excessive clutch pressure

[opeldean]

thank you Tilford for your reply.My "new 70 gt " has made it to
just west of colorado springs w/o a problem.The rubber bushing coming from the gas tank is damp..but my brother is going to push it on in to KC MO...My opel is burning no oil and the rebuilt
suspension is tight and there is no play in the steering.

THe car has a new getrag 5 speed ..but it takes so much pressure to operate the the clutch..The clutch and throwout bearing have been recently replaced,

my question is this"can I lube the clutch cable or do I need to
buy a new cable to lower clutch resistance?"

PS:As my brother drives across utah and western colorado at
80-90 mph...he is being passed by people @ 100+who pull out there cameras to take a picture of the opel gt..He has had several people stop to chat about opel....

I can't wait to opel.....This is my first GT...

[kwilford]

Well, I guess I have been called worse than "Tilford"! And you're welcome.

As for the clutch cable, it can be lubed, but it might be related to the clutch release arm or the pressure plate. Do you know if it still has the stock clutch, or was it upgraded to the Chevy S-10 disk and pressure plate? I don't know much about the specifics of either conversion, but it might be related to either the release arm pivot (the S-10 pressure plate requires the flywheel be ground flat, which in turn requires the pivot bolt to be screwed further in that factory spec) or the guide tube that the release bearing slides on. I haven't heard of stiff clutches related to either coversion, so there must be some kind of problem.

And I moved this post to the "Drivetrain" heading, since it is happier there!

[opeldean]

Sorry Kwilford....I am still learning about this website....I don't
know how I got where I am at on the website.but I am learning..
I will find out more about the clutch.

PS:The Opel Gt cruised At 9,000 feet at 90 mph...no problems with overheating.

The 2 problems with my "new Gt" are the gas leak and the
high clutch pressure...both should be fixable.

rest of mechanics seem solid...engine is not original..but
runs great as long as the idle is set around 1200rpms..

[opeldean]

opels always seems to have such "soft" and easy to operate
clutches..my new Gt will make the "ball of the foot sore ..after a day of driving"..thanks kwilford

[greensmurf20]

if you have too much pressure on the clutch it has to be in the pressure plate right? the bolt that the throw-out-bearing fork pivots off of just adjusts when the clutch engages and dis-engages correct? or am i missing something again?(i'm leaning towards the second answer is correct.lol)

[kwilford]

Jared and Bucky,

If the flywheel has been ground a fair bit, and especially if an S-10 clutch has been installed where the flywheel is actually ground as much as 1/4 inch to remove the "step", the geometry of the release fork changes.

I believe what happens is the pressure plate is now closer to the engine (further from the pivot). So unless the pivot bolt is extended to the front more (screwed in further into the bell housing or even a longer pivot bolt used), the release arm is already at an angle when the release bearing contacts the pressure plate. Which requires more cable force and hence more pedal force to overcome the pressure plate springs. Now this is how how I understand the stock bell-housing works, but I am not sure about the Getrag. For that matter, do you even have an S-10 clutch?

[greensmurf20]

thanks for clearing that one up keith, i never thought about grinding the flywheel into a single surface instead of a dual surface. it makes sense because i have never seen a chevy with a dual surface flywheel.

[Mach1Tom]

I just took my GT for it's first ride with the new engine & Getrag 5 speed. The clutch pedal seems even easier to push in than with the 4 speed. As mentioned because of the shaved step for the s-10 clutch the pivot bolt needs screwed all the way in leaving just enough for the jamb nut to thread on. This was discussed earlier & Bob L was even thinking of making longer ones so there would be some adjustment left.

If your clutch pedal is still hard to push after correct adjustments, It probably is the cable.

Tom C