Ive put up with it for long enough.......I put in a stock clutch about 4 months ago ......due to lack of money and the tranny pulled......Something is @!#$ up.......the clutch has grabbed 3/4 off the floor since day one......I pulled out a little heavier duty clutch and put in a stock one......Im guessing the previous owner adjusted the clutch by putting a different sized pin in the slave cylinder or bleeding the line a bit?

There is no air in the line.....so Im making a custom adjustable slave cylinder rod.

adjusting the slave wont do anything. all you do is more the position of the piston. when you push the pedal down, it still moves the same amount of fluid through the line into the slave, and it will move the same distance.

you cant adjust a hydralic system. if your clutch releases high, the clutch is worn out, or there is something wrong.

Its a brand new stock clutch and it grabs 3/4 way off the floor....and it slips when I shif hard into 3rd.....I know its only a cheap stock clutch......but it has to be better than that.

Quote:

Something is @!#$ up.......the clutch has grabbed 3/4 off the floor since day one.....

This means the pedal is high, yes? As in "you push the pedal 1/4 in, so it's 3/4 off the floor, and it releases?"

If so, you could make an adjustment to the slave cylinder rod. To make the clutch engage closer to the floor you'd need to greatly increase the free travel of the slave cylinder piston and rod. What will happen is that the rod, normally held into the clutch fork and slave cylinder by hydraulic pressure, will end up loose. So you'll need to design a support to hold the rod in place so it doesn't fall out.

A better way might be to move the attachment point for the master cylinder pushrod farther up the pedal so it's closer to the pedal pivot. With this approach it will take more motion of the clutch pedal to actuate the clutch. So it will seem like the clutch "grabs" at a point closer to the floor.

My only question is, why F#%^ with this? The #1 problem with clutches when screwing around on the street is failure to push the clutch pedal far enough when shifting. People tend to jam thepedal down and shift without ever paying attention to how far they're actually pushing the pedal. The end result is worn synchros and grinding shifts. You have an aftermarket clutch, possibly one that's designed to release with slightly less pedal travel, and you're willing to throw this away?

Then again if the problem is that the pedal has to be pushed 3/4 of the way before it releases, welcome to the world of stock GM hydraulic clutches. The ways to fix this are (1) get a master cylinder with a larger diameter cylinder, (2) get a slave cylinder with a smaller diameter cylinder, (3) move the master cylinder pushrod point farther from the pedal pivot. Adjusting the slave cylinder pushrod for this problem will only place additional pressure on the clutch bearing and fork and possibly result in premature wear.

Have fun!
-->Slow

as i already said, shortening the slave pushrod wont do anything. if you shorten the rod up, the piston in the slave is just in a different spot, and when you push the pedal down, it moves the same distance.

the biggest concern is freeplay in the dedal. are you able to move the pedal up and down a little bit (like 1/4-1/2") without actualy using any force??? if you can, then its fine. if you cant and it has force on it at the very top, then you have an issue. my clutch always was high, even from new.

Sharkey, neither one of us was completely right. The total amount that the clutch fork is moved can be changed by shortening the pushrod, but only if a return spring is added to pull the pushrod and piston back when the pedal's released. Some systems have a spring built into the slave cylinder to do this, like our racecar. In the case of the J system, the spring has be attached to the pushrod.

1/4" to 1/2" free play in the pedal, however, should be considered excessive.

FWIW, I feel that the stock clutch system's response time should be improved. The plastic master and slave cylinders shouldn't be subjected to more than about 30% more pressure than stock, according to a clutch rebuilder I trust, which means that the old fashioned method of installing a bigger clutch for faster shifting and greater grip just won't happen. And though it's possible to improve the friction coefficient with Kevlar and other materials, we're still left with relatively limited means to improve the clutch response time.

-->Slow

when i say 1/4-1/2", i mean at the pedal. if you dont have that amount of freeplay, with the pedal out, the clutch may not be fully engauged, meaning it can slip.

a better way to adjust your pedal height is with an adjustable pushrod on the master cylender. this is quite common on import cars, and even 93-94 j-bodies with the remote reseviour for the clutch master have this setup. this is realy meant for adjusting the freeplay, but you can adjust your release hieght with it.