so, I spent all day changing what I thought was a bad throw out bearing, which seemed really odd in the first place as the car only has 400 miles on it since the rebuild and a new clutch kit was installed then.

anyways after getting the car back together I have the same issue, when I press the clutch pedal I get a clunky/grinding noise and I can't get the car into gear while it's running. another thing, after reassembly I was sitting in the car with it off and I ran through the gears a few times started it up again and was able to get it into first then reverse once, after that no dice, grinding noise came back and cant get into gear.


is there anything else that could cause this? bad slave cylinder?


Thanks

 

Im gonna toss out my guess as a broken clutch fork. Might want to wait for a more experienced member to chime in. I try and read a lot and keep quiet. I remember reading it on here that the clutch fork can be a pretty common failure, bad casting or something like that.

 

If you're able to run through the gears with the car off but not with it running that's a good indication that your clutch is not disengaging fully. Could be that the clutch needs to be bled, slave or master are leaking causing air issues and not enough slave action, clutch fork is bent, the throw out bearing not even engaged with the pressure plate (check this through the inspection cover), or these last two (not common but it happened to two friends of mine) dropped spring from the disc, or bent fingers on the pressure plate.

Matt

 

First off how is the pedal feel? this should be a big indication if its a master or slave issue.

 

It is stiff at first but does get spongy close to the bottom, would a weak cylinder cause the same noise as a bad throwout bearing?

I tried to bleed the system last night by myself and it didn't seem to change anything, going to get my neighbor to help bleed it again today.

 

Are you 100% sure you installed it in the right orientation?
I had a similar issue when I installed the clutch backwards

 

If it is getting spongy then there is air in the clutch system. I recommend taking off the bleeder screw and putting some teflon tape on it because it was a source for air to get in when i was bleeding my clutch. Also, use a pressure bleeder if you have one and bleed the clutch just like the brakes, took 5 minutes this way.

As far as the noise, does it go away when the clutch is in? If so, then it is a bad input shaft bearing which is common on these cars. I actually bought mine with it making noise in 2005, transmission is still working fine after all this time. I'm not sure if its noisier of if i'm getting older.

 

the noise goes away when I left off of the clutch. I tried to bleed it again with my neighbor's help and same problem, I'll try the teflon tape next, going to have to wait till I get off of work tomorrow though, I have been banned from the garage for the rest of the weekend.

input shaft bearing? the pilot bearing? it's brand new also, and I had the trans rebuilt while I had the motor out to fix the syncro issues and replace a chewed up 3rd and 5th gear.

 

if the noise goes away when you let off the clutch then it isn't the input shaft bearing. it would be the throwout usually but you replaced that you said so maybe the pilot but i'm not %100.00.

 

Are you positive that you didn't install the clutch disc backwards?

 

I'm not, I bolted the clutch up about a month ago, is there a way to check this without dropping the trans again?

 

NO box has to come out

 

My did the same thing last summer thought it was throw out bearing but it wasn't i check slave cylinder ,clutch master cylinder ,fork ,clutch line and the clutch it self every thing all good.Last think that i can not see is the pilot bearing so i decided to drop the trans and here what i found





A $10 parts pilot bearing that take me two weekend to fix.

 

haha, well looks like the pilot bearing is part of my problem, I dropped the trans again tonight to check if my clutch was installed backwards as suggested and I found this.

pilot bearing is shot, new one is ordered. still not sure if this is the source of my problem but it needs to be replaced now anyways.

 

It is exactly what I told you I thought the problem was last month. It looks/sounds like you damaged the pilot bearing during the engine installation. The engine and trans should easily slide together, if you are using the bell housing bolts to force the engine, then it is not aligned correctly and will damage the pilot bearing.

 

last month? I just installed the trans 2 weeks ago and the clutch disengagement issue just started last week. also I have never spoken to Banzai for troubleshooting, just ordering parts

 

Sorry, someone contacted me on 11/23 with exactly the same symptoms and question, I said it "sounds like the pilot bearing was damaged"

 

no worries, I still love you guys. no other vendor has sent me rx7 hot wheels

 

This this this this. Once it's aligned it's slides right together.

That pilot bearing is whooped. Glad you found the problem OP.