So Friday night, my car just all of a sudden would not go into any gear. It drove fine, all up until I pushed in the clutch, put in neutral and coasted to a stop like ive done a million times. When the light turned green, I pushed the clutch, which felt a the same , maybe alittle softer, and tried to put into get, but nothing happened...

So i rolled it into the hospital parking lot, and began a 2hr trouble shoot. Well, I ended up dropping the driveshaft and trans in a hospital parking lot from 6pm to 3am lol..

When we had the trans off, we notice my clutch slave only had 1 bolt on it securely and the other was floating and it seemed to be tilted or bent to one side. well, i replaced it with a brand new one, and tightened her down, checked the clutch, etc and all seemed fine. well because we kinda ripped the little oring on the master cylinder line that goes into the slave, we had to wait till today to finish her. so i towed her home and parked her. we plugged everything in, have bleed the clutch fo 2-3 hours just fluid is coming out, and went to try to start and put in gear and its the same thing

thats why im stumped..we repeated the process of bleeding her all damn day, with no change. i looked at my master, which was replaced 20k ago, to an 02 gm stock one, and seems fine. My question i guess is why the fk is it not letting me put it in any gear..i did notice though, when the car is running i push the clutch down, an it can go into 2nd..but makes the horrible grinding noise. ..i just dont even try...when i push the clutch in, and push hard to try 1st gear the car rolls forward..and if i try reverse..same thing....is in my clutch? pressure plate? thowout bearing? IM STUMPED!

btw its a ram dual street / strip clutch with around 30k..........

thanks guys

 

Sounds crazy, but what method are you using to bleed it? pressure bleed or flow bleed?

MY McLeod master pressure bled great. But my buddy got a Monster setup with the TICK master and it refused to pressure bleed. A buddy told me to open the bleeder FIRST and then have someone push the pedal down, then close the bleeder and let up on the pedal. =FLOW bleed (As I call it.)

His FINALLY held a pedal on that type of bleeding. It wouldn't release the clutch on a pressure bleed. (Pedal down, then open the bleeder.) It took us a couple hours of dickin with it to get the pedal back.. and My personal version of a Square dance on the clutch pedal. Top to floor a couple dozen times, then keep tapping the top of the clutch throw to get it to put just a red HAIR more fluid in the system.


-Just to clarify.
Pressure = Pedal down, open bleeder, close bleeder
FLOW = open bleeder, pedal down, close bleeder.

 

pressure..lol...


pump..pump...hold..bleed...etc..lol

im about to buy a new pressure plate...but the ram system i got was all new!

it just all of a sudden happened!!!! HELP PLEASE...im carless..lol.and the chicks getting mad for spending so much money....i told her i would buy a honda fit after i fix my car and she 100% ..trick is...our cars are almost never 100%..most of us atleast!

should i keep bleeding? sigh...how long does this really take!

 

Cheap and easy first, try the different bleed method.. Open the bleeder first, then push the pedal down.

It worked on my buddy's SS when it refused to have a sufficient enough pedal to get the car into gear. He was having identical problems as you are. Not sure how he fixed it.. He had to keep bleeding it after every week of driving. He kept loosing his pedal.. Not sure if it was the slave blowing-by or what.

I'm not even sure as to the life expectancy of our performance clutches/discs.

 

yea i just put a brand new clutch slave in her...

so tomarrow ill try the new method on clutch bleeding..so open the bleeder...then push the clutch to the floor and hold it? or pump it with the bleeder open? clarify please..im just used to pump...hold ...open...close..pump method....thanks!

 

^ no. You never want to lift the pedal with the bleeder open, it'll suck in air. Just open the bleeder first, push down, close bleeder, lift up. repeat as necessary.

 

thanks man...ur info is goin to help...im goin to get a new gm master cylinder today..and replace that first then try the bleeding system you said...so i have a new master and slave..then i will no its not a hydro problem..and have to drop the trans thanks bayer..hopefully it works..

 

^ no prob do0d.. I was thinkin of that last night afterwords. The seals may have gone bad on your master, especially if it's been in there for a while.

