Clutch pedal too soft/no feel? Remove the helper spring!
 

UPDATE: PLEASE STOP PM'ING ME ABOUT THE SPRING.

Guys I posted this nearly 3 years ago, I do not have any more springs. If you want to find some, you will need to read through the thread for sources to other springs, if someone has a reliable source I will gladly update this first post with a link to them.

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If this is a repost I apologize, but I have never seen anyone on the Z forums talking about this. Also I can't take any credit for it, weiboy just told me about it after seeing it on the G37 forums here posted by inTgr8r.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7.../clutch2-2.jpg
http://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.ne..._3552032_n.jpg

It's basically a spring that "helps" the pedal feel linear and easy to depress, unfortunately it has the side affect of losing all pressure plate feel and making manual transmission drivers everywhere feel like they have never operated a clutch before.

I have suffered with this for over a year and mostly gotten used to driving this way, but it took all of 10 seconds to remember what I was missing, a normal clutch feel! The clutch will be stiffer and harder to depress, but not by much, IMO this is how the clutch should feel.

It takes about 2 minutes to remove this with a flathead/needle nose pliers, depress the clutch pedal with one hand to unload the spring, use a flat head to pop off the C clips and the spring will come out. You can always re-install it if you don't like how the clutch feels, but you would be crazy to.

After you remove the spring there will be a few mm of soft pedal at the top, and there is a bit of vibration in the clutch pedal now that the spring was helping to absorb but its barely noticeable.

Enjoy your normal clutch pedal!


UPDATE:

Group buy thread for softer replacement spring here: Clutch Helper Spring

hmmm

thats what I said at first, then I removed the spring, and then I was all :driving:

Ok I just tried this and it literally took me 3 min to pop out the helper spring and the clutch feels amazing now. When I first bought this car, I was like wtf ive driven stick for years. This car can make you feel like youre a first time stick driver. This mod seriously helps bring a normal feeling back to the clutch. Good looking out. REP!!

Are there any side effects to this mod? You know our cars are touchy..........

interesting mod and more interesting that we have this...wonder if we can put an even tighter spring in there to make life easier for us guys with am clutches.

Just removed mine. I will report back in once I get back from a little test drive.

Very interesting. Lots of positive feedbacks from the G forum!

I just did this and took it for a test drive. Not a huge change but its just enough. I still wouldn't mind a bit more feedback but this is a nice free improvement.

After a few test drives, I concur with the masses. The feel is much better than with the spring removed. The only thing that I do not like is that the pedal has a little slack in it now at the very top. Not sure of the exact measurement, but it feels like approximately 1/2 an inch.

Overall, very satisfying though............now it feels like a normal clutch setup without being touchy with the spring installed. I thought that the Z clutch was just touchy and that was that, lol. Good mod, especially if you have driven multiple manual transmission vehicles.

Interesting... I have been driving stick for 20+ years and I always felt the 350 & 370Z had a very finicky clutch that was tough to get used to, especially after driving some other car like a Honda Civic manual that's ridiculously easy - you get in a Z and you feel like a noob all over again.

Maybe this is the ticket...

interesting

This is not really unique to the Z/G, it's a common mod on lots of different cars.

On many cars it used to be an America only thing, wonder if the European Z's have the spring....

I hope this mod won't mess up anything.

Can't wait to try it. I hate the clutch on these cars.