Does anyone know of a garage in the south Manchester area that could adjust the clutch height, I cannot get to reach the area and the mazda garage in stockport keeps telling me that it cannot be altered
Peter
Donât give up just yet, it is possible. Iâm arthritic and quite tall, but managed it as I described in this post last year. A bathroom stool makes an enormous difference to ease of access!
Sounds like that Mazda garage needs to be given a wide berth. This was one of the first things I did to mine when I got it, itâs a simple process. Any garage should be able to help with this, it really is a simple task once you get contorted into the right position. I suggest not doing it on your own at midnight while everyone is asleep. I got myself a bit stuck, upside down with my legs sticking up with no one around, i thought Iâd be spending the night for a moment there!
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Iâve been under there twice, remember them well. My body has a way of telling me, donât do it again. 
Thanks to both of you, I unfortunatly have a bad right shoulder, have tried everyway but to no avail, need to find a more understanding garage, cheers
Peter
Take trip down to see C&S Haynes in Newcastle under Lyme. Colis a member and Steph is a committee member. https://cshaynes.co.uk/
Iâve managed to do mine and itâs a huge improvement, so well worth some temporary discomfort.
My first attempt was with the seat right back and the wheel right up and with me grovelling in the footwell.
This was not good and I didnât get far.
The next time, I left the seat in its normal position and put the car in 1st gear with handbrake off.
I was then able to lie on the seat itself with my head on the (off) handbrake.
Like this I could just reach the back of the top of the clutch pedal, where the plunger with its lock-nut is, with the finger-tips of my left hand.
I am of average height and right-handed. Someone tall and left-handed would find it much, much easier.
Like this, you cannot see what you are doing at all, you have to rely totally on visualisation and feel.
The plunger is horizontal, threaded and it has a lock-nut at the closer (to you) end, which takes a 12mm spanner.
The good news is that it should be clean and not corroded. The bad news is that it is very difficult to get an ordinary open ended spanner on it. In fact, I didnât manage to.
Luckily, I have a tiny but chunky adjustable I inherited from my old Dad. Even then it wasnât easy but I did manage to get it on the lock-nut and loosen it by turning it clockwise, away from me. Once the lock-nut was free, the plunger can be turned with finger-tips. To give yourself a higher bite-point, turn the plunger clockwise away from you, as well. I wound mine clockwise until I could feel it resisting as it made contact with the master cylinder mechanism, then I wound it back again approx one turn, so that it has clearance, which is vital.
I was then able to hold the plunger in place with pressure from my index finger while I wound the luckily very loose lock-nut anticlockwise back against the back of the clutch-lever with second finger and thumb (I think it sits in a threaded clevis).
I then nipped up the lock-nut, not too tight in case I need to re-adjust but I didnât.
Lying on the seat is sooo much more comfy but you do have to work blind and be able to do it by feel.
Sliding your hand along the transmission tunnel and then high to the right a little does help you find the plunger and nut.
If I didnât have the tiny adjustable, I would buy a cheap open 12mmm spanner and cut it in half to make it light enough to use with fingertips without dropping it all the time and small enough to get on the nut and turn in the confined space.
I could not have managed this without the info (and pics) on this forum.
As a relative newbie on here, I canât help wondering if a âHow toâ section would be useful, where this subject could be
âHow toâ: âAdjust your clutchâ.
From what I can tell, there is loads of useful info on here but it is rather scatteredâŚ
The way I did it doesnât involve your right shoulder at all but it does help to be left-handed with a long reach.
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This should help you,
This simple adjustment sorted my MK3.5 My Mazda dealership said they were not aware of being able to adjust the clutch bite point. I printed off the instructions as per the link and took it to the Mazda dealership ( the car was still under warranty) It took them 15 minutes to do the adjustment. It only took 3/4 of a turn on the rod to vastly improve the clutch pedal bite point on my car.
https://www.miata.net/garage/adjust_clutch/index.html
Any decent garage should be able to do this if they follow the instructions,
Yes, this is one of the sources I used to do mine.
The photos are very useful to see what you are feeling for but itâs hardly definitive.
He talks about âboltâ when itâs a lock-nut.
He talks about a full turn of the plunger moving the bite point 1/10 of an inch.
Well itâs certainly not 1/10 of inch at the pedal, itâs far more than that.
Maybe he means at the plunger but itâs hardly clear.and if that is what he means itâs not much useâŚ
0.2 - 0.5 inches of free play at the pedal?? That seems very little. Before I adjusted mine, it was more like 2 - 5 full inches of free play at the pedal, which is why the bite-point was in the carpet.
There is âfree playâ and there is âpedal travelâ to disengagement or to carpet.
âFree playâ at the top of âpedal travelâ is necessary before the adjusted pedal bits contact the end of piston in the brake master cylinder.
The pedal should have 130mm of movement possible from fully up to down into the carpet, adjust the travel top stop in the pedal box if necessary (rarely)
Mazda spec is 90 to 110mm travel to disengagement point, adjustment by plunger and lock nut, so in the worst case only 20mm to the carpet past this point - uncomfortable. Mine is now set at 100mm travel to disengage so 30mm of confidence.
For the definitive procedure read the mellens pdf on adjustment I linked to before, this makes it clear, with pictures. Unfortunately it does not tell us how to assume the correct contortion for access.
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Sorry, I hadnât seen the main post or the pdf
The combination is excellent. I wish I had seen them before tackling the job myself.
However, I do still think that it is such a useful post that it or something very like it should be under a âHow to adjust the clutch biting pointâ heading as a sticky in the technical section rather than under âWhat have you done to your MX5 today?â
Not that you shouldnât describe what youâve done there of courseâŚ
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