clutch adjustment - really need to do it?

[sixleggedinsect]

my escort manual says you need to adjust the clutch pedal for freeplay, height, etc every so many miles. im way overdue and wonder how much difference this makes. i spoke with a tranny mech once who swore up and down it woudlnt make a difference with the escort. but then he ripped me off, so i take it with a grain of salt.

its a little annoying to do, and i never really feel like ive got it dialed in afterwards anyways.. what the heck am i measuring off of?

does it matter? from a quick poke last week id guess im pretty far off factory clutch pedal specs, but it shifts fine and all.

what gives?

anthony

[AzTumbleweed]

What year are we talking about? On the 91-96 models they adjust themselves. There is some freeplay in the specifications but I think you'd only mess with that if you changed a master cylinder or otherwise had it apart for maintenance. I don't believe there is any scheduled maintenance.

[sixleggedinsect]

Originally Posted by AzTumbleweed

What year are we talking about? On the 91-96 models they adjust themselves. There is some freeplay in the specifications but I think you'd only mess with that if you changed a master cylinder or otherwise had it apart for maintenance. I don't believe there is any scheduled maintenance.

my current is a 97. my old escort was a 93. if i remember correctly, they look similar or identical, in terms of clutch pedal adjustment.

my manual says that you do the adjustment for both 93s and 97s, although there may be slightly different specs.

thoughts?

[Jet-Lee]

I got a 99, same gen as the 97, and I've never adjusted it in it's 167k miles. Still good as new.

[AzTumbleweed]

I would speculate that the adjustment should be checked but should never normally need adjusting. If you did not have any play then the throw-out bearing would spin all the time. I think that's what you need to watch out for.