Hi guys! Been snooping on here and well, just cant seem to find a problem quite like mine that's been resolved.

Here's the deal, I just got my camaro about 6 months ago. She's a 86 five speed t-top v8. Well, installed a built 350, and had the trans rebuilt. Now...problem is when the cars cold, she will shift..a little rough, but managable.. Wishful thinking, and a determined mech friend have had me driving the car around for the last two days in hopes the clutch would work itself in..
Well, its not. When the car gets hot or at normal temp i should say, the dang thing will NOT wanna go in gear! No matter what gear it is!! IF i push hard enough, I can fell it pop..then slide into gear. I HATE doing this but had to get home... Once in gear cold or hot, she try's to pull the car by just a midge. Not enough to make it move. But VERY close. If I take it out of gear, she will idle up just a tad. If putting in gear, she will idle down upon me trying to put it in gear.
Obvious thing....Bled the NEW slave cylinder. Like the way posted on here. I installed the TOB to the best of my ability like what is posted on here, and have have driven her plenty enough to have bled itself by now..

When the car is off, I Can sometimes get it into gear easy!! But other times it will simply NOT go. It's such a pain in my butt! I also feel a pop then slide into gear going into 2nd..I am not thinking I should feel ANY pop but just a simple slide into gear am i right? I really hope I didnt mess anything up..i JUST had it rebuilt.. the engine is pushing about 430hp and is carbed. The trans was JUST redone by a very trustworthy source. I have it full of syncro mesh fluid via info given to me by the rebuilder. And beside's that I have no other issues with driving the car. Sorry so long..thank you for any help you may be able to offer!

 

WHich type of pilot thing did you use; a bearing, or a bushing?

 

I used a bushing. It was cheaper, was told by all it was just fine, and installed it with a rubber mallet as to not damage it.

 

a bushing is right per factory install.

did you install the clutch fork and throw out bearing right?

easy to mix up.

 

I sure as heck hope so! I did not have a guide to go by..it was my virgin install lol. But from what I can remember and what I have seen off here i did. I can say the guy who built the trans must have put the adjusting screw ALL the way in. I tried to adjust it and there's no way..its tight as can be. IF i look in there via the fork cover thing, and see that its not right, then how do I redo it? Pull teh trans back down? man that's gonna be a pain!

 

mine wasn't in right the first time as I forgot how it went and it slowly ate through the cluth fingers till it wouldn't work anymore.

Its not that bad of a job if the car is high enough but not to high.
Want the trans just high enough so you can bench press it into place, not to far of a reach. Its not that heavy. did mine alone for the most part.


Doing a Th350 alone was a b1tch, no way to muscle that into place alone.

 

Well, went outside and while doing a rear seal on the driver's side went ahead and tried bleeding one more time. Seems she still had SOME air in there. Wife said the pedal got harder after I did that a few dozen times..lol. Seems to hopefully be working better now. I will know here soon. I gotta finish doing my de wiring..lol. Hard to tell which wire's i still need and teh ones i do not. But i tell ya one thing, sure as heck cleans up the engine bay NICELY!!! So much better looking now.

 

Ok...just went for a drive. She is STILL not wanting to go in gear. BUT she now goes in gear with teh engine off no problem. With it on she is fighting it bad! Upon trying to push it in gear she will literally pull forward..If on a flat surface that is. If I cut it off, and then try to start it the engine lags, but eventually turns over.When it does you can tell there is drag on the engine. Gonna jack it up and see if there is anyway I can take a look into the trans case. Think i can see it if I look through the dust cover from below the engine???? That boot for the fork is pretty high up there. Dunno if I can fit my big ole head up there without denting it..

 

If its not the clutch, then he fubared something during the rebuild.

 

It's the clutch, one way or another.

A bushing is fine; I just wanted to make sure you put SOMETHING in there. Amazing how many people don't, and then wonder why it doesn't work right.

Either you have the TOB on the fork wrong, or the fork is on the ball stud wrong. Any way you slice it it's an assembly problem. Go back and check your work.

 

Ok...on that pic there is that black piece of metal that holds it in. Mine did not have that at all...guess that's my problem huh! Now all I got to do is figure out where in the world I can get that frigging metal piece from!

And this is purely from memory. I have yet to check the trans itself..

 

Problem's not the trans; don't bother checking anything at all about that. Just get it out of the way so you can troubleshoot THE CLUTCH.

 

LOL YEAH..about how far you guys think i will need to seperate it to get to the tob? Pull it all the way down? or just out a little bit? And I still don't have the frigging dust cover on the flywheel. I am having a bit of a time finding one.


One more thing...My engine is a .010 block from a 79 c-10..I had to special order a flywheel to fit it. Well, its a 153 tooth flywheel and the local guys at the local performance shop are giving me crap saying there's simply no way the clutch is gonna hold the engine. That I need teh larger flywheel and therefore clutch. Is this correct? I have kinda been worried about it from day one. I bought my ride for $750 and drove her 10.5 hours home. Only to yank the stock 305 out and start my 350 build. Would have NEVER gone with a old style 350 if I had known what i was doing! Much easier to go with the newer style's. But then again, i just had to have a OLD style hotrod..lol.

