SPF Clutch

[October-1881]

I just bought a used 2001 SPF Mark III. Everything was fine when I left the dealer but now (a couple of times) it didn't want to come out of gear. This is at really low speed, like when backing into the driveway. I thought the seat was back too far and I wasn't pushing the clutch in far enough so I moved it up. Don't know if that helped but last night the clutch started slipping. Not all the time though. This too was not an any super speed. The resevoir for the hydraulics is about 2/3 full. It's early in the morning and I thought I'd try this forum before I call Superformance. Any ideas?

[Woodz428]

If you haven't checked the clutch adjustment at the slave cylinder, that would be my first step. After the clutch seats in, as all clutches will do, the adjustment needs to be redone. It is a threaded piece on the clutch slave under the car. If the adjustment is good, attempt to bleed it.

[October-1881]

I looked at the adjustment rod last night. How do I know if it's adjusted properly?

[Mike Simard]

The clutches on alot of Cobras are probably poorly adjusted and there are probably alot of clutch replacements caused by poor adjustment and wrongly blamed on a weak pressure plate. To adjust a clutch, first bleed the system. While you're at it just flush the lines with new fluid. A hot exhaust could have caused boiling at one point and water accumulates in the fluid. Next, adjust the slave cylinder rod out until the clucth just releases when depressed and not much more. The proper way might be to have someone rotate the rear wheels while you depress the clutch but in reality just climbing into the cockpit to start it and attemp to get into gear and back under the car to adjust it will be practical. Once that adjustment is done you hope that there's no residual pressure on the clutch at rest. If there is than you need more travel, it would be tempting to adjust the pedal but you may need a larger master cylinder. Many SPF's have a 3/4 master and may need a 7/8 to get enough travel. Back to my first point, over time the clutch disc wears thinner, this causes the pressure plate fingers to move backwards. The pressure plate will move alot more than the actual disc wear amount and if the slave cylinder is bottomed out, your clutch will then start slipping and you might think you need a stronger pressure plate when in reality your clutch system just didn't have enough room for stuff to move as it wore.

[October-1881]

Thanks Mike