I have been driving my Grabber for a little over a month, I have had to adjust the cable once already for the clutch, today it needs it again, it has now stretched 1/4 inch at least, how much more will it stretch or should I prepare for it to break, of course it's new as of a few months ago, just seems to be stretching a lot.
if you look at the actual diameter of the cable on the cheap ones, its half the size of the factory ones. if you have the adjustable cable with the threaded nuts on the bottom then get the svt adjustable cable. if you have a stock cable then get the ford one. you can look at the aftermarket cables and see if one has the thicker cable. they usually dont.
but its stretching and its not supposed to. or you clutch is wearing too fast or your clutch fork can be cracked.
What is going on is after I drove it for a bit it got to where it didn't want to go into gear, at one time I actually had to shut down the engine to get it in first gear from reverse, once I tightened it up with my firewall adjuster it was fine, if it was the clutch disk wouldn't it need to be let out instead of tightened up? I looked at the fork and it looks fine, throwout (spelling) bearing is quiet and makes no noise, I even upshifted and downshifted the other day without the clutch at all and that was smooth also, how much will that cable stretch? I have no idea, I guess all I can do is wait and see if it breaks, good thing is I have free towing up to 125 miles.
May not be related, but I had a Ford Super Duty that the clutch cable mounting on the firewall actually pulled through the firewall! Ford offered a "patch" kit that was a plate that bolted to the firewall to make the mounting secure. I'd check to see if your cable mount is pulling through the firewall! Your description matches exactly what happened to my truck! I thought it was cable stretch too!
The adjuster I have would prevent it from pulling through, it's like this one pictured but with a larger base flange....
I had a Mercury Bobcat (same as a Pinto) do the same thing. A set of vice grips left permanently in place cured that.
I'm thinkin' these guys are likely on to something here. Doubtful that the cable is physically changing length that by much and you may have mounting point issues(flexing or slight movement) along the cables path. Will be tough to do.. but maybe try and watch all the points of contact along the way from start to finish as someone actuates the clutch pedal.
yeah.. that was the "tough" part I was referring to. "Tough" to not get your head pinched.. hair caught.. or dirt in the old eyeball as you contort upside down to see under there. lol Need to be looking from the start to end of that cable to see every point of contact possible.
Well, today the problem manifested itself and I now know the problem, seems the plastic end of the cable where it enters my adjuster, well that flange there has just been rolling/peeling back and allowing the cable to go further inside the adjuster, leaving the flange looking ok, so that went unnoticed, the extended end that goes inside the adjuster has just been going inside more and more, seems like a manufacturing defect to me.
Yeah but, I purchased it in January 2013, it has a year warranty against defects, I would think the flange separating and splitting like it did is a factory defect, we shall see if I get a new one free or not, I can take measures to keep it from doing that again by putting a large washer in front of the flange and give it a little more strength.
