I just swapped back in my engine and trans after a cam and head swap. I'm bolting everything together, trying to get it going and ready for Saturday's track day!

I just hooked up the hydraulic clutch linkage and the clutch is hard like a rock and the fork isn't moving. I think something with the throwout bearing is off but I'm not sure, I've never done any of this before.

Is there anyone that would come by tomorrow or this week that knows clutches and this stuff, that could help me get the car running for the track?? Thanks a lot guys if anybody can give me a hand.

Jim

 

damn... wish you had posted this earlier as i have gone through the whole t5 thing just resently. Its pretty straight forward. but there are lots of things that can go wrong. unfortunatly i dont have a whole lot of time right now. where are you at exactly?

 

I'm in Evergreen Park, south suburb. I'm starting to pull the trans back out again now, but I really don't want to if I don't have to considering I just did this. Basically, when I was assembling it, the throwout bearing was moving around a lot on the fork and seemed like it would fall off too easily. So I'm thinking it got jarred and fell off the fork when I was sliding the transmission shaft in.

 

well the only problem with that theory is that even if the to bearing was the culprit, the fork would probably still move. either way you are going to have to take the trans and bell out again is the clutch fork used? My problem when i installed everything was my clutch fork was tweeked. the clips that hold the to bearing in were messed up and wouldnt hold right. and teh fork it self was screwed. my clutch would partially disengage and then get rock hard because the push rod in the slave was going through it entire motion. It sounds to me that your fork is moving and going through the entire motion of the slave. Meaning something is messed up w/ the to bearing. If you have watched the fork while pushing the pedle and its not moving at all there are probably some other issues. A new clutch fork from napa is only like 36 bucks... you may want to pick one up while you still have time. Alot of places wont have em in stock but the NAPA warehouse store in aurora probably will, they have everything.

 

this may help if you havent seen these pics yet... they are all over these boards.

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=299854

 

Thanks for the link to the picture, I hadn't seen that. Well, I pulled the trans out again. When I was moving the clutch pedal before the fork was not moving at all which made me think of the to bearing. Anyone have any ideas or any free time?

 

are the clips on the fork in good shape? If the fork is not moving i would tend to believe that its not sitting properly on the pivot point. Is the piston on the slave moving at all? so let me get this straight... the pedle feels rock hard? is there any travel in it b4 it gets rock hard? i wonder if the slave piston is going through its entire motion b4 it pushes the fork. reguardless of the to bearing, it sounds like somthing is wrong w/ your fork setup. I might have time to help friday night after i do my pinion seal... but that is probably too late.

 

Yeah, I took the shield out so I could watch the slave cylinder and the fork motion. The slave cylinder was working fine and the rod was pushing against the fork hard, the pedal moved until it started tightening up against the fork hard and couldn't move any more. The fork would not go past a certain point.

 

sounds like the push rod is going thru its entire motion... sounds like a fork problem or maybe the wrong t/o bearing. install everything and make sure the t/o bearing is in like the pic.

 

when you took everything apart was the t/o bearing still on the fork?

 

Yeah, everything worked right before the swap so I know the parts are good. I'm pretty sure the t/o bearing was in like the pic the first time but I'll try it again, I'm having trouble reinstalling the trans though just from not being able to lift it high enough and guide it easily.

When I took it all apart, the t/o bearing was still in the fork, but I took it out when i cleaned up the bellhousing. Now it sits loosely in the fork, I've never done this before but it seems like it should fit tighter in the fork, I don't know what to do actually haha.

 

if the clips on the fork are good, the t/o bearing should NOT move if you are holding the fork. It will move if you touch the bearing. But when i got my new fork, the t/o bearing pretty much was in place. (not the case w/ my old fork)

 

Yeah, this really sounds like what I was thinking too. I think the fork is probably bad, the clips probably got bent up on removal. I'm going to buy a new fork now. Thanks for the help so far Smurf'n you've helped a lot.