odonnell

On the way home from work, my NA almost stalled as I was pulling away from a stop sign but was fine rowing through the gears. Until the next stop sign. It's very difficult to get into 1st, and here's the weird part. The pedal has zero play before engagement, hence almost stalling it.

When I have the car stationary, clutch in, in 1st gear, and let out the pedal, it bites instantly. I don't believe this is an issue with the clevis because it developed literally over a distance of half a mile. I was able to nurse it home thankfully.

There's no fluid seeping, and the master and slave are dry. No fluid missing from reservoir and none on the ground. Slave about 1.5 yrs old, master unknown but not original. I fully bled the system a month or 2 ago and I've put nearly 600 miles on it since then.

What are some off-the-bat guesses from people with similar issues in the past? I was thinking pressure plate failure, I'm not sure what else it could be. It's fine after the car is rolling. Super mad because I had the entire clutch system apart last year, but everything was in excellent shape so I just put it back together...I had also just graduated college and was broke. Regrets...

Charlie

A couple of things that are possible, one is the clutch disk is worn and has broke and another is your firewall has cracked and the clutch cylinder is moving.

I just finished doing a TR6 with similar problems and the disk was broken in 3 places.

I assume it also could be the pressure plate.

V2Rocket

I'd start by checking the pedal linkage.
Namely, your "clutch power spring" that assists you pushing the clutch pedal down, it is mounted above the clutch pedal, towards the driver, in the area of the DME bracket.

There's a rod running through a spring connected to the pedal up there...on mine, the spring came off its mount and jammed. The spring is held on just by tension between the pedal/rod and a sheetmetal bracket.

I fixed the spring orientation, and eventually the rod snapped. I just removed the whole assembly after that, just made the clutch pedal a little firmer.

Van

Original clutch? If so, I've seen the rubber chunks break off and lodge in the pressure plate spring fingers. It could also be a broken clutch fork - if one of the arms broke, it would pull the throwout bearing unevenly and only move it a little bit.

odonnell

Ok thanks guys, good starting points. A buddy is on the way over so I can observe the firewall and look at the fork movement while he hits the clutch.

Van, clutch was replaced in 2006 by an OEM rubber center kit. It was still in good health when I last had it out, with 95%+ material left (it wasn't driven much before I bought it).

I'm trying to wrap my head around what could cause the disk to bite instantly, with only a few millimeters of pedal movement. It must be something that's preventing the PP from fully retracting in the first place, no?

StoogeMoe

Observe the fork movement underneath while someone fully depresses the clutch. IIRC it should move 13mm. If so you can rule out the clutch hydraulics.

Legoland951

I would second this. Since your clutch seems to work other than it is semi engaged (causing it to be hard to shift to 1st). I know on the 951 clutch with the 6 small springs, the spring would fall out and sit between the clutch disc and pressure plate where no disengagement is possible even if you press the pedal all the way down.

Check for rubber fragments in the bell housing.

Tiger03447

I've been there too, Leogland..not on a Porsche, but on a different sports car. Usually if this happens, you don't get ANY disengagement from the clutch..because the maladjusted spring is between the pressure place and the disc. Looks like time for a weekend looksee. Michael, I hope sincerely that you really didn't put another rubber gumball clutch in your car when you had it apart last time..Good luck!

Van

Sounds like you've changed a clutch before - but in case you need a refresher, check out my new video!

odonnell

Ok, so finally got to see the inspection window....it looks like it's almost OVER extending. Any ideas?



Maybe the fork is broken? I'll start taking it apart when I have the time.

V2Rocket

do you have a job other than racing small Chevys and filming 944 maintenance?

Legoland951

Over extending would allow for the clutch to disengage, not the other way around.

odonnell

Here was my thinking. The fork isn't properly actuating the clutch, either because the fork itself is bent, or there's a failure somewhere else....and the result is that the fork has a higher range of motion (as normally, the full actuation position would be limited by the PP geometry). I can't think of why else the throw is that high on the slave and yet it's acting like I barely depressed the clutch.

V2Rocket

Did you check the pedal?

968workaholic

I would guess either the throw out bearing pulled out of the pressure plate, or the pressure plate spring is broken. Either way the clutch has to come apart to see what happened