OK, I've read a few threads on this issue and have done some of the things suggested in those threads, however I want to get some feedback on my unique case.
It seems over time(since around March this year) that my clutch has gone from wonderful to "won't release at all" when the pedal is fully depressed. I started noticing it when I would try to shift very fast to 2nd gear and would sometimes get clashing. I always thought that my hand was faster than my foot and I just had to relearn how to drive my car. Well, that issue got so bad a few weeks ago that the car no longer will release the clutch...period.
A little history...the car USED to have a dual-diaphragm pressure plate in it that was so hard to press that a longer clutch arm was needed to make it even remotely drivable. That pressure plate crapped out and was replaced by a TIII PP until around March when I swapped the entire clutch and flywheel assembly for a TU competition lightened flywheel, and 6-puck/purple plate combo all bolted down with ARP stuff. The trans is a rebuilt unit from Cliff Ramsdell with a chromoly endplate and OBX diff with a 555/520 hybrid gearset in it.
OK...on the the meat of the issue. So, I proceeded to try and diagnose this issue. I found that if I jack up the arm on the tranny the clutch does fully disengage and the arm does not touch the boss the cable runs through.
I thought that maybe my home made cable retainer might have been the issue, so I replaced it with a very good stock rubber piece. That had no effect.
For a while every now and then the adjuster would catch a different tooth and the clutch would be better, until it slipped to the previous adjustment it was at. After messing with it I found that if I pulled it down manually I could make the adjuster get to a point that would allow the clutch to disengage with normal pedal travel, so I figured the adjuster was bad. I attempted a temporary fix by jacking the arm up to the point where the clutch was dinegaged, pushing the pedal to the floor and putting the adjuster at that point and forcing it to stay at that adjustment by jamming it. This seemed to work with the exception that it kept constant tension on the clutch arm and I coul have sworn I felt the clutch slip once while driving it like this, telling me that it's holding the pressure plate slightly off of fully engaged.
Well, I replaced the whole shebang today and it made NO difference! The adjuster is almost all the way up in the pedal and has PLENTY of travel to come down some, however without a really strong spring on the adjuster, or preloading the arm the way I did before, it won't move down at all.
I'm thinking that the cable is stretching while under tension therefor not transmitting the full displacement of the pedal to the arm to disengage the clutch. I want to know how likely I am to being right on that?
I'm going to replace the cable this weekend hopefully, just to see it that's the issue.
I'd like feedback from other people on things I can try or have worked WITHOUT pulling the tranny or putting too much preload on the arm so as to make the clutch slip because the PP isn't pressing against the disk as hard as it's supposed to.
Thanks for the help!