Up till about 2 weeks ago, the clutch in my car was working perfectly. Now, I've replaced a master cylinder and 2 slave cylinders and it still isn't releasing correctly. Before, I was getting 3/4" yoke travel with the clutch pedal pressed. Now, with brand new cylinders, I'm only getting 5/8" of travel. Yesterday I put in the new master cylinder, the day before was the new slave cylinder, and I was getting 11/16" travel. Today, with no changes, I'm only getting 5/8" travel, and its shifting hard as hell. We bled an entire bottle of fluid through it just a little while ago with no change in the amount of travel. Whats the deal?

 

Have you checked to make sure the clutch doesn't have a problem? Is the fork still placed correctly? Make sure you check the whole system, because other things can cause this problem also.

 

Well, that was my question I asked my dad. How would anything in the bell housing shorten the throw of the yoke? We were wondering if the throwout bearing was going out, or if the fingers on the pressure plate were worn down. The clutch is 3 years old and its been through hell, so that wouldn't surprise me. But I don't see how any of that would shorten the throw of the yoke. However, after I finish another project I'm going to go ahead and pull the trans and check everything over.

 

Bingo. Got it up in the air today and pulled the transmission to take a look at the throwout bearing and the clutch fingers, they both looked fine. I pulled the slave cylinder back off and looked at the fork and it looked alright at first. Then I noticed I could see the entire "bowl" the pivot ball fits in, the yoke had slid out of the bell housing about 3/4". I tapped it back in with a hammer and bolted the slave clyinder back up, looks like that was the whole source of the problem. Don't know how it went this long shifting OK and just now started acting up, but I'll update once I get it all put back together and can drive it again.

 

so whats exactly happened? sorry to bring it from the dead but i just replaced my clutch and have an extremly soft pedal and feels like it wont disengage correctly. dont know the source of my problem and wondered if you had a soft pedal as well?

 

Some how, the throw-out fork had slid off of the pivot ball and come out of the bellhousing about 3/4". When the clutch pedal was pressed, the throw-out fork would slightly rotate, as well as slowly move out farther, reducing the amount of movement at the throw-out bearing.

 

hmmmmm....well i fired the car up today and the clutch is working (i dont have tires on the back and they spin when in gear and when the clutch is depressed they stop) but im grinding very bad going into reverse....any ideas? also its kind of stiff when trying to shift into all the other gears

 

for the grinding, let the rms get nice and low then shift, mine grinds too and i have a brand new clutch

 

yea i let the engine comletly die down to idle. id used to grind slightly with the old clutch but now its horrible.......well see whats happens when i get the front brakes on and test her on the road.