Hi everyone,

I have a 1986 GXL, bone stock, with 35,xxx original miles on her. So I do believe this is the original clutch as well.

The problem I am having is this:

After the car is warmed up and I am trying to start from a stop in 1st gear the clutch seems to grab/bite real hard, no matter how slow I release the clutch. When letting off the clutch I feel the car grabbing and moving forward. I then apply more gas as I let of the clutch some more. Then all of a sudden it feels as if the clutch bites real hard. It feels like it I was took my foot completely of the clutch, but i didnt. Im still moving it slowly. Every other gear is smooth with no problems. Reverse is sometimes hard to put into gear, but still workable.
When this happens the car, mainly the motor, then starts to jerk pretty bad. Ive tried to keep the car around 1500-2000 rpms and it still did it. I tried keeping the car around 1000-1500 and same thing. I havent tried higher than 2500, mainly cause I have yet to drive a car that needed to rev that high for a smooth slow take off in 1st gear.
This doesnt happen at every stop to start scenario. but I would say it happens about 40% of the time. I also noticed that when I press the clutch I can hear a bit of a whine. once the clutch is engaged it goes away. Im not sure if this is a throwout bearing or any other part.

I looked at the master and slave cylinder, but they looked good. It was a little low on clutch fluid, but never below the minimum amount. I topped her off and still have the same problem.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Please help!!!

Thanks in advanced!!!!!!!!!!!

 

without knowing, it sounds like someone tossed a puck clutch into the car before you got it. not alot you can do about it without yanking the clutch again to inspect it.

 

The previous owner was an older guy who hardly drove the her. Wouldnt make sense for him to put a puck clutch in. Of course anything is possible...

 

Have you checked the engine mounts?

 

The grab is inconsistent 40% of the time? Maybe a failing clutch master cylinder.

Have someone watch the throwout arm on top the transmission while the clutch pedal is held to the floor. If the arm slowly returns to the out position or the clutch pedal sticks to the floor after holding it for a minute, the clutch master cylinder might be bad.

 

thanks guys.

I haven't had time to check that out. Sometime this week or this weekend Ill take a look and post it up.

 

So I checked out the the pivot arm and engine mounts. The mounts look good, nothing broken. The Pivot arm didnt move when the clutch pedal was pressed and the pedal doesnt stick to the floor either.

One thing I noticed--

When I push the clutch pedal (clutch pedal to floor) , I can hear a whine coming from the engine bay. I looked around and people associate a bad throw out bearing when there is a whine while the clutch pedal is pressed. As soon as I let go of the pedal, either while in nuetral or in a gear, I do not hear any whining.

Would this cause a rough grab when starting from a stop? or could this be signs for a new clutch? The car has 36,000 orignial miles and I do not know if the clutch was replaced at all. It still grabs, when driving at 20 mph and shfting into 5th it does not slip out of gear.

Thanks again!

 

anymore suggestions?

I am thinking I should start with replacing the slave and master, then if it is still present the clutch.

 

Does it whine every single time? Or does in whine only after it warms up?

 

It whines as soon as I start the car. I looked around on youtube for a bad throw out bearing video. The ones I watched were very loud and you could tell something was wrong. With mine its only a little whine, nothing loud like in some of the videos.

I bought a new master, slave, and braided line. That should be here on thursday. I figured Id start small before replacing the clutch.