vt951

Did you also notice vibration in the clutch pedal gradually occurring before or during the DE? This whole thing happened sort of gradually on my car. Like I said in a previous post, the clutch pedal felt "shaky" at times, then the morning before the DE started, I started noticing the clutch was engaging closer and closer to the "bottom" (pedal pressed in further), until the end of the weekend, when it would not disengage at all.

I guess I'm confused how a loose spring jammed in there would cause this sort of gradual failure, but then I don't completely understand what is going on inside the bell housing anyway.

aben8057

I noticed a slight vibration before the DE event but never payed any attention to it. It was somewhat more noticable, but not much before it went completely. It may have also been disguised by one of my motor mounts being collapsed.

vt951

Well, I removed the starter and slave cylinder last night and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. The slave is not leaking (at least not past the rubber boot), and I didn't find any debris (springs or otherwise) sitting in there. I tried to stick a magnetic wand thing in there to see if I could catch anything, to no avail.

I also looked at the clutch fork movement again, and I would estimate it's moving about 3/4" when the clutch is pressed all the way in. I believe the spec is 15 to 18 mm, so it's definitely moving enough. I'll need to talk to Dan again, because I think the hydraulics are fine.

I think I'm going to try to get a bore scope so I can see inside the bell housing before ripping it all apart. Anyone know of a good (cheap) source? Maybe autozone loans them out?

KuHL 951

Is the slave and starter still out? If so, see how far the clutch fork pivots before it contacts the lip on the TOB. If you can push it forward any more than what the slave cylinder rod can or it hits the bellhousing you probably have an issue with the TOB for sure.

931guru

Wow, Alex, hate to hijack the thread, but you're lucky to be alive after crawling under the car with that mickey mouse setup.

Spend a few bucks and get some real (not cheap) jackstands. Either that, or buy some term life insurance and list me as sole benificiary.

vt951

Yup, they're still out. I can check that tonight. Thanks for all the help, Kuhl.

spammajamma

I lost one spring , had the same symptoms but the plate was pretty worn

aben8057

I appreciate your concerns but after some thorough research and testing, confirmed that the setup would hold. This was the initial setup I used but added reinforcement to the frame just to be safe. It was really tested when the transmission was removed as I had to pratically yank it off the housing.

vt951

I just tried to move the clutch fork by hand and it won't budge. Should I be able to move it, or does that mean something is stuck in there?

KuHL 951

It depends on if it doesn't move at all or there's some fore/aft play. You can't operate the clutch by hand but there has to be some slack (<1/8" I would estimate) or the TOB would wear on the clutch fork all the time. Yours doesn't move at all it sounds like. If your TOB threw a circlip the fork would move all over the place. The broken spring is sounding more likely and is probably wedged between your disc or PP preventing the clutch disc from moving far enough to disengage. I've never had a spring get loose so I can't really comment on that with any experience. It does sound internal though since you have 3/4" of travel at the slave rod.

xsboost90

well i was hoping it was something in the master/slave system but if you have no leaks and it has that much travel it must be something else. I would throw it up on stands and start pulling stuff before you order anything since you never know what you may end up needing. Just be sure you can get it done before the FEST!

vt951

Yeah, I hope I can get it done before the fest. Thanks for all your help, Dan. I'm sure I will be calling you again once I'm in there looking at the carnage. You don't have a scope, do you?

vt951

Well, the clutch is fixed now. It turned out to be a broken fork. I'll try to get a hold of some pics to post of it, but it looked like one of the fingers was worn down, and then was bent back to the point of breaking almost completely off.

The engine was removed in the process of fixing the clutch, in order to re-seal and repair some engine related items more easily, including balance shaft seals, power steering pump, and turbo oil seals. The turbo turned out to be pretty mangled, so we replaced it with another stock 26-6 (thanks, Kuhl!).

I do have a new problem to ask about now, though. There is a noise and vibration that it makes now that it didn't make before. The noise is most noticeable at idle. It comes and goes every fews seconds, like a resonance or something. It doesn't matter if the clutch pedal is pushed in or not. The vibration is most noticeable when revving the engine at a stand still (probably because once it's rolling, there are lots of other road induced vibrations). When I rev the engine, it feels and sounds "buzzy", whereas it used to feel very smooth.

One thought I had are balance shafts (since they were re-sealed). I'm not sure whether re-sealing could have any effect on the position of the balance shafts, though. If not, then that's probably not it.

My other (dreadful) thought is the pilot bearing. I was there helping during the engine installation, and we had a pretty bad struggle getting the engine back onto the drive shaft. Hopefully, somebody will tell me that if the pilot bearing were making noise, it would go away when I push in the clutch (so I can get some sleep tonight!). I read another thread about clutch vibration and this post got me worried:

vt951

Another question... if the pilot bearing is f'ed up, could that cause damage to other components if I drive it like that?

KuHL 951

Every time I hear the word 'buzzy' I suspect a heat shield on the exhaust. It's easy to get one of them loose, and there are many, or out of position when reinstalling the engine. Was the pilot bearing replaced with the new clutch? Usually a bad pilot bearing will squeal pretty loud and change when the clutch is engaged.