Itching to get the car on the road, but can't seem to get the clutch to release properly. We have replaced both disks, pressure plate and bearings, but not the intermediate disk. The car was pretty rough, but only had 54K miles on it. We had to add the clutch master, clutch slave and hydralics, which were missing. Bled the clutch master until I was blue in the face, and I am relatively sure there is no air in the system, but the transmission grinds when you try to put it into any gears. The clutch does not seem to slip, just grinds while shifting. From the archives, several posts related similar symptoms cured by a new intermediate clutch plate. Anyone have any other ideas?

 

Did you adjust the 3 intermediate plate 'sliders' so that the intermediate plate was pushed fully toward the rear of the car before installing the clutch assembly? If not your intermediate plate may be dragging on the clutch disk closest to the flywheel.

 

You have to properlt adjust the T's (there are 3 of them) on the pressure plate. I just winged them out all the way and the self adjusting took care of everything else.

Here is the manual page on it. But don't wory, take a screw driver and pull the T's all the way out.

 

Yep, I did adjust the T slider adjustments. I adjusted them both ways just to be sure.

 

odds are you have air in the slave cylinder . It often traps an air bubble . Try unbolting the slave leave the "brake fluid "line attached , open the bleed and push the plunger all the way in . close bleed install and then bleed it some more . You may need to do that twice ; it can be that hard to get the air out . I personally prefer having an assistant push and pull the pedal up and down as I open and close the bleed screw ..."up , UP , down , down , up ,up , down ,down ........ "

 

Sometimes air gets trapped in the master as well, and it's a bitch to get it out by normal bleeding. However, You can bleed that fairly easy from the inside of the car. Remove the pushrod from the clutch pedal. Remove the boot and circlip holding the piston in. With the brake reservoir pressurized, pull the clutch master push rod out slowly until a little fluid speeps out from around the piston. Then it's bled. Push it back in and reassemble. With the slave bled properly you should have arock hard pedal and no drag. But the T-adjusters were what gave me the most problems.

 

But did you adjust them out and all the way to the rear as they would go? That is what worked for me. I rotated the clutch around twice and adjusted each one twice as they will slip back a little when you release the pressure plate after adjusting each one.

 

JE is absolutely correct. The 'T' adjusters need to be adjusted all the way back so the intermediate plate is adjusted towards the rear of the car otherwise your clutch will drag. One way to test if your clutch is dragging is to start the engine, depress the clutch, select any foward gear, shift back into neutral, now try selecting reverse. If you hear a clunk when going into reverse (its not synchronized) chances are your clutch is dragging (you may also have a bad pilot bearing).

 

I originally thought it was air in the master cylinder, so I bled that thing for all it was worth. Took the slave off and depressed the rod and all that. I really feel that we got the air all out, but I thought that somebody might know what the "throw" for the slave cylinder might measure. I could then measure mine to see if I as getting correct throw length.
On the T-adjusters, I did adjust them all the way out towards the rear of the car (i.e. toward the pressure plate) and spun the clutch around a couple of times just to make sure., but that didn't seem to make any difference in the knashing of the gears. I did leave them adjusted towards the rear of the car
I replaced the pilot bearing when I replaced the disks.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will bleed again and hope for the best.
John Curry

 

John, before you drive yourself completely nuts, try looking through the hole that is used to access the rear TT clamp. Ramps might be easiest for this; you will need either a helper or a camcorder.

Pull the rubber plug and look up at the clamp, or set up your camcorder so that it's pointed up at the clamp & hit Rec.

Have your helper push in the clutch while the engine is running, trans in neutral, or do it yourself; either way, the TT shaft should stop spinning within a second or so when the clutch is pushed. If it does, you may simply have wasted syncros.

HTH

 

I wondered about that as well. I just didn't figure the synchros would have gone bad with only 54K miles. I'll check it out. Thanks

 

I get the impression that the syncros go out pretty quickly if the clutch is not adjusted right. My 78 has 64K miles, and the syncros are a bit worn. BTW, using Redline NS really helped a lot.

 

I had exactly the same problem and went through the same trials to fix it. I bit the bullet and replaced the intermediate plate and the central shaft. I don't know which was bad, but the problem was immediately fixed.

If you don't mind the labor and look to potentially save some money, first replace the central shaft first and see if that cures the ills. If the splines are worn, the clutch plates will not hold their correct alignment.

Good luck,

 

I gotta go with Rich on this one. Also, I'd replace the intermediate plate before I replaced the pressure plate.

 

I already replaced the pressure plate when I replaced the disks. The Intermediate plate and the central shaft are the only things that were not replaced new.