Had a nice drive down to Bournemouth yesterday and on the way back home something odd happened. I noticed that the lash in the clutch peddle had increased by rather a lot, and it was getting harder to change gear. The free lash had gone from the normal 5-10mm to about 25mm. It was a bit surprising and worrying. I limped home using as few gear changes as possible. I couldn't see anything leaking or broken in the clutch system. Full clutch fluid, no strange noises. Everything looks fine. I got out my spanner and adjusted the clutch pedal lash (where the pushrod connects to the pedal). And everything is fine again. I just don't understand how it happened in the first place. Can anyone shed any clues? My only remaining thought is that some air has gotten into the system, but I can't see how that affects the free play. (8/01)
On the same topic, is it possible to alter the biting point on the clutch pedal? (8/01)
A similar thing happened to me in a Cavalier I owned in my murky past; the cause was somewhat worrying; the bulkhead that the clutch pedal was mounted to had sheared - causing the pedal to move a couple of inches before it even began to do anything ! Not suggesting that this is the cause of your problem, but it would probably be worth checking out the pedal mount just in case :-) (8/01)

Yes it's fairly easy to adjust the point at which the clutch engages, I did it last night. The hard part is sitting upside down in the seat of the car with your head jammed under the brake pedal trying to find and adjust the necessary nuts on the clutch pedal! I also nearly snapped off my headlight stalk with my foot trying to get out of this position!

The clutch push rod attaches to the cluth pedal and it's a single (12mm I think) nut that locks it in place. You can undo this lock-nut and adjust the length of the push-rod with a 10mm spanner - the push rod has fixed hex nut on it. From memory, my enthusiasts manual suggests about 6mm - 12mm of free play in the pedal before you feel clutch resistance being about right. I can't remember the distance that clutch engagement (when releasing the pedal) should happen at - but it's measured from the carpet of the firewall to the centre of the pedal. Once you get the pedal feeling right, you can tighten the lock-nut up again.

Back to my problem of the sudden increase in clutch pedal free play, I've been having a more thorough look around the archives and miataforum etc. I've found that as I expected it could be down to a fluid leak (no evidence of a leak so far - resevoir still full), contaminated/old fluid or an airlock. I think the contaminated fluid or airlock would make sense, it hasn't been changed for way over a year and it was also a rather hot day yesterday which apparantly can make a difference. I'm going to have a look at bleeding and replacing the clutch fluid and seeing if that makes a difference. To the more mechanically aware: is this making any sense or am I thinking like a loon? (8/01)