K, I could be entirely incorrect in my thinking, but I seem to remember having a discussion with Colin, AKA Spanner Juggler, about this subject many years ago in relation to my then Ford P100 pick up truck, it too was five speed.
The issue as best I can remember was that the pedal arrangement had some sort of auto adjustment built in which ensured that the there was zero play in the cable and that the release bearing was constantly running, though not under pressure...!!! Having grown up when clutch cables always were adjusted to have circa 1/8th inch free play, I was left confused.
The only thing I could arrive at was that such had the volume of traffic grown that folk were often inching along and riding the clutch and wearing out release bearings which then encouraged the design of bearings that could run constantly without issue...?
Having fitted a new clutch and release bearing, it ran for years without issue until I scrapped it... Go figure..
More than happy to be corrected and further educated...
