Re: clutch

["David Swingle" <dswingle@xxxx>]

Ooh - we may even have a moderator debate here. My observations on 
clutches--

By the standards of other modern cars I have driven/owned (Acura, BMW 
etc) the DeLorean clutch is indeed "heavy". It's a matter of 
comparison. If you are comparing it to other old sports or muscle 
cars it's pretty normal. If you compare it to a Honda Civic it feels 
heavy. I've driven enought DeLoreans to believe that this is not an 
anomaly. They are NOT all the same, though. 

In the case of my own car, I replaced the clutch last year. In the 
process, I noticed that the clutch fork pivot ball and the sliding 
surfaces of the throwout bearing were completely dry. The rubber 
cover for the pivot ball was missing, allowing the the grease to 
deteriorate and water to get in over time. After reassembling 
everything greased properly, the clutch action was much easier than 
when I started. But still not up to the level of the other cars I'm 
comparing it to. It may have something to do with the length and 
therefore resistance of the hydraulic line. Recall that front-engine 
cars have about a foot of hydraulic line, not the 6 feet (+ a bunch 
of transition fittings) contained in the DMC.

Recommendation? Unfortunately removing the transmission for the 
purpost of greasing the pivot ball and TO slide is way beyond the 
scope of your average weekend. Generally if you take it this far 
apart, replace the clutch assembly and you'll be good to go for 
years. While your at it, replace the hydraulics (master, slave, line 
if not stainless) and then you can forget about the whole thing for a 
long time.

Dave Swingle

--- In dmcnews@xxxx, graves_14@xxxx wrote:
> [Moderator Note: from daily personal experience, I assure you that 
a properly maintained DeLorean clutch is very easy to use. Scotty 
and Tyler must have defective clutches.]
> 
> If you are relatively new to driving DeLoreans, welcome to the hard 
> clutch club! Both the first D I drove and my current D have rather 
> hard clutches. From reading other posts, I gather that this is a