[Shotimes] Intermittent clutch trouble

[Leigh Smith]

David;
Let's rule out a few things first.
Hopefully the flywheel was new (or resurfaced) and the pressure plate 
was new. If not ......
Hopefully you did not slip the clutch a lot and warp the new setup, like 
with 3000 rpm hole shots.
The only other possible mechanical items are a bent clutch fork 
(unlikely unless the prior clutch blew) or the clutch fork cross shaft 
bushings. Did you replace these, they are a heavy wear item.
Contrary to popular opinion, I do not believe the clutch cable 
stretches, but it can get bent and/break where it attaches to the clutch 
fork by rough handling. Check there.
That being checked, it leaves your adjuster. I never found mine to 
adjust out all the slop very well. The adjuster basicaly controls the 
spot off the floor where the clutch grabs, and can be manually adjusted. 
It should grab halfway. 3-4 inches up sounds about right. Any lower and 
it will probably creep. any higher and it might slip.

You can manually adjust it like this:
7 inch block of wood under pedal to unlock adjuster.
Pull cable out of clutch fork with fingers. Check for stickyness, grabs, 
etc (frayed cable).
Check for some adjuster spring tension, sometimes it slips off during a 
clutch job.
Pull it out 1/2 inch and have second person remove block of wood.
You should now have 1/2 inch slack in cable, causing clutch to grab 
almost on the floor.
If you pull up on  pedal auto adjuster should take up all the slack, but 
mine refused to.
With thumb on blue plastic adjuster inside, you push with thumb and pull 
pedal up at same time and basically set pedal height anywhere you 
choose. You should hear a loud click for each adjust.
It took 2-3 clicks to remove my 1/8 in. slop between the clutch cable 
bushing and the tranny housing.
Don't set the grab height too high or it will slip under power.
If changing the grab height has no effect on you problem, it's internal.
If you pull up on the pedal with your toe, it will go back to the auto 
setpoint.
Good luck.
After all it is a SHO clutch!
Lee


David Carmean wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I've had my 1990 SHO about 13 months now.  Within a month after 
>I got it, I had to replace the throwout bearing, so while we were 
>in there I had the following installed:  SHO-Shop 8-lb flywheel, 
>IPT Stage-2 clutch kit, and ShoNut ceramic-upgraded throwout bearing 
>(along with the ancilliary parts).  
>
>Over the past few months, I've been having intermittent trouble with 
>not being able to disengage the clutch completely.  Some days, with 
>the pedal jammed to the floor with 100lbs of force, the clutch still 
>drags and I can't get into gear at a stoplight.  And when I do, 
>the car wants to creep.   Other days, it's fine.  "Fine" meaning 
>that the release point is still down about two or three inches off 
>of the floor, which is low compared to other SHOs, I gather?
>
>Thursday, it was particularly bad, so I called up my mechanic 
>(hi Nick! Don't know if you're on the big list or not) and drove 
>over; he discovered that the automatic cable adjuster quadrant 
>was not doing it's job for some reason.  He manually manipulated 
>the pawl/quadrant and managed to get four clicks worth of tightening 
>out of it.
>
>That worked great.  For a day.  But by the end of my commute back 
>home the next day, it was as bad as ever.  (My commute is about 
>25 miles each way, often in stop-and-go traffic.)  But the 
>freaky thing is that when I went out this morning to move it into the 
>driveway to have another look, it was fine again!
>
>I'm beginning to think it's somehow related to the length of driving 
>time, and perhaps engine temperature?  I'm going to go back out and 
>do some driving to test that, but I can't think what the mechanism would 
>be that would cause that much of a change in the release point.
>
>In fact, I was prepared to change my cable today, thinking that it must 
>be in the process of breaking.  But how could it get *better* over 
>night?  At no point did it feel like the adjuster quadrant had 
>slipped....
>
>Any  ideas?
>
>Thanks.
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