Clutch engaging too much?

[perucho]

First let me say hi. My name is Oscar and I live in Northern California. I've been wanting a Festiva for years and finally got one a couple weeks ago for $50! It's an 88 LX that has seen better days but for $50 I couldn't complain. The car was misssing the transmission, so I went to pick-your-parts in the Bay area and it was a 50% off weekend! Even better, they forgot to charge me for the tranny. I bought a whole bunch of parts that I thought I may also need and when I got home and looked at the receipt, I noticed that they anly charged me $5 for the transmission mount. So I got a 5 speed tranny (and mounts) for $5.
Anyway, I been looking around in this site and it is great. On Saturday I installed the tranny and it works well except that the clutch engages when the pedal is pressed only a few inches and disengages when the pedal is almost all the way up. Is this normal?? I used the search function and it seems that this has happened to a couple people before but I'm not sure if it is the norm with these cars.
I loosened the clutch cable as much as I could without letting it have excessive free play but it didn't help much. Any help would be greately appreciated. Thanks!

[b3 madness]

If you can adjust your clutch cable to about 1 inch of free play at the pedal, then you should be all good.

[perucho]

If you can adjust your clutch cable to about 1 inch of free play at the pedal, then you should be all good.

That's about what I have now but it is annoying to have so much pedal travel. I just wanted to know if this is normal. Thanks for the reply.

[b3 madness]

You can snug it up a bit, but allow some free play so that the throwout bearing is not in constant contact with the pressure plate.

[perucho]

You can snug it up a bit, but allow some free play so that the throwout bearing is not in constant contact with the pressure plate.

I think I'm not asking the question clearly enough. What I'm trying to find out is if it is normal to have so much pedal travel distance after the clutch is engaged. The way mine is, it has about an inch of free play and then maybe after 2 inches of pushing the pedal, the clutch is fully engaged and there is still maybe 6 inches left until the pedal reaches the floor. This 6 inches of "extra" travel is what I'm concerned about. Can the pedal be lowered to get rid of this unnecessary travel? Or is there another adjustment that will make the clutch engage what the pedal is closer to the floor pan?

[freshtiva]

[b3 madness]

Sounds to me as if your adjustment and pedal play is normal. You can always add more free play by loosening the cable to move engagement points closer to the floor board. This of course is a personal preference and not the norm.

[GenevaDirt]

I think he is mis saying the words. He is saying it is engaged after just 2 inches of downward travel and that there is still 6 inches to floor to go to press the pedal down. I think what he is trying to say is that it disengages after 2 inches of being pushed in. And that the clutch is engaging right at the top of the pedal ... like it is totally worn out. You should be able to push the pedal all the way to the floor and then as you let up on it the clutch it starts to grab and then after a little more travel it is making full contact with the flywheel, leaving another inch or two of free play before your foot is off the pedal all the way. But I may be wrong and I typed all this for nothing.

[perucho]

I think he is mis saying the words. He is saying it is engaged after just 2 inches of downward travel and that there is still 6 inches to floor to go to press the pedal down.

No, that's exactly what I'm trying to say. The clutch engages right away. The problem is that it also disengages when the pedal is almost all the way up which makes shifting very slow and feels like I'm slipping the clutch quite a bit. I'll get used to it though.

But I may be wrong and I typed all this for nothing.

It actually helped to clarify things so thanks! And thanks to everyone else for your responses.

[GenevaDirt]

It should not be letting out all the way at the top like that...it should start engaging a couple inchesfrom the floor and be fully engaged after a couple more....leaving a a little more travle/freeplay till your foot is off. Is there a new clutch in it or did you reuse the one that was already in it?

[perucho]

It should not be letting out all the way at the top like that...it should start engaging a couple inchesfrom the floor and be fully engaged after a couple more....leaving a a little more travle/freeplay till your foot is off. Is there a new clutch in it or did you reuse the one that was already in it?

I couldn't wait to have it running so I reused the one that was already on the engine. But what would make the clutch engage so quickly? If it were worn out the opposite would happen, right?

[GenevaDirt]

no...letting out all the way at the top of the travel....and disengaging after only and inch or two when you push the pedal is a sign of being worn out or way out of adjustment.
You are using the word engage when I think you should be using the word disengage. If you push the pedal barely and the clutch starts to slip.... that is disengaging.

[perucho]

You are using the word engage when I think you should be using the word disengage. If you push the pedal barely and the clutch starts to slip.... that is disengaging.

Yes, you are right. I'm glad you understood what I meant though. i thought that a worn out clutch would dissengage at the very bottom of the clutch pedal travel if it did at all. If that's not the case, then I'm going to have to replace the clutch. No biggie...

[GenevaDirt]

Yes,,,,take a look at the post freshtiva made,,,showing the adjustment process....gives an example of what to expect the pedal to act like....maybe just needs to be readjusted...good luck

[Damkid]

i've had to adjust my clutch pedal before

what i would suggest doing is loosen off the clutch cable at the tranny, little bits at a time, you'll feel in the pedal that the looser the cable is, the further down the pedal will go before disengaging the clutch,

before i did mine, it felt like the pedal wouldn't quite go high enough to fully engage the clutch and felt like it the clutch was about to start slipping on me