Hey I'm trying adjust the clutch on my 71 240 and was wondering what exactly does free play mean. Is it the distance the pedal will travel before it contacts the clutch cylinder rod or is it the distance it travels before the resistance significantly increases? I'm leaning toward the latter based on the 10-15 mm spec but i thought i see what you guys thought.

i was going to adjust it because it got hard to get in gear. It never seemed to love going in reverse but the last time i got the car out it resisted going into first. I figured the adjustment on the pedal probably got loose so that it wasn't disengaging fully when depressing the pedal.

You've got two parts to the free play adjustment:

#1 is the free play on the clutch master cylinder at the clutch pedal. You want the pedal adjusted so when it'sat the top, it's not putting pressure on the master cylinder shaft which would in turn put pressure on the slave cylinder. That adjustment is done with the rubber pedal stopper above the pedal.

#2 is the slave cylinder adjustment at the clutch fork on the transmission. On some early cars that free play is adjustable (same idea as above) you don't want it putting pressure on the fork when your foot is off the pedal. On other (later) cars, it's not adjustable.

If you have the non-adjustable slave cylinder and it's hard to engage, your clutch may be worn out. Your pedal will also engage close to the top of its travel.

This might be a dumb question but, have you checked the fluid and bled the system?

Steve

I haven't bled it recently. I did it about a year ago but the reservoir is still full so I didn't figure there would be any air in it. But I might as well do it again since it's not that difficult.