Hey all.
converted my 92 over to a t5, used new Excedy and the clutch/flywheel/hydraulics out of the donor.
Got everything in, but clutch will not disengage.
TOB is 100% installed correctly, fork isn't bent (that I can tell), and I've bled the system several times now, no change. The slave isn't pushing far enough. I did notice a little fluid leak from the master on the firewall, hoping I don't have a crack..

Any other ideas here?

 

Did you pull the trans to the bellhousing with the 4 bolts? You probably did, happens a lot. Thus causes the input shaft to bind into the pilot bearing/bushing. Pull it back off And this time when its almost in, have somebody press the clutch pedal while you wiggle the trans into position, it will slide right in.

 

If the master cylinder is leaking, replace it.

 

A little, but not fully. The last 1/2" was pulled by the bolts, was wiggling the damn thing with the clutch in for a good hour with no luck. Spose I'll try again


Edit: yoinked it out and re did it the right way. Same result. Measured the rod travel, it's only moving .44in

 

If you "pulled it in with the bolts", there's a good chance that the disc is now no longer a disc, but rather, is a bowl, from the trans punching the hub toward the crank as it tried to pass through but couldn't for whyever. In which case, it'll take more than pulling and re-installing the transmission, before it'll ever work right.

.44" isn't enough movement on the slave push rod, either. That sounds like you've got the wrong pedal set, are missing the brackets that go from the firewall to the MC, have the MC in the wrong location or orientation such that the MC isn't getting depressed fully, etc.

Remember, it's HYDRAULICS. Fluid is basically incompressible. Just like brakes, if you jam a molecule of fluid into a pipe, a molecule HAS TO come out the other end, as long as the pipe stays the same size: it's almost FOOLPROOF. (which is why I can even get em to work reliably) There's just simply no other choice out here in meatspace, regardless of what happens on Interwebz forums. That's why big high-power high-pressure things like earth-moving equipment and metal-bending presses use hydraulic cylinders to actuate them: it's almost failsafe.

If the pushed-on part isn't moving as much as it should, take a good hard look at how far the pushing part is moving. And of course, if a hydraulic part has a leeeeeeek, replace it before troubleshooting any further.

See my signature for a mental technique you can apply to things like this.

 

Wasn't fully pulled in with the bolts, only the last 1/2", and was done by hand instead of impact.
As far as pedals, they are third gen pedals. Everything came out of the same 1989 donor car, working before pulled. Only thing that was new was the TOB and pilot bushing.
I looked into MC rod travel, it's moving the same amount as my DD bird MC does.

​​​​

 

Doesn't matter. If the splines were hung up and that was what was keeping it from going in, and you pressed the transmission into the disc anyway by any method, the disc is now a bowl instead of a disc, and is ruined.

It all it is, is just the pilot fits tight to the clutch gear, then that might eventually wear itself into working right. I'm not very good at being an optimist though.

 

​​​​​​The pilot was a cheapo AutoZone "doorman help!" Type ones, I totally forgot to test fit it to the imput shaft or even grease it up. Would agree on not being optimistic though.

 

Just pulled it apart, clutch is definitely not warped. TOB was still installed correctly, clutch not backwards.. clutch tool spins freely inside pilot.

Adjusted slave rod to move just as much as my DD bird does, but still no dice.
I did notice the pressure plate bolts were quite difficult to get out without the impact.

 

The leak tell me the master may be bad, or the hose is leaking. Fix that.

As for the trans, you cannot use the bolt to pull the trans together any amount. That last half inch is where it always hangs up and everybody uses the bolts to finish the job and end up with this problem. Have somebody press he clutch once the trans is in place and with some wiggling it will slide in the whole way. No other way to do it.

 

I'm sure the pilot is ok, you have to really mess up to trash it in this way. Its like any bearing race, it only take a tiny misalignment to bind up, but it rarely damages anything unless you break out the BFH and try to fix it with force

 

Its on the list.

As for the trans, I pulled it out and re did it that way, slid right in just fine but had the same issue.
Pulled it back out totally to check everything else + pilot bushing, everything looked fine, TOB was in right, fork and ball properly in place.

 

Without fixing the hydraulics completely there is no purpose for trying to chase down the issue. Leaky hydraulics will never produce good results, replacing the MC and SC should be the first step if everything looks good