Darud35

Hey all,

Had my car up and running last night (with minimal oil leaks this time). There's a few more bugs I'm still working out: bad TPS, idle control valve, oil leak near front of the crank. Unfortunately one thing kept me from taking it for a test drive, the clutch isn't working properly.

When the car is off the transmission shifts through gears just fine. When I had it running and depressed the clutch, it would not go into gear. The clutch is not releasing from the flywheel. It has a newer clutch, pressure plate seemed ok. The master and slave cylinders were working before the rebuild and I did a fluid flush.

A couple thoughts:
1) Slave isn't aligned with clutch fork. I think this would make the clutch pedal stay on the floor?
2) There's enough air in my lines that it's only compressing air, and not pushing the clutch fork enough.
3) Bad clutch or pressure plate.

Anyone have any recommendations or a good way to diagnose this? I followed Clarck's garage how-to for clutch bleeding and the pedal feels OK but it doesn't fully rebound. I think it might just need adjustments to the spring since the pedal feels good otherwise?

If you have a good way to troubleshoot this or have had similar experience let me know. I'm tempted to order a new master and slave but don't want to buy them if it's not the problem. Thanks guys

My N/A --> Turbo conversion

Darud35

Ok I am totally lost now..

I got home and checked it out. The slave is moving the clutch fork ~2cm. I took off the starter and can see the edge of the clutch moving off the flywheel. It's only moving off a millimeter or so, but that should be enough? Any thoughts?

F18Rep

Sure sounds like it is dragging. Did you put the release bearing back together with the original shims and in the right configuration, I happend to know they can easily be put together wrong? If your pedal is not coming all the way up I would, for sure start there, as this clutch is a tough one to get bled and would give a dragging clutch symptom.... Bruce

sketchers356

Sounds a lot like air in the clutch lines to me.

Tedro951

https://rennlist.com/forums/944-turb...into-gear.html

Darud35

Thanks a lot for the help guys. I used a power bleeder this time and the clutch feel has improved. It's still not releasing though.

To try and diagnose the problem I've removed the starter. There are several open spots around the pressure plate/flywheel assembly that I've been using to gauge movement. I have a friend depress the clutch as i feel for movement. The pressure plate surface moves away from the flywheel at least 1mm when it's engaged. My thought is this should be allowing the clutch to spin freely.

Does anyone know if that's ample movement? FYI I'm running a 930 Sachs clutch with a 944 pressure plate. Any advice would be appreciated as i really don't want to pull the bellhousing and all that goes with it :/

Turbo17

I had a very similar problem. I went through lots of tests and read lots of posts. Some with similar symptoms had a broken fork. Some had a broken spring in the clutch. Some hadn't bled the system completely. Some had a cracked firewall, letting the master cylinder move. My symptoms got a bit better with bleeding and adjusting, but eventually I had to open it up.

It ended up being the throwout bearing. The clutch was disengaging from the flywheel/PP, but the TOB just wouldn't turn easily. It was like it was full of hardened semi-solid grease, which acted like a dragging clutch. I thought it was odd, since it could be turned and it was smooth, not rough, but there was lots of friction.

I needed to replace the clutch anyway, so I replaced TOB, PP and the works.

lart951

what's the setup a 944na PP with what kind or throw out bearing? and what clutch fork?

Darud35

Hey thanks Lart. I believe it's a 944T PP and clutch fork. I'm hoping to get the bell housing off tonight or tomorrow. I can get pictures and part numbers and post them up/email them. Might need to make another order..

Darud35

After a few brutal hours in the garage tonight..she's out. Should my driveshaft look like this? The clutch will not move over the entire length of the splines. Maybe a better question is what's the route cause?



A few other pictures:

Darud35

Clutch and fork.

Turbo17

Mine had smooth splines - not that mangled portion I see on yours. It looks like something got stuck between the inside of the TOB and the splined end of the shaft. Maybe a stone got in there? Does the clutch plate slide forward easily? It looks like the mangled portion of the splines is to the rear of the car. That should be OK if it's behind where the clutch needs to move as it wears. However, if the splines are mangled forward of the clutch plate, it couldn't move forward as it wear thinner and would start to drag.

Also, does your TOB turn freely? Is the pilot bearing easy to turn?

The wear on the fork ends looks pretty close to what I found on mine. I just ground the fork ends smooth (in an arc matching the original shape) and polished them.

ausgeflippt951

Can't tell from the pics (looking on my phone) but it appears as though everything is fine, aside from your mangled torque tube splines. That's definitely no good. The throw out bearing looks old as well I suppose. How are the teeth on the PP? Seems to be ok from what I can see.

Scott H

Those splines are screwed, they should be uniform. Start looking for a new drive shaft.

This is what it should look like:
http://www.blackseard.com/site/index...id=9&Itemid=11

lart951

drive shaft is damaged