jeremyt

When I push in my clutch it makes a grinding sound. Like the sound of bad breaks. Also, every once and a while the shift won't go into gear when I first turn her on. The clutch grabs fine and there is plenty of pedal. I was told it was a new clutch when I bought it. Could it be the clutch master cylinder or the peice it is connected to (I can't remember what it's called) They look like they may be old.

rhinor61

Maybe a new clutch but sounds like a bad throw out bearing...



J.

LongDuck

If this problem is only when you push in the clutch at idle, and you ALSO have a hard time getting it into 1st or reverse, then it's your Pilot Bearing (PB).

The PB is used to guide the transmission input shaft into the back of the eccentric shaft on the engine, and it is a needle bearing to help distribute the rotational loads of applying the clutch to a spinning engine. Under heavy torque, the input shaft needs to be supported so that your clutch spins concentric to the pressure plate and flywheel disk - this prevents imbalance that could lead to clutch failure at high rpm.

The PB is a pain in the *** to replace, but if you're doing a clutch job anyway, you might as well go through the effort of replacing the TOB, the tranny front cover and seal, and the PB, just to be sure - not much fun pulling a tranny that you just put back together because you left out a $10 part (the PB).

A quick tip is to rent the right bearing puller from your local shop or the www.mazdatrix.com part that they sell specifically for this job. Anything else will require lots of time, cussing, and parts being thrown around the garage as you try everything in your human power to remove a part that won't budge. I had to grind mine down enough to split the bearing race and only THEN could I get the puller to work on it. It's a hard job with anything but the right tools from the get-go.

What you described in your post sounds like the PB to me. Good luck,