is this what youre referring to?

 

Yep.

Words of Wisdom from Greg the Younger:

how_to_change_a_fan_belt.wmv (1510KB)

 

Where's everyone at? 1 post in 2 days?

I thought I'd update a few of you on the progress with Jim's 'vert. It took forever to clean out the garage and make car space, so I only got that done and got the car up off the air Sunday. Then I started tearing things off of it yesterday, and the transmission's sitting on the garage floor. And today I'm putting it all back together, yay. I'm going to give him a call this evening to see if he want's to buy a few interior pieces that the car is missing, and to see if he want's me to replace the super bad shifter bushings.

 

Why are you still listing your Maxipad as an "Adult car"? You have massive let's-annoy-everyone subwoofers in the back and you drive like a mad man. How is that 'adult'? :-P

 

Yeah!!! I won, I won. Thanks Ray, I can't wait to see the my free OGTA Calendar.

Happy Birthday Chris, sorry I'm late. And Chris, get a high resolution pic to Ray for the "hoods up" pic. That one is great for the calendar.

 

Yeah Chris, I'm still waiting for that one, it's holding up the first print run. Send it soon!

Can anybody get that "how to change a fan belt" video working? It's a neat trick, the guy changes the belt on a VW bug with the engine running in about 5 seconds. Greg the Younger posted it but I think he has a copyright protection or something.

 

It makes me feel mature, alright? lol. In the RX7, everyone looks at me with the death stare unless they're some punk kid. The Maxima makes me blend in It's nice.

I like that one, too. That's 2 votes.

 

Here you go - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeATFAPd03Y

 

Nice find Roland, that's great movie. Reminds me of my '69 VW bug, first car I owned back in the early 70's (like, who needs a manual, man).

Here's my best fan belt trick:

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt=amovie.flv]

 

Alright, I've got problems..

Somewhere in my clutch setup I've got a serious problem. I've searched and searched, and have a good idea on where to look, but I want some opinions.

Randomly, I am unable to get the car in gear while the engine is running and my clutch pedal feels completely neutral...aka missing the point in the travel at which you can feel the pressure plate/friction point.

I've checked for leaks and proper actuation of the clutch hydraulics and they're fine. The first time this happened, the problem simply...fixed itself. Then it was fine, but changing gear felt funny...as if I had the clutch depressed maybe 3/4 of the way. Coming back from Vermont, I drove to school today and up around the mall of georgia area. However, upon stopping in the Starbucks parking lot in a really awesome parking space near the front door, I could not get the damn thing to go back into any gear (I leave it in first usually when parked on a downward facing hill because my emergency brake sucks). I didn't panic yet, as I was meeting up with a new friend of mine who is quite awesome...even gave him a goodnight kiss. :-P --- anyways, I figured if it sat for a few hours it'd fix itself again. Nope, not this time. So, after Michael and I hung out with Kristy and Holly for a bit, I decided to drive it home with Michael following in the Firebird. I figured I could use my long time friend the starter to get rolling from a stop and kick the engine on and simply float my gearbox the whole way home. Foolproof, I tell you!

So I go to leave Starbucks and, with the 'box in first, clutch pedal depressed (Just in case) I cranked her over. I was expecting the car to start puttering along on the starter but it didn't. It *DID* however pull forward quite a bit making a lovely grinding/scuffing noise as the clutch apparently was only partially disengaged and was slipping.

The drive to the interstate was fine. Changing gear felt halfway normal and I could come to a stop and depress the clutch pedal and it'd not drag the clutch along the flywheel. But when I came to my exit on the interstate and came to a gentle stop (Placing the gearbox back in first at a 2mph roll or so, the damn thing nearly stalled out on me. Thankfully the light turned green and I just began accelerating again. Though when I changed up into second, third, and then fourth gear...I had NO clutch again. Had to float them all into their gates. 1/4 of a mile up, turning into the gas station, the clutch began working just fine again.

Made it home, but intermittently the throw out bearing (Clutch depressed) is making even more groaning/grinding/scuffing noise. It's really sickening.. So I know the throw out bearing is going to fail on me at some point. However, this whole problem with the clutch setup itself is pissing me off. My hydraulics appear to be working perfectly...so after searching, I figure either my clutch fork is bent or the pivot for the fork is 'effed. Crit suggested the pressure plate might be worn out. The clutch is a four or so year old Mazda kit... but without paper to prove it, I have no way of knowing if the disc only was replaced or if the pressure plate and release bearing got replaced as well. Judging by the condition of my car at the moment, I'd say the clutch disc was all that really got replaced.

-sigh-

I'm pissed. Maybe this is a sign that I'm supposed to buy a new car that I cannot afford and kill myself trying to hold onto it?

 

I'm still thinking it may also be your clutch master cylinder.

 

I deleted the high res of the hood shot by mistake. It has to do with how I edit my photos in a smaller size for the web, but keep full sized copies as well. I accidentally just resized then saved, then reformatted the memory card after realizing I hadn't saved 2 copies of the photo. It's like the one time I mess up and it's the number one most wanted photo of mine, we will have ot recreate it someday. But yeah, this is the same reason it didn't make the other calendars otherwise it'd be the cover. Chris PMed me saying he wanted it for the cover if I had a high res shot and that's the day I realized I didn't.

