Preventing audio clipping on inexpensive lapel mics
There unfortunately isn't enough information here to give you a definitive answer but I will try to cover the most likely bases.  The first thing you need to do is determine the source of the clipping.  Is it actually clipping at the recorder or are the microphones themselves clipping.  Clipping occurs whenever the signal level exceeds what a particular piece of equipment is designed to handle and can occur at almost any point in the process.

If the levels you see on the recorder are actually exceeding the levels it is capable of recording, then you need to use a device called a pad to bring down the levels and match the impedance of the microphones to the impedance of the recorder.  You can try working around it by positioning them further away, but any sufficiently loud noise is still going to cause them to clip and background noise will become a much larger problem.  Bringing down the signal level with a pad is the correct solution.

The other possible problem, particularly with cheap microphones, is that the mics themselves could be clipping.  If this is the case, it would likely be a distortion but not peak the recorder.  In this case, you would need to move the mic further away and ensure that nothing is bumping in to the diaphragm that could be causing direct shocks to it.  Alternately, a better mic could be used which would allow it to stay closer to the signal source and thus reduce your background noise.

The main thing to keep in mind when getting clean audio is that you want to sample as much signal and as little noise as possible, which means keeping things as directional and as localized as possible and/or keeping the environment quiet.