Hello, I recently test drove a 2001 Mustang with 50k miles on it, and actually bought the car. My question is, when I test drove it the clutch was very tight, and when I asked the owner what the deal was he said that when he replaced the clutch, that was the way it came, and that because it was hydrolic, it wasn't adjustable. How could the clutch have gotten like that in the first place if it wasn't adjustable?

Further, I also noticed that when changing gears at higher RPMs (say 3000), the RPMs don't immediately drop when pusing the clutch in while changing gears. Instead it drops very slowly going down to maybe 2850 RPM after holding the clutch in for for about a second. Is this normal? I don't remember this happening in any other manual car I have driven. Thanks for the help,

Ryan

 

First; the mustang does not have a hydrolic clutch, its good old fashioned cable acctuated, and is fully adjustable with an aftermarket adjustable cable and/or a firewall adjuster that can be purchased from Steeda, UPR, and a bunch of other places. The clutch may be stiff for a number of reasons. It could be just a performance clutch from somplace like Ceterforce or SPEC in which the pedal pressure would be more than that of the OEM clutch. If not I would check the cable routing to see if there are any kinks which would increase pedal effort.
Second; the car has a speed sensor which among other things keeps the RPM'S from dropping rapidly during shifts to aide in smooth shifting.

 

yep, waht he said. and i actually dont really like the light clutch feel in my 04GT. the heavier pedal like in my 92 just seems easier to drive. not that the light clutch pedal isnt great in traffic though.