308 Clutch Adjustment? Help me please.

At rest, the clutch pedal should be at the same height as the brake pedal.

If it is, the adjustment is correct.

 

Time for a new clutch. Riding the clutch or slipping the clutch through a high rpm launch will kill it in very short order, you just don't know how the previous owner drove it....

 

George,
I had the same problem with the clutch on my (other) car.
The clutch will let go for a second and than grab again. I took the trans down yesterday and found the disk to have some life left but the plate was glazed and warped. Time for a new clutch.

 

attached is a two page pdf for the qv clutch adjustment. Good luck.
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1. No, I don't think so.
2. Yes the cluthc linkage is not in perfect adjustment, but no, there is no hope for the clutch, you need a new one.
3. That I do not know.

 

"Is thi behind the left rear wheel?" = yes, best to remove the LH rear wheel inner fender liner to estimate the 40-45 mm dimension and to make the turnbuckle adjustments.

 

It's indicative of MISSadjustment. On the QVs & 328s, as the clutch wears, the clutch pedal rises ABOVE the brake pedal. The adjustment brings it back down to where the two pedals are parallel.

On the QV I don''t believe it's possible to miss-adjust the clutch such that it will cause it to slip tho. Mostly the adjussstment is to keep the pedal in a normal position.

The 5th gear behavior you describe is characteristic of a worn out clutch. The sudden grab may be metal in the clutch heating up enough to grab the pressure plate or the flywheeel, with ongoing damage.

By all means go thru the adjustment, then do a quick 5th gear test. If it's still slipping do a clutch job before the flywheel gets ruined.

 

You don't need to remove the wheel.

From under the (level) car, drop a plumb line/thin screwdriver down from the main arm swivel. Then use a steel rule to measure back to the clevis pin which should be 45mm.

If the 45 is about right, and the pedal height is not, THEN the CABLE needs adjusting, NOT the clutch. The cable is the 10mm spanner size parts and the clutch uses 11mm and 8mm spanner size.

Most likely is the 45mm will be more like 50+, due to clutch wear. This is normal and CAN make the clutch slip under load, due to the helper spring that's fitted to the clutch pedal.

You can use the adjuster as a rough gauge of clutch wear....when the clutch is new, the adjuster will be short, it gets longer as you compensate for wear.

Unfortunately, so many people fiddle with things they do not research properly, that you may need to adjust both to fix up the mess and get all the leverages and travel specs back in the ball park.

The cable (10mm) almost NEVER needs adjusting, ever, if left alone and/or set properly when the cable was installed.


By the way, carb cars have a different adjuster technique, so don't try this method.

 

It's kind of tricky to juggle a plumb line + ruler while under a car.
Here's a tip:
Make about a 18" long x 45mm wide gauge out of a strip of plastic or cardboard. Align the front edge on the main arm swivel & hold it straight up & down. (You make it a bit longer & tape a torpedo level to it.) The rear edge s/b centered on the clevis pin as described above.

 

The main arm swivel is the big drop arm that hangs off the side of the bell housing, that in turn is connected to the clutch rod.

There's a big nut (22 or 24mm spanner size) that holds it on. You need to drop the imaginary plumb line down from the centre of this swivel, and measure back to the clevis........

for a picture, try looking in the owners handbook!

(If people actually read their handbooks, and I don't mean workshop manual, just the handbook that comes with the car, half these threads would be redundant!!)

 

You already have a picture- see post #6 earlier in this thread from yelcab. The .PDF in that post is all you need. It's straight from the owners manual. Follow Verell's idea of making a 45 mm strip to measure the required distance. He helped me adjust mine and all is well.

Good luck- once you are in there, it's pretty simple.

 

Quaz -- Phil is technically correct that you don't absolutely have to remove the wheel + fender liner to make/check this adjustment (and that it can all be done from underneath), but for a first-timer working on jackstands I'd still say that it's not an unreasonable method. Be aware that on the turnbuckles one of the locknuts will be a left-handed thread. Not the greatest picture (and it's a carbed 308), but the arrow shows the general area where that clutch linkage resides:

 

No insults. If you took it that way- I apologize. It can be done without removing the wheel and wheel well on the LEFT side- but I would go ahead and remove the wheel and wheel well to make access easier- it only adds a few minutes. You won't see it unless you are under the car. Jack up the entire car, put it on four jack stands so it's level, and slide under the left side of the engine. All will be clear then. The lever is behind the bell housing. The adjuster has three nuts on it. The two outside (opposite threads) to loosen, and the middle to adjust.

Really- once you are under there, you will see how it works. if you are there, and can't figure it out- post a picture of the area and ask a question.

There are a few posts in the past about replacing a clutch, and those would also include some pictures.

Good luck

 

Absolutley no insults, trying to help you find things the most efficient way, both now and in the future.

In fact, if you take the wheel off and try to do it through there, it will be even harder to work out than looking from underneath the car.

I've done it 1000 times and wouldn't be confident of doing correctly through the wheel arch. You just can see the correct parts properly from there, or get your spanners in etc.

 

ferrarifixer, this is a great thread! Are the clutch adjusting techniques different on a 1975 308GT4? I don't quite remember the year in which the hydraulic assisted clutch came in versus the mechanical.

Having correct freeplay on the clutch is crucial also. Zero freeplay or less, is not a healthy thing on the crankshaft and the thrust washers.

 

I'm not being clear Phil. I don't mean that using the wheel access is better than going underneath (and I'd agree that some of it must be done from underneath since it's tucked inside the frame rail), but rather that for a first-timer, on jackstands (with the lesser access from underneath), it wouldn't hurt to have the wheel access open too -- that's all.

 

No worries quasi.

GT4 bloke...there is no hydraulic 308 clutch at all.

All carb cars have an overcentre remote helper type, which you correctly say needs free play....and the secret to adjustment on those is to line up the 6mm drilling on the helper arm to the guide hole on the bell housing.

The 2 valve injected cars seem to change over...some have remote helper and later ones have pedal helper.

All QV and 328 have a PRELOADED pedal, which is why they slip when out of adjustment.

Only Mondials have hydraulic clutch in the 3.0/3.2 litre cars.