Car back from the mechanic - STILL won't shift while started
 

I'm a visual person, so I made a chart to explain what has been going wrong with my car since I put in the new clutch. The part that really baffles me is the car got worse after installing new hydraulics.

https://img149.imageshack.us/img149/...lutchchart.jpg

I've had many threads on here trying to get this thing figured out but so far NOTHING has worked. The transmission is coming out again tomorrow and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

Dude I seriously hate you have had that much damn trouble. Just dont know what else to say.

:bang:

I thought the adjustable master cylinder would do it for sure, but nope. I even adjusted the pedal to be higher than the brake pedal and still nothing. I was able to force it into 4th today because the old shifter gave me a little more leverage - but it wasn't nice at all.

If you jack the rear wheels off the ground, start the motor, shift to 1st, hold the clutch pedal to the floor. Do the rear wheels turn?

I'll try to check tomorrow. Whoever did my exhaust placed it WAY too close to the driveshaft U-Joint so sometimes when I jack it up and start the car, the two will rub.

By the way, thanks for helping out.

are you sure the clutch fork is seated on its mount?

If the rear wheels turn, the clutch is still dragging. Still some hope.
If the rear wheels dont turn, douse it in gas and light that bitch up. :lol:

Are you talking about the slave cylinder seating to the fork? Or the fork attaching to the TOB?

Either way, they seem to be fine.

The mechanic said he started the car while it was in first gear and it wanted to jump even with the clutch pressed in. I'll double check tomorrow though.

Holy shit dude, I don't even know you and I feel bad for you. Though I've got to say I have a lot of respect for your perseverance-- I would have driven the car off a damn cliff by now.

I guess I was wrong about an adjustable master cylinder solving all your clutch problems, but I've got a couple more ideas for ya.

1) How tight are you torquing the pressure plate bolts down to the flywheel? The housing on LT1 pressure plates are aluminum, and it will distort and cause issues if the bolts are too tight. A lot of steel pressure plates on other cars will call for around 50-60 ft lbs, but with an LT1 plate you shouldn't go much past 30 ft lbs, heck I think the Chilton's manual calls for just twenty-something.

2) How does the throwout bearing's collar look? It is the little round metal collar around the input shaft that the throwout bearing slides along. It should be smooth, if it looks beat up or bent there is a chance that it could be causing your disengagement issues, but probably not.

If you do decide to replace it, I know d&dperformance.com sells them, can't remember how much but I know they're not that expensive. You have to unbolt and remove the midplate of the transmission (which is also aluminum), and punch the old one out. Then the new one has to be carefully pressed back into the midplate.

Hope that helps-- and once again, good luck.

drive it to a dealer and trade it in for something else, I know a place with a nice black on black 05 GTO

I had a similar problem when i did my ls7 clutch install. The car will shift into gears with the wheels off the ground. when on the ground the car wouldnt shift. Turns out it was air in the master cylinder, mityvac came in handy. Got all the air out and done. If everything was done right, just make sure you get all the air out of the system. GL bro

when you seat the fork on the throw out bearing you have to push it into place. if the fork is not all the way onto the throw out bearing (or not seated on its mount) it will not function correctly, so it wont disengage the clutch.
the other guy makes a good point also. if you over torqued the pressure plate, that could cause it not to release. i have been through a ram, center force and a street twin and never had issues like your having (th400 now though)

Thanks man. You've been helpful throughout this.

I bought a new Craftsmen torque wrench to be sure everything was to spec - and I torqued them down to 22lbs.

I'll have to check out the other thing you mentioned though.

I would have to tow it to a dealer. :barf:

The system came prebled. But just to be sure, I hand-bled it anyway. The mechanic also hand-bled it as well as used a Mity-Vac.

The fork is connecting to the TOB fine, but I'll have to check the fork mount.

I just had a similar problem.

It ended up being the clutch fork was not staying in because the little clip was worn out.

Another thing to consider was perhaps the flywheel has been resurfaced too many times and it isnt thick enough anymore. Was this the first time it was resurfaced?

My buddy and I had the same problem with his TA. We installed all new hydraulics, used the mighty vac to get all the air out of the system, damn thing still wouldn't disengage. Ended up being the clutch that he got was slightly cupped so it was dragging on the tips of the pucks.

22# of torque on the PP bolts is fine if using threadlock. I normally go 23#.

Your clutch is dragging. It needs to be fixed or adjusted. A dragging clutch is extremely hard on syncros.

Can you go into more detail about this? This is something I haven't checked and would be very willing to try.

Also, I'm not sure how many times the flywheel as been resurfaced, but from my understanding, if a flywheel was cut too many times it would cause the opposite problem.

I thought it might have been the disc, which is why I swapped it out with the CC clutch kit - no luck.

I don't remember using threadlock, but I'll be sure to next time.

I've had the clutch in and out atleast 4 times as well as trying 2 different clutch sets. I understand it is dragging, but I would hope I wouldn't be mess up the install the same way all 4-5 times.

What could be causing the clutch to drag?