help with clutch or tranny
 

i have a 1988 rx-7 convertible which i bought under the impression that it flooded and was ready to deal with that issue that however is not the case , i have found that the throwout bearing was pushed through the pressure plate, prior to this i replaced both the master and slave cylinder at which point i replaced the flywheel, bearings, clutch and plate . the car runs and idles fine however the more i push the clutch pedal the harder it gets until it wont move. i can put in any gear with pedal down but when pedal comes back up car doesnt move , i can however put in gear and when i crank it over the car will jump , i bled the clutch line and it is free of air , to me it appears as though the rod on the slave cylinder pushes the clutch fork but doesnt return when pressure is let up as though i am still on the pedal , so i am unsure as to what the problem is or where to go next to fix

check and make sure the fork is on the pivot ball. im thinking that if the fork isn't secured on the pivot all the way, or came off, that when you push in the pedal the rod on the slave cylinder will come out but will stop when the fork wont move anywhere because its up against the transmission housing or something.

Is the spot the throwout bearing rides on smooth when you started, the bearing should have came with grease in it, did you ad more and what kind. If it went dry in the past and got high and low spots it may hang up.

i didnt ad anymore grease than what came with the bearing , the shaft was smooth and didnt appear to have any spots , the bearing slides smoothly when done by hand before putting the transmission back in , it is really hard to push the rod back in the slave cylinder , i can push the fork by hand and it will spring back to where it started but when the rod pushes on it it doesnt come back as if theres not enough pressure being put on it

What happens if you open the bleeder screw?

if you open the bleeder screw on the slave cylinder, the clutch fluid will leak out. you have to do this to bleed out the clutch system.

Are you talking about when the trans is in the car.

Or to be more direct, are you saying that you can move the clutch fork when the transmission is installed in the car?

if you can move the fork when its installed in the car then it sounds like your slave cylinder is wore out and its time to get a new one. they are cheap and meant to be replaced

i can move the fork by hand when trans is installed in car and the slave cylinder is new so is the master cylinder , the rod on the slave will move forward and push the fork but the rod doesnt return into the slave so the fork stays pushed back all the way , looks like i'll be taking the tranny back out again this weekend , i had my girlfriend put the car in gear and i moved fork by hand as if i were slave cylinder and clutch still would not engage , i have had tranny out twice now and have been unable to find anything not normal, before changing clutch the car would go into gear fine so i dont get it , with everything new it should be great but its not working

Yeah, that's not a hydraulic problem. Time for the trans to come out.

If you have someone push the clutch pedal down and the slave cyl pushes out, and you open the bleeder screw, does fluid sqwert out and the fork go back. If you replaced the master and the pedal rod is preloaded maybee it will hold press? If it doesent go back then it's not hydraulic. I'm thinking it goes into gear when it's off, if it won't go into gear when it's running the disc might be backwards, you would'nt be the first guy to do that.

You should definately not be able to push the fork by hand. The pressure plate is far too strong to be able to release the clutch that way. Sounds like you clutch and or pressure plate is no good.

when i use my hand to push it i can tell i am pushing the spring on the clutchfork not necessisarily the pressure plate , it does seem as though when the slave pushes on the fork it is as far back on the bellhousing as it will go , i am thinking as was said b4 that the fork is not seated properly, when i pull the tranny i will check the clutch plate again but is there a way to tell which way the plate goes as the one i took off was quite different from the new one i got , when i put it on i put the side where the middle sticks out further facing the tranny and the flatter side against the flywheel , how can i determine if the fork is working properly before i reinstall the tranny again

The fork is just a fork, you can take it off and check for cracks. It sounds like you have the clutch in correctly.

To be honest I don't see this as a fork problem. A broken fork would more likely cause shift problems vs shifting fine and not going anywhere.

i was more thinking the fork came off the pivot ball when i was putting the tranny back in or i didnt get it seated properly on the ball

That may be true, but that would mean the car is never engaging the clutch. You would never be able to put the car in any gear.

thats what its doing now i can move the shifter where ever i want but nothing is engaging from engine to tranny, i can move shifter into any gear it just doesnt do anything and it all started after changing the clutch

Clutch problems
 

Another thing to check is if you have the correct throw out bearing. There is a short and a long bearing. The slave cylinder may be over extending to where it can not get back into the bore correctly. If the short bearing is installed it will not some into contact with the pressure plate fingers until the very end of the throw of the fork.

Make sure the bearing you get is for the late model RX-7 which is about 1/2 " longer than the early type. It doesn't seem like much but it makes a big difference at the clutch. Also you may want to put a return spring on the slave cylinder to ensure it retracts so you don't have the bearing in contact with the clutch plate. This will eliminate wear on the bearing and the fingers on the pressure plate.

i pulled tranny again and replaced both the fork and the pivot ball and rechecked everything , everthing looks good , put tranny back in and bled lines and now i still have same thing , when i adjust clutch pedal i can get it to comeback up but i have to hold the switch in by hand to get it to turn over when it is running i can move shift lever into any gear without pushing the pedal in and no movement or sounds of gears mashing or anything, with the car off i can turn rear wheels and the driveshaft and flywheel will turn with it , i am begining to think i tranny is shot or am i missing something

When the flywheel turns does the front crank pully turn? Is the only problem that the fork will not return? If the car went into gear and jumped when you started the trans should be ok.

it jumped before i changed the clutch now it doesnt do anything

the point i am at now the car wont move i can move shifter all over without pushing clutch in and nothing happens

ok problem solved after looking closer there was some crap on the base of the shaft was only like a 16th but just enough to not let the throwout bearing move back far enough