A diaphragm spring with fanned-out fingers engaging a recess in a clutch housing

A diaphragm spring 8 has a series of fanned-out spring fingers 5 extending radially outwards from a central annular region 6 and a series of spring tongues 9 extending radially inwards from the annular region 6. In order to reduce the axial dimension of a clutch, the spring fingers 5, when the clutch is disengaged, engage in a plurality of recesses 4 in clutch housing 3. The spring fingers 5 bear on a knife-edge 15 formed on pressure plate 13 to engage the clutch and at the same radial position as the knife-edge 15 the recesses 4 are provided. Annular region 6 engages a wire ring 10, fitted to the housing 3 by spacer pins 7, and bearing 17 formed on the housing 3. Clutch disc 14 is equipped with friction linings 11, 12 which are pressed against a flywheel by pressure plate 13. In another embodiment (see fig 4) the pressure plate is provided with axially projecting lugs (19, fig 4) which engage between the fingers 5 and extends beyond the fingers 5.