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Thanks for the picture, Rick. I was hoping the stock diaphragm spring utilized flat fingers, with the hope that Ford could replace it with a slightly stronger spring with bent fingers and resolve the pedal problem. Oh, well
While the sticking clutch and the shift lock may not be the same problem, it is hard for me to believe that the causes are unrelated. As the clutch assembly is a pretty straightforward mechanical contrivance, there are only so many possible causes. Again, I would have to start with the pressure plate diaphragm spring, as it is the item that draws the pressure plate away from the clutch disk, releasing the clamping load. I suppose it is possible that the spring is ineffective in both directions (engaging and disengaging) at high RPMs. Whether this would be due to spring strength, spring shape, or another factor is well beyond my understanding. I'm not aware of other cars with similar power and single disk clutch assemblies that suffer from this problem, so it is clearly possible to fix. My dealer contact's engineer friend seemed to indicate that Ford was working on a solution, but could be no more specific.
In the interim, I intend to remove the assist spring for my next track day and see what effect this has. The last time I ran, I had the halfway clutch and could not get 4th or 5th gear until the revs dropped, so it will be interesting to see if I get the lockout without the sticky clutch.
One of the reasons I sold my Caterham was that I got tired of doing all of my own development work and thought a mass market product designed by a major car company would be better. So much for that notion...
While the sticking clutch and the shift lock may not be the same problem, it is hard for me to believe that the causes are unrelated. As the clutch assembly is a pretty straightforward mechanical contrivance, there are only so many possible causes. Again, I would have to start with the pressure plate diaphragm spring, as it is the item that draws the pressure plate away from the clutch disk, releasing the clamping load. I suppose it is possible that the spring is ineffective in both directions (engaging and disengaging) at high RPMs. Whether this would be due to spring strength, spring shape, or another factor is well beyond my understanding. I'm not aware of other cars with similar power and single disk clutch assemblies that suffer from this problem, so it is clearly possible to fix. My dealer contact's engineer friend seemed to indicate that Ford was working on a solution, but could be no more specific.
In the interim, I intend to remove the assist spring for my next track day and see what effect this has. The last time I ran, I had the halfway clutch and could not get 4th or 5th gear until the revs dropped, so it will be interesting to see if I get the lockout without the sticky clutch.
One of the reasons I sold my Caterham was that I got tired of doing all of my own development work and thought a mass market product designed by a major car company would be better. So much for that notion...