Pilot & Release Bearing
 

I changed my pilot & release bearing last night.
The ride has never been smoother.

But the clutch is intermitent. I greased both bearings before putting them in. I also greased the forks on the preasure plate. Is that a bad thing?

I figured that the whole area would benifit from some lube.

Whats going on?

It mostly happens when going into first gear from a stand still and when down shifting.

What do you mean by "intermittent"?

After I finished last night, I lowered the lift and was uneasy about going out for a test ride because it was like 2:30 in the morn. The only people out at that time are cops and drunks. I went out anyway the temptation was to much.

Right out of the gate I noticed that the tranny wasn't disengaging all the way. The gears were grinding when I tryed to put it into rev. I forced it into gear.

The tranny wasn't totaly engaged, the clutch is still in, when I let out the clutch it came out of the garage fine, Clutch back in to move to first, more grinding, again I forced it in, not completely disengaged still, let out the clutch off I went, Everything seemed to clear up a bit.

Then when trying to shift from third to second there was lots of grinding, and embrassment as a fellow RX-7 owner saw the whole thing this morn.

What's up to who ever was in the Black 7 this morn. in Gulfport.

Yes, I bled the Clutch.

SOunds more like a hydraulic problem... But the throwout bearing can be causing this too.

If its not your hydroulics, i'm afraid it sounds like what my pilot bearing did when it was going bad.. So hard to say though. It can grab the shaft and not let it release.

Check free play amount, then press clutch pedal to the floor and hold for about 1 minute. Let up and check free play again. If it increases, hydraulics bad.