For the past week, every time i push my clutch in it sounds like a rock in a tin can. A couple days ago it got bad. I was sitting at the lights in 1st with the clutch in and it was starting to grip a little. When I got out of 2nd i could not get it into any gear until i stopped the engine. I got it home and took the tranny out and looked at the clutch and it looks fine to me and my dad. Don't know what else it could be. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

P.S. Any body have any way of getting the 54mm or 2 1/8 inch nut off of the flywheel.

 

any chance the problem is in fact at the pedal hinge?

 

its most likely your clutch hydraulics. if you arent losing fluid and your hose isnt crapped out id say at least rebuild the slave and master. well try replace the slave with a reman for a whopping 20 bucks first, if that doesnt cure it then rebuild the master cyl.
good luck
gamble

 

Some say you should rebuild both at once. If one is bad, the other could possibly be close to the same condition. Wouldn't hurt the master cyl. to rebuild it, and if you do them both at once, you only have bleed the system once, instead of bleeding it after each rebuild.

 

yeah sounds like the slave cyl/master cyl. replace both and then check the line for a leak and if it needs to be replaced do that too. i dunno about the noise though, mine was pretty quiet when i had the same problem. check Mazdatrix for the parts.

 

Has anyone else had this happen?
The slave cylinder moves but only about about an inch to an inch and a half.

 

I had a similar problem with my SE, when I asked a friend that work for mazda, as a mechanic, he said the slave cyl. on Rx-7's it is a very common problem. I would just go ahead and get a new one if you can.

But anyway my problem turned out to be a defective clutch plate. I did a clutch job, about three or four months later I had some fun with a red FC TII, well I pased him going into a tight 90* turn (only because I had more ***** than he did) down shifted to second just fine but after that I had serious problems. I couldn't shift unless the input shaft and the engine were at the same speed (this is when I learned to double clutch, and this helped prefect my heal toe technique). Pulled the clutch down and I had a LARGE chunk of meterial "out of place".

 

Check the condition of the pilot bearing in the rearward end of the e-shaft. They can go bad and start grabbing the transmission input shaft, rendering the clutch useless. You don't need to take the flywheel nut off to replace it, but if you are just curious about how to get the 54mm nut off, I used a special wrench from Mazdatrix that has a two-foot handle of steel welded to a socket, and a long bar that bolts to the flywheel to keep the thing from turning while you are trying to generate the 300-350 foot-pounds of torque necessary to get the damn thing off. There is another flywheel locking device available that meshes with the teeth on the flywheel and bolts to the rear housing, which I think is actually a better way to do it. BTW, I was having the same problem as you are, and it turned out to be the pilot bearing. When I seperated the engine and tranny, the rollers fell right in my face! A bad pilot bearing will also cause undue wear on the input shaft's bearings due to the front of the shaft being unsupported. Hope this helps, good luck! -WG

 

I used the Mazda flywheel-wrench, but couldn't manage the flywheel nut to come loose... Then someone else did the job in just a few seconds... All it took was a serious knock with a serious boot... And I used the Mazda flywheel lock, the one with theeth, much better then a sort of bar.

 

You could also use a piece of chain bolted to the flywheel and the block on the other end.

 

This is the one I bought from mazdatrix and I think its well worth it.

 

usually an air gun will get it loose with a few tries...

 

Yeah! That's the one I want!
Still have to secure the motor somehow, though. It's almost impossible to get the flywheel nut off with the engine in the car, too much give in the mounts to allow the quick "snap" motion necessary to break the nut loose. The one advantage the long bar has is that if the motor is out of the car, it keeps the motor from flopping around when you are reefin' on it. That's where a really BIG air impact wrench comes in, then you may not even need to lock the flywheel.

 

You guys ever seen the torque multiplier mazda flywheel removal tool they make? A mecahnic in the town I used to live in had one, and he lent it to me one time when I had to pull the flywheel on an old 7 i had. Easier than an impact gun because you don't even have to brace the flywheel.

All it is is an arm with a hole cut out the size of the flywheel nut on one end. On the other end is a bolt attached to what looks like a small starter gear that meshes with the ring gear on the flywheel. you put the tool on the flywheel, and then just turn the small nut. It only takes like 70 or 80 Fps of torque to remove a flywheel. The small gear just turns on the flywheel and spins the nut right off (or on)

They mention this tool in the Haynes manual, (you can see it in the example picture they use) but I have never been able to find one.

If anyone knows where to get one, please let me know. Damn, I wish I had a picture...

 

Also, another handy tool when doin clutch work is a valve guide puller. You can get em at most ap stores for like 30 bucks. Looks just like the mazda pilot bearing tool (slidehammer thing) but is much cheaper (and easier to find) Takes like 30 seconds to remove a pilot bearing...

 

Also to remove a pilot bearing, you can put a big wad of grease in it and then put the correct size transfer punch in and tap it. Hydraulics will push it out.