Can slipping clutch be adjusted? How many times?

OMG, this is why you have to take what drivers say with a grain of salt. Clutches do wear and therefore are designed to be adjusted several times throughout their life. This is a normal process. Every time you engage a clutch it slips a bit, so slipping a clutch doesn't mean it becomes junk. Only if it was severely over heated and the discs severely damaged does it mean it has to be replaced. That would take an extreme amount of slipping over and over. Clutches are pretty tough and designed to take some of that abuse. All you can do is try it, but I think it will be just fine.

 

To add; the clutch pedal should always have free play, if no free play is present then undue wear and tear is occurring. your driver has no clue what he/she is talking about.

 

You cannot be asking these kinds of questions around regular drivers. You will contaminate them with ideas. That gernimate and grow into horrible outcomes with clutches.

Clutch pedals do have a certain behavior. If you depress it all the way you engage the clutch brake. That is not good. Only do it when you are sitting at a red and it's time to get going on green.

Old iron trucks have a certain way of clutch travel in that foot pedal. It will either be top travel or bottom travel.

I stressed the actual clutch plates assembly and throw out bearing once in my entire life time of trucking. I had applied 1800 foot pounds of torque against a unlimited freightliner COE in the mid 90's that leaned into the harsh start off the line. The drives actually chirped a little bit, all 8 sets of them. I was engaged in a race with a crappy new production 90's era 302 mustang who thought I was too big and slow.

I had took off in 6th high ignoring the brown and purplish smoke filling the air behind me pouring from the clutch plates. I had her up to 36 mph in a few moments at 2300 before shifting straight to 9th and closing my eyes to the destruction below the cab floor. She leaned even more and took off like a scaled cat. At about 116 fuel pump quit feeding as usual and around 134 the mustang was beginning to catch up to me on top end.

I don't know about you, but any car capable of generating the top end necessary to catch me at 134 plus is a awesome vehicle I want one.

I did win that race with that 9 ton monster. The yelling started in the managers shop bay office back at the company yard. They yelled. And yelld and yelled. The kind of seriously bad words that scar a child in earshot at the school recess yard on the other side of fence. Eff this and eff that all over the yard. 50+ kids lined up ont he fence learning new swear words and different awesome combinations of same from a former navy sailor more used to hong kont.

It took me 15 payroll checks to purchase the labor, new clutch plate assembly, throw out etc. Then I was witnessed that cab over casterated by computer software restricted to 58 mph. Which means the top two gears were no good being too far below the useable rpm range. I had a 7 speed truck that savagely threw everything into the windshield glass at 56 and then bucked down to 45 requiring a two gear downshift and a much more patient gentle reaccelerate back to 55. I could not even hold 55.

I quit the following week.

 

Hate to say it but there are a lot (A LOT) of stupid drivers out there. Once your free play is down to like 1/2" or less it should get adjusted (at the clutch, not the linkage). If its adjusted now and it works fine, don't worry about it.

 

It seems like your truck is fixed just ck the free play every time the truck comes back to your place and be sure to adj. clutch when ever free play goes away?

 

There is no actual number of adjustments that I know of. All depends on how many clutch actuations and driver technique. I have seen clutches last 2 million KM with a very good driver and I have seen others not make it to 200K because of a bad driver!!! Usually a spring breaks inside the clutch to cause end-of-life and replacement. However, the adjustment ring will thread a long way and if nothing else fails, the clutch pads wear way until it is just metal on metal and it slips all the time. As long as you keep the internal spacing of the release bearing in spec and proper free travel of the pedal, you can adjust a clutch every day if you want, although unnecessary. Again, it all depends on how it is driven to cause wear and loss of clutch pedal free play to warrant another adjustment. You should be getting at least 2 years or 400k out of a clutch. Vocational stop and go will wear down quicker than highway units, so it depends on application too.

 

Yes the adjuster just runs out of threads and stops turning. If I had to guess you can adjust it prob 10 -12 times. It all depends on how long you leave it between adjustments and how hard you are on clutches.
I have a driver that I adjust the clutch once a year. Another guy I know once a month. Depends if you like starting out in high range or not. Lmao!! Joking of course.