This brings up a good point. I have driven 5 factory 350Z's all of which had different clutch travel (one significantly) so this is a modification that if down correctly/conservatively can only be beneficial. Sure you could use the previous post and go to factory specs but hey I haven't smelled burnt clutch in a year and mine engages like 2 inches off the floorboard.

 

I did mine too.
Like other happy owner, I am very happy with the result.
It is like my shifting skill suddenly improved.
I just wish I had known this ealier, now after driving my Z with high clutch
for one year, my left leg is bigger than my right one...

 

I tried this out and got the clutch about equal to the brake pedal. I took it out to drive and was very paranoid to make sure it wasnt rubbing. I did a couple things and wasn't sure if it was just me or it was because of the change.

I turned the car off while on a downhill road not moving, then I put it in gear and let out the clutch and brake and everything held like normal. However here is the problem. When i pushed the clutch, with the gear still in first, while the car was off and no brakes, the car obviously started moving down the slope. I could def feel a decent amount of vibration from the stick and i could hear wat seemed like a rubbing sound coming from the front (almost like the sound of you rolling downhill when the parking brake is not fully released even though in this case it was). I fear this may be the clutch still holding on and not fully disengaged. When i put the car in neutral while still rolling down hill (car turned off) the noise and the vibration goes away. Also another weird thing that may be unrelated is that the rubing sound and the vibration lessens as I tried this (rolling the car down with clutch pushed in while car off) with higher gears.

I don't know whats going on, but I'm worried the clutch is grabbing a little and not 100% disengaged. I didn't test this carefully before I made the change so I'm not sure.

While the car is on everything seems fine, it doesnt stall or move when in gear and the clutch pushed in, but the engine noise and the natural stick vibration could be masking the things i felt and heard when the car is off so I dont know what to think.

Just in case, I raised the clutch a little after discovering this.

Any info would be great. If others could do the same test or give an explination, and if people who haven't done the mod can do the test and see if it does the same while stock that could help clarify.

Hope this helps.

 

Well I would have suggested backing off the adjustment a bit. Also if the clutch is somewhat engaged you should get a slight whiff of a burning smell coming from the clutch after driving for a bit. So far I have experienced none of which you described, and my adjustment was 2 turns.

 

So you tried the rolling down the hill while turned off and you dont get the vibration and sound?

 

any input?

 

One thing should be noted is, the reference to how many turns others did should be
just "For your information only", because I think every car is set differently when they
were aseembled in the factory.

 

Yea. I settled on "1 3/4" turns for my 05 G, feels perfect to me.

 

I didn't turn too many times, I think about 3 turns. Right now its a little higher than the brake pedal.

Even with only that many im worried it might be grabbing just a little.

 

I did 1.5 turns and I haven't noticed any grabbing.

autois4pussies (IGNORE MY NAME PLEASE!),
Did you mark before you turned? Did you do 3 full rotations? You may have gone too far, trying backing it off 1 to 1.5 turns.

 

Ill back it off a few, but its a bit higher than the brake pedal and many others here posted that they had it equal to the brake pedal so I dont think I took it too far.

Hmm I wonder wats going on.

(you guys are checking with the engine off right?)

 

I did 3 turns counter clockwise on my 05 and it feels awesome! Makes the car feel totally different in a good way...much more fun to drive and shift. No issues other than when the clutch pedal reaches the clutch play level (~ 1/8th of inch play) at the top of the stroke, it sticks and takes a few seconds too come up fully. Not that big of a deal, but it's a little bit annoying. I'll have to take a look at it tommorow.

 

I'm def feeling some resistance when I shift now. I dont know if this is the common problem the Z has of grinding when shifting or because the clutch is still grabing. I feel a bit of resistence kind of like a slight grind (though I can't hear anything) everytime I shift expcept when going into 5th or 6th gear. I don't know if this resistance is grinding or because of the clutch change because this is my first manual car ever.

I'm gona back it up completely back to normal and see what happens.

 

I backed it off really far by unscrewing the thing way past stock. It was a pain to drive, but this time the gears didnt feel like they were rubbing. So I think I def. must have gone too far and the clutch was still engaging. Im not sure how many turns too far is, but people should check to make sure its not rubbing.

I lowered it a bit, a little lower than stock, but not a lot. Oh and also I learned that using the brake pedal as a measure of distance isnt a good idea because even with the thing screwed out really far it was still almost equal to the brake pedal .

 

Same here with my 05. Let me kno if u fix it.

 

I performed this adjustment this weekend, WOW what a difference!!! Thanks for the great write-up! My Z is much more fun to drive now!!

 

WORD!

 

hey guys just an update from me.... i was over at street image for a swaybar install and i had mondo check out my clutch. i had given it about 2 turns so that the clutch pedal was slightly higher then the break pedal. he said that the clutch was too far out of spec and he moved it back to stock.

 

thats odd. I have my clutch past my brake and the nissan dealership says its in spec.

 

Yeah, according to Nissan the clutch is self adjusting and the only thing that's adjustable is the "free play" which they don't recommend to mess with b/c it can cause premature wear to your clutch....