vince_T/A_22

I have a ’02 Trans Am. I am having a problem with my third shift. Its fine the first 2 gears but when I throw the clutch in to shift to third, the pedal goes right to the floor and it wont go into gear. If I pump the clutch 2 or 3 times then it will go into gear. Under city driving its fine, it only occurs when I am racing. I have tried to bleed the system and it didn’t change anything. Could the fluid be boiling in the line (creating air bubbles) since the steel braded line runs right over top of my long tubes? Would there be an issue in changing to DOT4 brake fluid? Any kind of help would be appreciated.

PewterScreaminMach

iTrader: (7)

We need some specs on your setup. How much power are you putting down? Based on what you said, I would guess that you're not stock but on the stock clutch and you're having the typical pressure-plate-can't-handle-the-power-on-multiple-high-RPM-shifts issue that most of us have experienced. If you're full bolt-ons or more (cam, heads, nitrous, etc), you're going to need to replace the stock clutch because they can't handle the power that well.

You also risk injuring the tranny internals if you try to force it into gear at high RPMs if it won't shift correctly. Just a heads up.

A lot of people try to say it's the slave, or needs to be bled, or it's strictly a hydraulic thing and the stocker is fine, but most people that attempt to remedy it in this way wind up not fixing anything but every person I've seen with this problem who replaces the stock clutch (including myself when I first got the car and also close friends) solved the issue.

vince_T/A_22

Yes your right. Stock clutch but not a stock car. I’m putting 465 to the wheels. I have only had the car for 5 months and it has been fine up until last week. I had plans to do the clutch but wanted to wait to make it a winter project. What kind of clutch do you suggest? Should I use the stock flywheel? (just reface it)

PewterScreaminMach

iTrader: (7)

Yup, sounds about right. If you have the money, I'd go Textralia OZ700 (Z-grip if you track it or plan on any nitrous and X-grip if it's mostly street driven and not real hard launches for a slightly better drivability feel, but they're both rated the same). It comes with a new Tex flywheel already zero-balanced, etc, so you can install it and beat the hell out of it out of the box without a "break-in" period. You'll also want to replace the master, slave, and probably pilot bearing if it has never been done before and it's not a low mileage car while you've got everything out of it.

INMY01TA

iTrader: (1)

Read the sticky at the top of the page.

vince_T/A_22

Thanks for the help.

wrencher

iTrader: (2)

New clutch time.....