gawath

I recently rebuilt my engine and reinstalled the motor/transmission back into my car. I reinstalled my spec stage 3, stock flywheel (no shims/old pilot bearing) and a speed bleeder onto my new slave cylinder. I bled the system thoroughly and there were no bubbles. When my engine is running, I can only shift to 1st and 3rd gear. I cannot get into any of the other gears. When the engine is off, I can shift to any gear easily. When I start my car, I do notice that my starter (new) “grinds” against the flywheel prior to starting. The “grinding” sound is random which may be due to it not sitting flush against the crank. I concluded that the flywheel is misaligned and therefore may be causing my clutch to not operate correctly. I am also thinking that my clutch is not perfectly centered as I used a plastic pilot tool to “align” the clutch disk during my install. I noticed a slight vibration coming from the transmission which may be due to the misalignment of the transmission shaft or clutch/flywheel being uncentered. I rebled the hydraulics again but still nothing.
I took the transmission off this morning. After getting the transmission and bell housing off the clutch and flywheel was exposed. I inserted the pilot tool into the teeth of the clutch disk and through the pilot bearing. It easily slips in and out and through the pilot bearing with the clutch installed on the flywheel. But looking at the pilot tool, it does look slightly uncentered. Either way, it slips in and out easily. I also checked to see if the flywheel was sitting flush against the crank and it looked fine.

I am thinking that the problem may be:
-Bad springs on the clutch disk. The springs show slight rust on the transmission side. It looks fine on the
flywheel side.
-Clutch disk misaligned.
-Pressure plate acting strange (may need to be replaced)
-Pilot bearing may need to be replaced (using old one)
-Flwheel misaligned (looked fine. Will double check)

Any suggestions to what other issues may be causing this?

2000BlackM6

iTrader: (6)

Since the trans is out, re-align the clutch, just because the alignment tool slips in an out easy, doesn't mean its centered exactly. Second, take out the master and bench bleed it until its rock hard. I personally would just put a new flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, master, slave if I had the money. I just did mine, and it took lots of frustration and I was having similar problems, turns out I needed a bigger bore master. My guess is you're still air bound

Jim_PA

iTrader: (9)

Once you push in the clutch for the first time with the engine running, the clutch disk aligns itself with the output shaft on the trans, so you can kind of forget about discovering some kind of problem using the alignment tool.

if your flywheel was off-center, I think you'd be noticing some bad rumbling vibrations.

I personally only use the old-style small block brass pilot bushings, but I doubt a bad roller pilot bearing would cause you to not be able to go in gear.

When you're in first gear and engine running, how far off the floor can you leave the clutch out before it starts moving? The car shouldn't start moving when you leave the clutch out just a little bit.

gawath

It was mid way when the clutch started "grabbing".