Ok today.. go out to take my friend home.. start my car.. clutch in, go to put it into reverse.. nothing.


Not that unusual, sometimes it won't let me in reverse right away, so I try to goto 5th.. nasty grind.


1st... no, 2nd.. no.. same with every gear.



Tried bleeding the clutch, made no difference. Adjusted the pedal too.. still nothing. It is moving the arm on the slave cylinder. One random time I started it and it let me in any gear i wanted for a couple minutes.. then it just went back to being all jammed up.


Any help is appreciated.

 

Check the master cylinder? Is there enough fluid? Any leaks anywhere?

 

Master cyl is full, no leaks.

 

Are you able to see that the slave cylinder is engaging when the clutch pedal is depressed??

 

This exact thing happened to me on another car I had. It turned out to be the clutch slave cylinder.

 

IF the slave has full travel, it is not a hydraulic issue. You either have a bad pilot bearing, the clutch disc has binded on the spline shaft of the trans, or the pressureplate/clutch has failed in an odd way (very rare). Usually in these cases it is the pilot bearing, especially if you do a lot of high rpm shifting. IF you eliminate everything but the pilot bearing, here is one way to break it loose:

Have the battery charged up very well, if not already, for strong cranking. Put the e-brake on tight, put the shifter in 1st, push the clutch pedal, and try to start the car. The car might lurch a little bit, and the starter bog. Within a second or so it should probably break loose and crank up. If it cranks up and is still binding, give it plenty of gas...hold it on the floor for a second or 2. This should break the pilot bearings grip on the input shaft, and release the tension. It'll probably shift closer to normal now. I've done this on a few cars now.

Course, this is just temporary really...you know you've got a toasted/spun pilot bearing in there, and sometime relatively soon you should open it up and do a new clutch/PB, and clean the spline shaft real well too. IF you ride too long on a bad pilot bearing (one that is worn out or disentigrated) the input shaft bearing on the trans will wear prematurely. Other than that, there is no real disadvantage to it.

 

Yeah, the slave does appear to have full travel, or at least a lot of it. And after adjusting the pedal, it even had more travel and it made no difference.

So I'm guessing it's my pilot bearing too. When I get home I'll turn the car around (it's facing my garage right.. I dont really wanna run into it) and try what you said. Hopefully it'll break free and let me drive it a little bit.

ps. kevin.. got a new gas tank and cleaned out all fuel lines and my injectors/rails.. car runs like (well, ran like) a champ now.

 

Sounds as tho you either have a worn pressure plate that isnt releasing, usually caused by wear on the release fingers due to a wearing throwout bearing that grinds them down. Or you have too little throw from the throw out bearing due to air in the clutch line, or a bent release fork. And then you may have a bent selector shaft, or wore out syncros.

First, I would ensure the slave altho moving, is moving enuff to disengage the pressure plate. If it is, then I would say your best bet is to pull it and redo the entire internal clutch system. Pilot bearing, seal, clutch and pressure plate, and throw out bearing. And while you got it out, do the rear main on the engine, and front on the tranny.

Leslie

 

pilot bearing


-Ted

 

Yeah.. it's the pilot bearing. I did what Kevin said and now theres a squeeking when the clutch is in.. so yeah im driving the beater again.

 

How much damage would I do if i drove it on the messed up pilot bearing?

 

What did I already tell you in my post above?

 

hehe this ended up happening to my car a while ago...
Ended up with broken PP ´forks´ because the bearing was sooo FUBAR´d.

Bought a 2nd hand 12a PP/new bearing and car was back on the road the next day.

 

Hey since this is a clutch thread.

My pedal pushes 2/3rds in before it engages the clutch.

There is no such thing as easing it in on this thing. It is a Mazdaspeed clutch so I think it has a stiffer PP. Is it just the stiffer pressure plate or a combo of that and a problem like master cylinder being weak?

There is a brand new slave cylinder in there with SS braided lines.

The master cylinder is supposed to be new(4 months on it) but I'm not totally sure.

A while ago my car fubar'd like aboves and I took it to a shop. They said they put in a new master. The clutch was great for the first 2 weeks. Then it went mushy again where it takes some travel to engage. I partially blame this for a slipping clutch.

I'm guessint they did some goofy **** and sprayed my old cylinder black to look new.

As of now I have adjusted the pedal to disengage enough for it to shift but it is a tough shift(like partially engaged still) I don't want to mess with the pedal again in fear that it will not fully engage.

 

Ok, just kidding!