Firm Clutch

Maintenance advice to keep your Spider in shape.
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aj81spider
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Your car is a: 1974 Fiat 124 Spider
Location: Chelmsford, MA

Firm Clutch

Postby aj81spider » Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:55 am

My clutch has recently started requiring more force to engage. The pedal goes down without excessive force, but it requires noticeably more force than it used to (it used to go down quite easily). I'm going to get under it this weekend to see what's going on, but any advice on things to look for?
A.J.

1974 Fiat 124 Spider
2006 Corvette
1981 Spider 2000 (sold 2013 - never should have sold that car)

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seabeelt
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Your car is a: Fiat Spider - 1971 BS1
Location: Tiverton, RI

Re: Firm Clutch

Postby seabeelt » Mon Aug 21, 2017 11:19 am

Cable starting to go? Throw out bearing? Weak fire wall?
Michael and Deborah Williamson
1971 Spider -Tropie’ - w screaming IDFs
1971 Spider - Vesper -scrapped
1979 Spider - Seraphina - our son's car now sold
1972 Spider - Tortellini- our son's current

bobplyler
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Your car is a: 1979 spider 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC

Re: Firm Clutch

Postby bobplyler » Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:48 pm

Also check the pivot point. It's inside the bellhousing.
1979 Fiat Spider (since new)
2005 Lincoln LS (the wife's car)
2003 Chevrolet Cavalier (daily driver)
1999 Honda Shadow VLX 600
1972 Grumman Traveller 5895L (long gone).

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aj81spider
Patron 2020
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Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2011 9:04 am
Your car is a: 1974 Fiat 124 Spider
Location: Chelmsford, MA

Re: Firm Clutch

Postby aj81spider » Sun Oct 01, 2017 6:23 pm

After some delays due to work, vacation and procrastination I looked at the suggestions on this and it appears that the clutch arm has slipped off the pivot point (thanks Bob!).

Now the question of the day is how I get it back on without pulling the transmission. Is that possible? I fiddled with it for a while with no results so thought I would poll the brain trust to see if there is some technique that I'm missing.

Thanks for any help you can provide - having to drop the transmission will cause more procrastination!
A.J.

1974 Fiat 124 Spider
2006 Corvette
1981 Spider 2000 (sold 2013 - never should have sold that car)

bobplyler
Patron 2022
Patron 2022
Posts: 816
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:58 pm
Your car is a: 1979 spider 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC

Re: Firm Clutch

Postby bobplyler » Mon Oct 02, 2017 5:04 am

It's possible to get it back on the pivot without removing the bellhousing, but I did it over 20 years ago, and don't remember the details.
1979 Fiat Spider (since new)
2005 Lincoln LS (the wife's car)
2003 Chevrolet Cavalier (daily driver)
1999 Honda Shadow VLX 600
1972 Grumman Traveller 5895L (long gone).

User avatar
aj81spider
Patron 2020
Patron 2020
Posts: 1526
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2011 9:04 am
Your car is a: 1974 Fiat 124 Spider
Location: Chelmsford, MA

Re: Firm Clutch

Postby aj81spider » Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:59 pm

To close the loop on this it turned out to be pretty easy to get the arm back on once I knew how it went. There is an old post where narfire posted some pictures. I'd link over to that thread, but the pictures are on Photobucket so you can't see them. With apologies I copied them and show them below.

Once you can visualize the connection it's pretty quick to get it back on.

Image

Image
A.J.

1974 Fiat 124 Spider
2006 Corvette
1981 Spider 2000 (sold 2013 - never should have sold that car)


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