Possible cause of heavy clutch pedal?

[arm79]

Yep, we're talking about the same thing.

I remember seeing long ago one of those cones that had worn down thinner where the bearing slid along. Had the side profile of a small dumbbell for want of a better description. Obviously never had much grease on it or regular checks. That had a heavy clutch.

I don't think it would wear out the bearing part itself, but I definitely think it could wear out the bore of the bearing unit as a whole. It would be rubbing metal on metal.

Although it might damage the bearing from the point of view that it would be loose and vibrate on the shaft from movement. That's why we started looking at that car I described, because it had a rattly vibration noise from the whole release arm and bearing rattling away.