 

would the seals fail and cause what happened in my situation? we thought it was the slave..cause it looked fkd..so im trying to look up the removal and install and bleeding of the clutch hydro system lol....im about to go buy a new master....should i get anything else? thanks!

 

still nothing...replace master and slave....nothing


starting to tear down to drop the trans again.....

anyone else have any ideas? clutch? plate? what....im a can of gasoline and a match away from tearing hear apart and lighting her on fire....!!!

we did all types of bleeding..still nothing...

replaced with brand new gm master and slave

when i was under..i can hear the slave working or the plate squeezing..everytime my friend would push the peddle and release slowly.....99% sure its not hydro problem now!

it does sound like pressure is being released in the line..steel braided line from the master to the slave..but no leaks..and think its just inside the line..

goin to start dropping the trans this week......ah...help would be great!

 

anyone!!!!!!!!

 

Well, we know it's not releasing all the way. I wish we'd get some more opinions on this because my buddy's car was doing the same thing, but the bleed kind of fixed it, but he would lose his pedal after a couple days of driving. He installed a brass pilot 'bushing', and I was thinking that when the brass expanded, it was squeezing the snub on the input shaft and preventing the car from being put into gear and still spinning the input with the engine. That was just an idea, no sure how much weight it holds. But all that happened when he swapped clutch/fw/mc/sc setups with a rebuilt t56.

Only other way to tell if it's NOT the clutch is to put the car in gear and have someone step on the clutch pedal and try and spin the drive shaft to see if the clutch pressure plate is spinning and the clutch is releasing all the way. If it spins the input, it SHOULDN'T be the clutch then.

 

im about to order and spend the money for the tick.....but is that really the only problem ..and will that fix it! god i wish i could get some more help

 

Got this thread on any other boards?

 

I had a similar problem last year with a SPEC 2. It ended up being that the spring retainers fatigued on the clutch disc and a spring broke loose. I got stuck at a red light during rush hour and had to call a tow truck, it sucked.

Like you, I thought it was a hydraulic problem at first but when I took off the pressure plate, it was obvious what the problem was.



Good luck man.

 

Thanks bro. Im dropping the trans now and goin to check.

What did u have to replace? Clutch spring? Or all new setup. ? Thanks guys

 

^ You can't replace those springs, IIRC. Needs a new friction disc. Those springs are installed then the plate is assembled. Belvelle springs; absorbs some of the shock during clutch engagement.

 

It may have been possible to replace just the disc (throw-out bearing died in the process too) because the flywheel and pressure plate were wearing nicely with no burns, but I ditched the whole set up. I ended up doing all new hydraulics and a Monster stage 3 clutch kit.

If you do have to end up replacing your clutch and you want something more than stock, I highly recommend looking at a Monster clutch; they're awesome quality and the guys at SNL performance have great customer service.

Let us know what you find out when you pull it apart!

 

UPDATE!

so dropped the trans and driveshaft.

We looked at the trans and clutch, there were some normal heat spots, and the clutch had about 1/2 life left so not the clutch ..

we looked at the new slave, and it looked like it leaked..but that from when we bleed it. the spring still had tight compression..and was still lined up staight.

my guess, its this...the adjustible MC that was in my car went out along with the slave. the stock non adjustible gm MC i bought works, along with the slave, but isnt compressing my pressure plate enough, because when i pushed on the pedal it wouldnt feel anyresistance until almost at the floor. I think! that if i got another adjustible mc or the tick or mcleod it will fix my problem. ANY OTHER OPTIONS REALLy? THANKS AGAIN GUYS........

 

im having the same problem and cant figure it out. first the throw on whe pedal was to long, i actually had to lift off the clutch pedal a lil bit to get it to let me in any gear. I shortened the throw on the pedal as it seemed the logical solution and the problem went away for about three days. the next time it happend the clutch would not dissengage not matter what i did with the pedal, so i bled the system and nothing happed. Just as i was about to call a tow truck it decided that it wanted to work(wtf!). It worked flawlessly for the next three days and then crapped out on me again??im lost?? i did notice a light rattling noise when i release the clutch pedal with the tranny in neutral that wasnt there a 2 weeks ago. not trying to hijack but any usefull info would be greatly apprediated by lazyboi808 as well as myself