MustangMark83

I have a 2001 mustang gt with 141k miles on it. I've owned the car every bit of the last 12 years. Approx every 2 years, the clutch cable breaks, and the car has to be towed, and a new cable has to be put in. Normal wear and tear item right? Just a downfall to owning a manual, I always thought. I had to get a new clutch/pressure plate about 3-4 years ago because whenever I tried to accelerate, the RPM's would climb, but the car would hardly speed up. Because my car was having clutch work, I took the opportunity to beef it up a little bit so (hopefully) it wouldn't break as often. I bought a ford racing clutch and some aftermarket cable, because I wanted the cable to hopefully be stronger and not break all the time. The first thing I noticed was how STIFF the pedal was. I had to put a lot of pressure on the clutch pedal to use it, compared to the stock clutch. No biggie, I adjusted myself to it.

Fast forward to a few days ago, I'm driving normally and I step on the clutch, I feel the pedal break under my foot and it goes right to the floor. Call tow truck, have it put in the shop. I tell the shop "its probably the cable, because it breaks every couple years, regular wear and tear part, etc". The shop goes ahead and orders a cable, has it overnighted and installs it, and tells me that's not the problem, the clutch adjuster is the problem this time. Apparantly all the teeth on it were stripped. They order the new part, replace it, and everything is fine. The clutch pedal is very light now, like it was when it was stock, most likely due to the new oem cable they've installed and I am sure since it's an oem cable it will break again in a couple more years.

My question is - should this clutch adjuster part have worn out at all? Something to note is that the heavy duty clutch I've had the last few years has always been very stiff. Could the stiffer clutch have been responsible for putting more pressure on the clutch adjuster and caused the teeth to strip? Or was this just a part that would have broken eventually anyways?

cliffyk

Yes, the stock plastic quadrant has been known to fail when clutches with higher clamping force are installed. An aftermarket quadrant and firewall adjuster will eliminate that as a potential failure point.

The clutch cable should not break every couple years, the OEM cable on my '03 lasted 7 years and 100k miles (85k on the stock clutch, 15k with a RAM HDX) before it broke, and it broke only because of stress concentration created by sharp edges on an aftermarket quadrant--read more about that here...

Sonic Mustang

For crying out loud, your clutch pedal didn't break.

I've never heard of clutch cables breaking every two years. 141K / 12 years = 11,750 miles per year X 2 = Break a clutch cable every 23,500 miles?

Ford would have been replacing most Mustang clutch cables within the new car warranty period. As far as I know, they haven't and I never heard of a Technical Service Bulletin on the subject.

I've always owned manual transmission equipped cars and always kept them for an average of 100,000 miles and I have broken exactly ONE clutch cable and that was on my first car - a 1972 FIAT 128 with 70,000 miles that I owned since new. In case you don't know, 1970s FIATs were probably the least reliable cars on American roads at the time.

I don't know if you're doing squats with your clutch pedal, but I do know if I was breaking a clutch cable every 23,500 miles I'd:

A: Keep a spare in the car.

B: Buy a service manual to learn how to replace it myself.

C: Buy your mechanic a service manual so he learns the correct installation procedure.

D: Take your car to a mechanic who knows how to install a Mustang clutch cable.

86HOGT

You can drive a car without the clutch being able to disengage as well. It takes finesse but it'll save you a tow bill. I've had my clutch cable break twice in the ten years I've had my 86. after the second time I bought a non-adjustable Ford Racing cable. I'll already had an aftermarket quadrant and firewall adjuster. The cables kept breaking at the throwout. They were adjustable cables and I think since they had such a long threaded area for adjustment that wouldn't flex, it would put more stress on the cable where it was flexing. These were aftermarket cables from Summit I think. Once I put a non adjustable Ford cable in, I haven't had any problems in over five years.

cliffyk

The adjustable cable failures I have seen (three IIRC) all happened where the cable is crimped to the adjustment stud.

Typical failure:



Two failed because the stud had been improperly installed with one nut on either side of the release lever, clamping it the lever; rather than with both the ball-nose and jam nut on the backside of the release lever, allowing the adjustment stud to pivot.

Wrong (nuts used to clamp adjustment stud to release lever):



Correct installation (ball-nose nut against the release lever, jam nut locking it to the stud):

ford96gtconv

Hey guys I have an 01 Frankinstang installed the stage 3 11" RAM HDX Clutch Pressure plate and new flywheel assy from American Muscle. I also bought a new stock cable, already had the aftermarket quadrant and firewall adjuster. The new clutch is so friggin hard no one in my family can push the pedal into drive it but me. Had the King Cobra in it before but this is way stiffer. So 2 weeks ago in the morning and after work for the first 5 minutes it's so hard to push my pedal in I had to adjust the seat way up. After 5 minutes or so it would get a bit better but still real hard?? Monday going to work it felt like the clutch itself was going out, I had to push it to the floor and jam it (alittle grind) the whole way never got easier. On way home the 3rd time I pushed clutch pedal in something snapped. I thought it was the cable but it was the actual clutch pedal pivot shaft up under the dash. The right side where the cable connects snapped off. How hard is this to replace? Will any shaft v6 or V8 work?? Is this my problem or is the clutch coming back out??????
Help..... just got MRI back L4 and L5 are smashed in my back no way I can pull this tranny again by myself..