Possible cause of heavy clutch pedal?

[g650]

Hey guys, I have a new clutch that should be operating fine but has become heavier to use in just 1 year.

I bought my XR6 2 years ago when it had an almost undriveable heavy clutch pedal. Found the firewall cracked and cable worn and fixed up both. Pedal box seemed fine.

Ended up getting the clutch replaced about a year ago, going from a worn heavy duty setup to an Exedy standard.

It was almost too light when replaced before settling into what I would call 'normal' or how I assume it was when new. Drove great for almost a year, but now it's become heavier again.

I've replaced the cable again with no noticeable change. Sprayed lubricant through the bellhousing access box onto the front retainer which helped somewhat, but still heavier than it should be.

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience where a brand new standard clutch went from light to heavy over a few months and if there was a reasonable fix or part that needed attention?

[burnz]

nylon bushes at the peddle box worn??

[g650]

Gotcha I'll hopefully get that apart soon to check. Cheers!

[arm79]

Just a couple of other ideas.

The nose, or whatever its called, that the release bearing slides on is worn, rough or damaged. No amount of lube between these parts will make the movement of the bearing smooth once the shaft is in poor condition.

The pivot point on the bellhousing is worn which means the release arm doesn't push the bearing smoothly on centre as the pedal pulls it forward. A bad pivot point will allow the lever to move around and jam.

[g650]

Okay I took the clutch pedal off and found one bush half missing and no lubricant on either. Swapped them left to right and packed with grease but still feels heavy. Think I'm running out of easy fixes now, but will buy some new pedal bushes all the same.

I think it may be something more causing resistance. To better describe the issue, there doesn't seem to be any unusual noise or inconsistency with the pedal travel, it's just about 2 or 3x as much resistance as there should be.

Thanks for those pointers arm79. I'll try having a closer look at the fork/pivot ball while it's engaged.

I read about the factory front retainer/nose cone I think it's the same thing, and that it may need copper grease only. There also seems to be a stronger replacement at Malwood.

I wonder if a worn/poorly lubricated retainer/nose could wear out the bearing as well?

[arm79]

Yep, we're talking about the same thing.

I remember seeing long ago one of those cones that had worn down thinner where the bearing slid along. Had the side profile of a small dumbbell for want of a better description. Obviously never had much grease on it or regular checks. That had a heavy clutch.

I don't think it would wear out the bearing part itself, but I definitely think it could wear out the bore of the bearing unit as a whole. It would be rubbing metal on metal.

Although it might damage the bearing from the point of view that it would be loose and vibrate on the shaft from movement. That's why we started looking at that car I described, because it had a rattly vibration noise from the whole release arm and bearing rattling away.