I wanted to answer this because after reading many many many articles and forum posts why a pedal gets stiff, I finally found a satisfying answer.
Forum posters said it was hydraulics, dirt contamination, pedal adjustments, or worn out bearings. None of that made sense because I had no leaks, totally consistent hydraulic actuation and force. No noisy operation or chatter or slippage.
Finally, this YouTube video explains it.
Had to do with how a diaphragm spring works. As the disk wears, the diaphragm spring fingers bow out. So instead of relaxing tension bowing out a flat diaphragm, the driver is pushing to compress a bowed spring into a flat one. The flat state is the highest compression state of the diaphragm spring. So ideally, the diaphragm fingers should be perfectly straight when everything is torqued down. See how my pressure plate fingers were bowed out? That’s what I had to push against to release the clutch.
Basically, if your clutch is stiff, your disk is worn, if you’ve ruled everything else out! Wanted to share so maybe someone in the future finds this!
Forum posters said it was hydraulics, dirt contamination, pedal adjustments, or worn out bearings. None of that made sense because I had no leaks, totally consistent hydraulic actuation and force. No noisy operation or chatter or slippage.
Finally, this YouTube video explains it.
Had to do with how a diaphragm spring works. As the disk wears, the diaphragm spring fingers bow out. So instead of relaxing tension bowing out a flat diaphragm, the driver is pushing to compress a bowed spring into a flat one. The flat state is the highest compression state of the diaphragm spring. So ideally, the diaphragm fingers should be perfectly straight when everything is torqued down. See how my pressure plate fingers were bowed out? That’s what I had to push against to release the clutch.
Basically, if your clutch is stiff, your disk is worn, if you’ve ruled everything else out! Wanted to share so maybe someone in the future finds this!
