High clutch engagement point, possible to adjust?

[Donnager]

Hello,

My Festiva has an extremely high clutch-engagement point. It grabs at almost the very top of travel. I had a Festiva some years ago that wasn't like this. The current one can be a challenge to drive. The clutch has no slippage issues. It only engages high.

Is there a way to fix this?

Thanks for any help.

[firebush357]

From my experiences, I'm pretty sure that is the way they are supposed to be. The one you drove before was probably adjusted out to far honestly. Either way if you don't like the way it feels then you can adjust it very easily by simply looking on top of the transmission there is a little threaded adjuster on the clutch cable that you can tighten or loosen.

I personally would leave it the way it is that way there is no slop in your pedal.

Here is an article on how to do it.

[350freak]

you need to back off the cable to the point it does not pull the clutch plate, but it is in far enough so that when the pedal is all the way out it is still completely touching the lever.

[350freak]

if you leave it like it is you will cause premature wear of the release bearing.

[ryanprins13]

Different clutches seem to engage and disengage in different spots from eachother. Aftermarket parts dont all have the same tolerances. I installed a new aftermarket clutch in mine soon after i bought it. Engaged much lower than before. Installed a new one a couple months ago, different aftermarket brand and it engages much higher than my pervious one. I cant seem to adjust it too much. You dont want a sloppy pedal but you dont want to be engaging the release bearing when the clutch is up. So you just put it where you like it in between that and thats where it is.


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[FestYboy]

^ that's the nice thing about cable clutches, they're adjustable... But doing it properly is a point of contention. So far as I can tell, a properly set cable has 1/8-3/16" play at the fork and this will require adjustment throughout the life of the clutch. At the end of the clutch's life, the pedal will start doing what the OP describes.

[Donnager]

Wow, thanks for all the responses. Much appreciated. And Firebrush, aside from direct information in the helpful link, I also learned that the 94+ Swift is substitute in the Autozone manuals.

So, I adjusted the cable under the hood (where it meets the lever). I backed the nut off quite a bit, and now the clutch grabs considerably lower. Now it's much easier to drive (for me anyway, I know it's a subjective thing).

Now, I have a good 2+ inches of free-play (no resistance on pedal until I've pushed it in that far). It would be nice to get rid of this. However, even if I can't, it's already much more to my liking. I notice that if one crawls/contorts under the steering column, there appear to be a few nuts to adjust pedal height. Perhaps I can lower the pedal a little? Perhaps this will eat up a little of the free-play slack? I started to try, but one of the nuts is rusted on pretty solidly, so I'll come at it in the next few days with some penetrating oil (don't want to rush and break or strip it).

Part of the issue is that I also have a Toyota Echo. In some respects, the Echo is actually a little similar to what a more 'modern' Festiva might have been. It gets excellent has mileage, is bare bones simply by 2000 standards, and has a high roof-line. And, mine is a manual two-door. But, in it's modernness, it doesn't quite have the utilitarian Festiva charm.

That aside, the Echo's clutch has a short overall travel, and engages fairly low. So, going from that to the super high Festiva one was a challenge. We shall see what happens with the pedal height. If anyone here has done it, or has ideas, I've love to hear.

[firebush357]

There was another post very similar to this one about 6 months ago that had some info about how to adjust the pedal height. I'm not sure about that process though so you might need to search the Forums for it.