luminescient,
What you’re describing is not necessarily an indication of a 'bad' clutch. Slipping under power would be a very different thing, but when it fails to disengage fully or becomes difficult to get into neutral the problem is often with the clutch springs. Not that they are especially week, but uneven in strength and available pressure. I often see the condition and it results in the pressure plate moving unevenly away from the clutch plates. This typically results in the trailing edge dragging against the plates. The result is much the same as only pulling in the clutch lever half way. The solution is a new set of springs or moving the springs from one location to another. This will sometimes do a nice job at allowing the pressure plate to move away from the clutch plates evenly or parallel to the assembly.
Before pulling the clutch cover off, make sure that you have checked the basic lever and free play, as swjohnsey describes.
What you’re describing is not necessarily an indication of a 'bad' clutch. Slipping under power would be a very different thing, but when it fails to disengage fully or becomes difficult to get into neutral the problem is often with the clutch springs. Not that they are especially week, but uneven in strength and available pressure. I often see the condition and it results in the pressure plate moving unevenly away from the clutch plates. This typically results in the trailing edge dragging against the plates. The result is much the same as only pulling in the clutch lever half way. The solution is a new set of springs or moving the springs from one location to another. This will sometimes do a nice job at allowing the pressure plate to move away from the clutch plates evenly or parallel to the assembly.
Before pulling the clutch cover off, make sure that you have checked the basic lever and free play, as swjohnsey describes.
