AusS2000

chris_barry

My psychic diagnosis is your hard launch generated enough heat so the driven plate has stuck itself to the flywheel.

Warm the car up and stop the engine, put the car into first gear and with the foot on the clutch hit the starter. The car should bunny hop and drive off. Just make sure you have lots of room around you, this isn't something you do with the end of your garage a few feet away or when parallel parked.

If you put the foot on the clutch and accelerate hard and lift off sharply the plate should disengage.

I've seen similar things with cars that have been in storage, the clutch plate gets rusted to the flywheel requiring similar abuse to separate.

AusS2000

Hmmm, thanks Chris. It does sound like the sort of thing that might have happened.

Unfortunately the car is in the garage. At the end of a lane. At 90 degrees to the lane. And the the lane slopes.

SpitfireS

With a master leaking like that I would concentrate on the clutch hydraulics.

dales2000

it looks like the MC is on its way out. You might want to consider replacing it soon before it becomes a problem

AusS2000

Ok, I've bled the clutch and still have the issue.

Couple of questions. There is some slack at the top of the clutch. It is loose for about and inch. After that it resists. Not sure if this is normal and just noticing it now.

Also, when a buddy presses the pedal and I observe the slave cylinder and it moves about 1/2 an inch. Is this enough movement to release the clutch plate?

chris_barry

Pull the rubber boot out of the bellhousing so you can see what is happening inside. You should see the clutch diapharagm/release bearing pull back around 1/4 inch from the engine.

If you can get a mirror look closely at the fingers on the diaphragm spring. The fingers should be nice and flat, if they are hanging out differently on one side that is a sign that you may have thrown a paddle and its jammed in there somewhere.


1/2 inch travel at the slave is about normal.

AusS2000

Okey dokes!

I'll get back under there today.

my2ks2k

as far as slack at the top of the travel, yes, there should be some.
mine is slack for basically all of the travel it takes to to press in the button that allows the car to start (i can't remember/don't know what that button is called ), which means about an inch or so of travel before there's resistance.

AusS2000

Yay, success.

I had a look at the spring fingers both released and depressed and all looks good.

I then did Chris' bump thing with the starter motor. My garage is up a laneway at 90 degrees and we had a whole lot of trouble getting it in there from the tow truck. So I just sat in the car with the clutch down and my right foot hovering over the brake. I had it in reverse at first and hit the starter a couple of times and the car lurched backwards. Then in first a couple of times. The next time I tried reverse there was a clunk and the car stopped moving. The clutch was free.

I took it for a drive and clutch engagement was extremely noisy at first. I'm guessing some material left on the flywheel or pressure plate. But it looks like this clutches days are numbered.

Thanks for all your ideas and help. Saved me pulling off the transmission again, at least for a while.