 

Keep separating things until you find the problem.

 

I'm having the same problem right now. The bar that moves the fork is pushing so that means the clutch is wanting to engage, but while on it won't go into any gear or sometimes it'll just go in 3rd and 4th. Reverse is just terrible. I have to literally grind it into it, though after some grinding it does pop in no problem. Bled the clutch. I have no idea what more it might be. Maybe with have to check the fork like in the pictures above.

 

Id just focus on getting what you got to work right, then if you start blowing the clutch apart when you can do WOT shifts, find something better.

But Im sure it will hold up for quiet a while.

 

Try changing out your slave cylinder. I did it to mine and it shifted a lot better for a while it could be that it might be your problem to. Mine I still need to look into it

 

I'd leave the cylinders alone. If they weren't defective before you swapped the clutch, then they probably aren't defective now either.

Check your work.

This is not rocket science. It's just a car. There's MILLIONS and MILLIONS of em out there, and there's no mysteries in em, they're totally a mass-produced manufactured artifact, well within the understanding capabilities of even a mentally challenged idiot like me. The space aliens did not come down and plant a "bug" in it just to test humans' ability to solve problems. Blee dat. It's something REALLY simple, and it involves something you CHANGED somewhere along the line. Go back and check your work, you'll find what you did wrong, and after you straighten it out, it will then work fine. DO NOT get caught up in a bunch of "maybe it's this, maybe it's that" parts swapping, you'll just end up with a pile of non-working (still) garbage that has a whole bunch of wasted money tied up in it.

In case I forgot to mention it, don't forget to CHECK YOUR WORK before spending money on parts that won't do a damn bit of good.

 

Well guys! Got her done today! Pulled the trans down in my dang driveway...found out I had installed everything CORRECTLY after all. Took teh trans back to the guy who i had build it, it tested out just fine right in front of me so I knew I had a clutch release problem. So..after a good bit of searching, google, boards, forums, you name it, i just said to heck with it, bought a new release bearing, and bent the tabs of the fork just a tad..MAYBE a 1/8" total. Then prayed to god she would work. Well, she does! SMOOTH!!! Release spot is perfect, she does so completely, engage's very smoothly, and will still fully engage as well!!! The car is SO much fun now..breaks the whole rear end loose in 3rd! Busted and i mean BUSTED a 99gt this afternoon. Poor guy NEVER had a chance. I spun in first and he was able to stay with me, but boy when I hit second and she hooked up i was GONE! he may as well have put that poor cup cake he was driving in reverse. NOW I know what the engine builder meant when he said 400hp was ALL i would ever need on the street. He was right. No need for any more than this unless your on the strip. And yes..this was down a deserted road so safe..well safer..lol. I'm not exactly a kid anymore being 30 this month, but hey..still wanna at least keep my record clean. Things just WAY to easy to speed in and she begs you to gas it. Thanks for all the help guys, wish I had been able to get it done without pulling the dang trans.

 

im havin the same issue, its almost fine when the cars off, i did a centerforce clutch, throwoutbearing and pilot bushing, it was bad at first so i replaced the throwout bearing with and actual centerforce one and made sure it was installed correctly but i reused my fork and it was the original piece....i take it i gotta pull er apart again for the 40$ part? lol

 

Did you have this problem BEFORE you installed the new clutch?

 

to be honest i never drove the car was auto before, bought "rebuilt" trans, hydraulics with the original clutch and fork, but got a steal on mine new in box just needed the throwout bearing. first build

 

ok i went out for a rip, and its not bad at all but not perfect when going from like 1-2 or 2-3, but going from 3-2 or 4-3 its more difficult if i like "soft" try into gear it goes in on the 3-5th try, sometimes it can be really bad and other times its perfectly fine, might just be a bubble in my line. whats the proper way to bleed my clutch? pumping it with cap off till it worked was the way i did it and i assume its not the proper way as it took a while


after re reading the post a few times i think if my memory serves me correct my one metal tab on my fork was lower than the other? probably issue

 

Have you checked to see if your clutch fork is bent now that you are using a stiffer clutch (centerforce). I have a ZOOM stage 2 in my IROC and it is stiff. I am having problems getting it into first a little and either my fork ball is coming out or I am bending that old stock clutch fork, I THINK. Anyway, thats what I am dealing with, maybe your problem too. Something for you to mull around.

 

There is a bleeder screw on the slave cylinder. I believe it is recessed and uses an allen wrench to loosen it up. Pump the clutch a few times and leave it to the floor while someone loosens the bleeder and DO NOT LET OFF OF THE FLOOR until the bleeder is closed again, then repeat until there is no air in the line. Make sure that you check the master cylinder resevoir and keep it full while you are doing it. That will get all the air out of the line if you think there is still some in it. When I changed slave cylinders, I went with a Wagner unit that is aluminum and has a brake type bleeder screw in it and it is easier to bleed, but the original wasn't real tough, just harder to get to. Good luck!