Hello Folks, I have not been on in a while. We finished our restoration of a Euro spec 308 GT4 in 2015. The forum members were very helpful with this over the two years we took to get the thing completed, and the car has been very reliable and a pleasure to drive. I also have a 91 TR with 10k miles. We got it about 5 years ago and have put 4k miles on it since. Ever since I have had it I have experienced the clutch pedal pressure occasionally increasing once the car gets fully up to operating temperature. Now it is occurring more frequently, basically every time I drive the car after about 15 to 20 minutes driving time. If the pedal seems too high to release the clutch, I simply release the pedal and try again and most times it is then fine. So, this seems to be a case of a binding through-out bearing, or perhaps something amiss in the clutch pressure plate. In any event, I plan to remove the clutch assembly in a few weeks to try and see if I can track this down, and wanted to reach to the community to see if any one has had similar experience, or previous knowledge of a similar situation with a TR. The car is in very good shape, has been very reliable, and we keep all the maintenance up to date, including proactive measures like replacing the differential housing. I did flush and bleed the hydraulic fluid to make sure there was no issue there, but that had no effect. Any advice will be appreciated. Regards, Marc Trahan
Lots of old posts on this topic if you search for them. My fluid got a bit dirty as it get rather hot back there and was hard to push in. I was able to bleed out the old dark/ with particles in the fluid and it was good for about a year and a half. I then took apart and replaced seals (3) and cleaned things up. Not to hard to do and works great for last 4 years.
My car has had the same issue for the past several years (I only drive it 100-200 miles per year). I was thinking pressure plate. I am curious to hear some other responses. I plan to take care of this issue when I do the maintenance in 1 -2 years
Hi Marc, As you know, the clutches are heavy in these cars at best but your complaint is that it grabs at too higher stroke, correct? If that's the case, then I would assume that: your plates are worn, or you have a leak at the slave cylinder that drives the throw out bearing. The fact that there are so few miles on your car tells me that the above cases could be the reason (corroded spline shaft, hardened seals etc). Anyway, if your'e going to go as far as stripping it down to the clutch, then you may as well go all the way and refurbish the lot. As mentioned above, there are tons of threads on this subject but here's one where I document my work. I believe James just went through the same exercise himself. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/throwout-bearing-thrust-bearing-clutch-release-bearing.436550/ Tell me if you need any help. Good luck mate.
I so agree. There's nothing that heavy about the testarossa clutch. The feel is a bit odd because its a twin clutch setup but aside from that its fine. I got used to it pretty quickly.
James, Is that you, I am way behind in my posts, as I so not go on the site much. I just got the car back together yesterday. Total job only too 6 hours. All I did was replaced the seals as everything else looked fine. Clutch feels much better. Thanks for the offer of assistance. Marc
Sam, Thanks for the advice. I finally took the clutch housing off and replaced all the seals on the TO bearing sleeve. Since the car has such low miles (11K, half of which I have put on), and after talking with Bill at GT car parts, that is all I did as everything else. I was pleasantly surprised how easy this was If I have to go back in again at a later date, I am not too concerned. The clutch now feels much better. Seems the seals were hardened and causing the binding during clutch release. Marc
I had this exact problem after changing the clutch and replacing the seals. It was fine for about 200 miles then I would get a heavy clutch after the car warmed up. Shut off let it cool and everything is fine. I theorized with the help here, that the hydraulic line into the pumpkin has shed its rubber liner and spits out rubber blocking ports. Makes sense, but your post gives me hope. Maybe the rubber rings I bought were old on the shelf.
To be clear, I have not driven the car extensively yet, and now with the oncoming weather, this may have to wait until Spring. The clutch does feel much better though, so the new seals have had an effect. Nevertheless, I will report back once I have a conclusive outcome. Marc
Yes, parts 21, 22 and 28 are what I replaced. It more or less fixed the stiff clutch feeling when the drivetrain gets hot. After 7 years it came back to a degree. However now it goes through phases. First when the car is cool it is fine. After about 20 minutes of driving the clutch pedal effort increases, then after 30 minutes it gets back to normal and is fine until the next driving cycle when this repeats. I am just leaving it for nw. Marc
