the same level as brake pedal. That's what I did, so far so good... clutch got stuck 2 times so far... hopefully fixed after changing brake fluid since I overheated it last track day.

 

doesnt the clutch readjust itself back to the original position?

 

YES!!! i did it twice, and it came back to the same spot both times.

 

Im not sure but what i do know was i used to have an rsx and it was crazy 'long/soft', and by the time i traded for my Z, it became moderate/harder to push where it was nice to drive.

Dont know why it does that so i can see why it would move back to its original position.

 

awesome thanks alot!! great pictures! i love driving my car now before that clutch was just way to high.

 

seems like we have folks say that their cars are fine after some time and others that say that it hurt the vehicle. I was thinking of doing this mod myself, but why risk it with so many unhappy people with damaged cars...

 

I just made 2 turns of the pedal stopper, which lowered the resting position of the pedal. I would think this does the same as adjusting the rod, am I correct? The catch point seems to be more reliable and predictable now.

 

Sorry I haven't gotten the pics up yet. Been busy with work. They'll be up tonight.

 

Sorry for the poor quality, had to use a flashlight and my cell. There's the bolt, in the middle of the image. Don't remember what size it is, offhand. I don't have my tools available, otherwise... Anway, I think it was 13mm. anyway, break the lock nut loose, then turn the bolt clockwise to lower the pedal travel. Once adjusted, tighten the lock nut again, and you're set.

 

Save yourself headaches and performance issues. My clutch gave out at 26k miles after slightly modifying my engagement point on the stock clutch. I replaced it will the ACT HDSS and Stillen lightened flywheel. My car revs like a funkin Ferrari now and pulls a bit harder through each gear. -Unleash some horsepower and get yourself a clutch kit.