Well, to put it this way, i drove the car up and down the driveway today (not on the road yet, no insurance)... I realized that the clutch engages REALLY high on the pedal... honestly about an half an inch or maybe a LITTLE more before the top of the travel.

So i wanted to see if maybe the clutch was slipping. I put it in 1st, and let of the clutch quickly from about 2000rpm, revs dropped a very little bit and the car didnt jerk at all, moved quickly, but not linear at all... like a slipping clutch.

i DO have about .2" of freeplay in the pedal like the Haynes manual says. The clutch was used, but it was not glazed, and there was not a lot of wear on it at all. The slave cylinder is new, and the pedal is overall wonderful, firm, dosent fade.... and a nice amount of pressure required to disengage the clutch



basically... is this simply a bad clutch, or is there any adjustment i can make to fix this, because it would be a heartbreak if i had to rip the motor/trans apart and spend $300 on a clutch and **** when i just put this bitch all backtogether.



okay, one thing i just thought of. The Car and trans are 1980, the clutch and motor are 1983... the new slave cylinder i bought was for an 80 (makes sense right??) well... it could be that with my current setup, the clutch is not fully released when the slave cylinder "bottoms out" and therefore the clutch never fully clamps. i guess it's a possibility, and i REALLY hope that its the case, because it's a $20 part, and would be easy to fix... as opposed to the clutch. Another note, i dont remember off the top of my head, but does the slave cylinder actually bolt to the trans or the engine (i'm thinking trans) because if that's the case, i wouldnt have noticed the force required to release the clutch that little bit when i bolted the motor to the trans... understand what i'm saying?

 

d this all begs the question.... if this is the case, with the 1980 trans and throwoutbearing and clutch fork... would the 1983-85 12a slave cylinder be what i'm looking for? with the trans being different and all?

 

i thought the slave mounted to the motor, so then the motor year should match the slave year

 

The slave cylinder bolts to the tranny bell housing. I'm not sure of the years, but I have found that there r some differences in the clutch forks. It is a good idea to keep trannys and forks together.

 

don't forget about the master cylinder, that is what you are pushing in when you push the clutch in.

 

well... my basic thinking at this point is that the pushrod from the slave to the fork is too long... so when the clutch is re-engaging, it bottoms that piston out in the bore of the slave cylinder before the pressure plate is fully clamped on the disc.

i'm gonna take it off tomorrow and use a spare pushrod cut down a bit to see if that changes things.... i REALLY hope it does.

 

anyone?

 

try it...

I still don't see why you have to do that though

 

well think about it.

the slave cylinde pushes the clutch fork in, to release the clutch.

ideally, the slave cylinder (just a piston in a bore) should start it's travel just before the pushrod starts to move the clutch fork

now imagine for a second that the pushrod was a little too long, and when the slave cylinder hasnt even moved yet, the clutch fork is already in a slightly released position, reducing the clamping force on the clutch disc.

cutting the pushrod would solve this problem, which may be caused by the fact that the clutch and motor are not from the same year as the trans and slave cylinder.... different throw lenghts on the clutch, or even different overall depths of the clutch could cause this.

 

well, in the fun fun 10degree weather, i pulled the slave, and sho 'nuff it popped back under the pressure of the fork.

grabbed the old pushrod, went downstairs and patronized the grinder... took about 1/8 off, tested it, and it still moved the clutch fork at rest position, so i took another 1/8 off... and it's great now.

starts to engage a couple of inches off the floor, and it bites when you let off hard (at least it seems to in my driveway).... we'll see about high rpm powershifts in a few weeks.

so i'm happy

 

Interesting, I haven't heard of the rods being too long, more often they are not long enough. FWIW, the old Mazda b-1600 pickups used a rod that was adjustable for length, which works great for RX7s. I pulled two of them the last time I was at the junkyard. Climb a fairly steep hill in as high a gear as possible and stomp the gas pedal to see if the clutch is slipping at all.