Hydraulic clutch question

[pcoghlan]

I have been having a little trouble with my clutch. I only got the car on the road last week but the shifts became progressively more difficult over the duration of a test 20 mile drive so I had a look and decided to bleed the clutch. Long story short the bleeder valve thread was shot and so I ended up replacing the slave cylinder. This might have been responsible for allowing air to gradually leak in.

I am now bleeding the new slave cylinder and adjusting the actuating rod etc but have a simple question.

I have seen multiple references to the fact that the rod should be adjusted with the fork fully forward, the slave piston fully back and a 5mm gap between the hemispherical ball and the forks at rest. Here is my issue. The rod seems barely long enough and so I need to have it right up against the fork such that ANY pedal movement results in fork movement. Then, with the rod adjusted to its extreme I get a working clutch and the wheels don't turn (rear end up in the air) in gear. This is with the pedal touching the floor. If I let the pedal rise even half an inch they start turning.

I am thinking of making up a new rod (seems easy enough!) that is maybe half an inch longer. This would allow me to run the clutch without having to have the rod at its extreme adjustment.

So, after all that the question once again is this. I need the rod to touch the fork without slack at rest, is this an issue? Others seem to indicate a 5mm gap is needed.


Thanks,
Paul