My 2000 T/A clutch is acting kind of wierd, My clutch pedal is sometimes low and seems like the pedal distance is like 1/2 of what it should be. If I pump the pedal a few times, it seems to return to normal for a while. Although this is like late fall when the temps are pretty low at night so i dont know if that has anything to do with it. Also (not sure if this has anything to do with problem #1), I launch the car and attempt to burn a little tire and the tires start to spin a little then the clutch seems to spin loose. It handles under load like normal once going though. Im thinking that a clutch is going to be my first spring project for it, but i would like to know if the slave,or master has anything to do with the clutch not engaging well at hard launch.

 

I'm in the same boat. I have a 2000 T/A and the pedal sticks half way up. If I sit there and pump the pedal then start driving the pedal works great, but then slowly goes back to only coming half way up.

If this is happening to you during normal driving then its not your clutch, it has to do with your slave or master cylinder. I read the sticky in the manual transmission section labeled "sticky clutch pedal write up" or something like that. It will give you a ton of info. I read through it and did what it said.

I checked to make sure my clutch fluid wasn't low, which would mean there was a leak somewhere. I then bled my clutch pedal fluid and even used a mity vac to try to suck out any air in the line that might be causing the pedal to not come up all the way. No Air in the lines.

Next I replaced the Master Cylinder since it was a little easier to do then the slave. Note that I skipped the "drill mod" because that is for people who are having there clutch pedal stick half way up only when they are flooring it and ripping through the gears causing it to be harder to switch into the gears at WOT. After replacing the Master cylinder it was the same thing, soft mushy pedal that only comes half way up even just cruising around town taking it easy.

So my last resort is the Slave Cylinder. I should have known it was the slave because something happened to me that proved it was the slave. I was at a stop light next to a car filled with highschool kids who were all yelling at me to rev my engine so they could hear it. I had it in first and the clutch pedal in of course and start reving the hell out of it almost redlining the tach. The light turns green and when I release my clutch pedal to take off it is stuck all the way to the floor! Usually it only sticks half way up but when I was reving up it caused the pedal to be sucked all the way to the floor!

I pulled it off the floor with my foot and started pumping like crazy trying to bring it back to life. I only had like 1 inch of clutch at this point and I was grinding into my next gear. It probably took like 30 pumps to get it back to normal.

My theory is when I had it in gear and the clutch pedal down the slave was compressed as usual. But when I started reving up my engine it made the slave heat up pretty hot like any other f-body, but because my slave is bad, that normal heat caused the cylinder of the slave to bind in its bore which in turn would not let the pedal come back up. This is a direct quote from the sticky.

"The slave cylinder is what pushes on the fingers of the clutch to make it release. In the flawed part, when the clutch gets hot, the heat is transferred to the slave cylinder, causing the piston inside the slave to expand, and it binds in its bore, causing the clutch pedal not to be able to come back up."

I should have gone with my theory instead of dumping $95 for a new master cylinder down the drain, but I really didn't want to have to drop my tranny. But now it looks like I have to. I bought a new slave and will be installing it tomorrow. I have a thread about it which I will update tomorrow sometime in the late afternoon. I hope any of this info can help you, good luck!

 

Thanks for the info, great explanation. So that could be why the clutch would be slipping like that when i try to burn tire?

 

If you want to know if your clutch is slipping or not put it in 6th gear and go about 35-45mph. Then floor it, if your clutch is good your car will just kinda bog down, but if your clutch is bad when you punch it the revs will go up on the tach but the car won't be speeding up. This is because your clutch is slipping.

 

I did that and it grabs fine, its just when i launch it

 

hmm....not what I wanted to hear. I have the exact same problem with hard shifts. I just went and ordered the tick adj. master cylinder and was going to see how it held on the track with the stock clutch, but now It looks like I better just drop the trans and do the whole job.

 

the thing is it seems like it shifts fine with no slip under a higher R shift.............just when i launch it. .............Also, i dont launch it above 3000

 

i have the same issue with my 00 T/A when i launch it doesn't seem to grab like it should but other than that it works fine...minus the whole only having about half the pedal travel it should have