 

Whoops. I'll try to make the one I took off the web work (OGTA calendar standards aren't the same as for Chris' Professional 1st Gen Calendar).

Maybe if you send the low res directly to me (surelypeaches@yahoo.com) it might be a little better than what I've got?

It is a great photo.

Collin, I'm with Crit, sounds like your clutch. (Not because I know anything about FC's, I don't, but because Crit is usually right).

On the other hand, it has been quite awhile since you changed cars, a bad MC is as good an excuse as any to go into debt on a new one (maybe you might want to try an FB this time?)

 

I would also point out that it could be your pilot bearing. A pilot bearing siezing is
like a clutch that refuses to disengage. Unless your extra careful on the tranny
install and lube the new bearing and put the bearing seal in, they will fail fairly
quickly.

Rule of thumb, always replace the pilot when pulling the tranny for any
reason. They're cheap and easy to do.

Also make sure not to bugger it up when putting the tranny back in.

Ray, I must be old now, AARP sent me a card last week!

 

A while back AARP asked me for mailing addresses for all OGTA members, everyone should be hearing from them soon.

 

^ this

The clutch hydraulics are pretty consistent, so your intermittent failure may point more to the clutch pilot. Good catch, Tim!

 

When my clutch hydraulics failed, it was actually fairly intermittent. Basically, pumping the pedal could sometimes get me enough hydraulic pressure to operate the clutch. Sometimes it would completely disengage, sometimes not. Always worth trying to bleed it before pulling the trans.

But I could be completely wrong with your problem.

 

pumping the pedal has done absolutely nothing for me.

I would think that if the hydraulics were bad, either the slave would NOT actuate the fork at all or the slave would gradually (Or more importantly, rapidly) lose pressure and keel back a bit. However, this doesn't appear to be happening.

I considered the idea of the pilot bearing being bad... However, after searching I found that the pilot bearing would have been making quite a lot of noise with the clutch pedal OUT and not in. My grinding noise is only with the clutch IN leading me to believe it's the throw out bearing.

So if the pilot bearing was bad somehow, how would that affect me being able to get the car into gear?

 

When you clutch in, the input shaft won't spin down - the engine will continue dragging it by the nose. It would be like driving without ever being able to clutch-in. I'd do a 2-man test with an assistant pushing the clutch pedal and holding, and Collin's watchful eye following the slave cylinder. If the pedal's pushed to the floor, you may see leakdown in the master as evidenced by the throwout fork slowly returning to its rest position. If not, then I'd suspect the pilot bearing as being bad.

If you replace it, don't forget that the seal is extra, and not always available in-store. I've got spares if needed.

 

Crit, yesterday when I called you I was with my new friend, who depressed and held the clutch pedal in the car while I was watching the slave. Also did this the first time this problem started happening because I had Kristy with me. The hydraulics appear to be working as the slave is actuated and does not slowly lose pressure.

So if the pilot bearing was bad (Seized?), the input shaft on the transmission would not ride free while the clutch did it's thing? Would this be intermittent?

The throw out bearing has been making noise, so I'm pretty sure I may have a compound problem here.

If the clutch fork was bent/broken/otherwise bad...I don't think the problem would be intermittent like this.

So to me, it's gotta be: Pressure plate, pilot bearing or hydraulic. Hydraulics check out, not sure why the pressure plate would be THAT intermittent...so that leaves the Pilot Bearing I guess. I'm still a bit confused as to how that all works but eh...

After fixing this, *IF* I fix it...I think I'm going to get a used Mazda3.

 

A bad pilot bearing only makes noise when the clutch is released (pressed in).
I don't think its your throwout bearing being noisey, its the pilot bearing.

 

Oooh, okay. So with the pedal pressed in and the clutch released, THAT would be my pilot bearing? I guess I had the two confused... The screaching/grinding with the clutch disengaged would get worse while reengaging the clutch (Pulling away from a standstill).

So, you guys seem to think my pilot bearing is seizing/already gone bad because it's dragging the input shaft along and not allowing the transmission to spin down so I can get into gear?

 

Or it's just missing rollers. Somehow rollers always seem to end up in the bottom of the bore in the e-shaft, or if someone didn't replace the seal, they just slip out into the clutch and out the bellhousing vent.

 

-Sigh- Basically, Saturday is 'Let's drop the gearbox!' day, huh?

Fun fun... Guess I can use it as an opportunity to invite a romantic interest or two over to learn about cars and be extra sets of hands. (For the car, not me!...well maybe later )

 

The pilot bearing quit on the Tan One a couple years ago, acted just like the hydraulics giving out 'cept the hydraulics checked out OK. Pulled up to a light at the Jefferson I85 interchange and all of a sudden the clutch just wouldn't clutch. Fortunately I know how to shift without a clutch (a skill learned as a child in rural Indiana) so I got her home OK.

I had to drop the tranny and do a clutch job just 'cause those little roller bearings decided they didn't want to work any more. But now I know I can bench press a tranny, which is a useful skill to have.

The good news is, Collin, you can do it yourself (with a little help from your friends) and you can do it right this time. But do yourself a favor and borrow Crit's pilot bearing removal tool first. Took us two weekends to dremel that spent pilot out of the Tan Ones little hole, which is located way up under the car, very hard to get to.