Won't go into gear sometimes

[donkeylips]

I've been driving my car about 50 miles a day since January with few problems. But suddenly my car does not shift properly anymore and I fear that I will do some transmission damage if I keep driving it like this (I rev match as much as possible and can usually get it to slide into gear OK).

It will sometimes either not want to go into gear at all, or go in hard. I've been avoiding reverse because it grinds like crazy most of the time. The slave is fairly new. The master appeared to be leaking a little bit so I replaced it with a low-mileage used OEM one. Gear oil / Pennzoil mix in trans looks fine and at the right level.

I have bled and adjusted the clutch, which I have done many times before. I don't think it's a hydraulic problem. It engages at a normal point (not right off the floor). But the clutch appears to be dragging because yesterday when it really didn't want to go into gear, it would creep forward in 1st gear with the clutch in. Yet still not grab right off the floor. Then other times it goes right into gear with no problems.

I'm wondering what could cause this intermittent behavior. It's got a Fidanza clutch (street disk) with about 10k. Some theories include: missing PP finger, missing disk spring, bent fork, an air bubble in the system, or crankwalk.

 

[DynastyLCD]

keep it simple. start by pulling that boot off, and looking at the clutch fork to see if its bent. have a friend press the clutch pedal, and observe the slave cylinder pushrod movement. after checking the pushrod movement, have them continue to depress the clutch pedal, and see if you can feel the crankshaft pulley moving. look up behind the dash, check and see if any brake fluid is leaking on the inside at all through the master cylinder.

how is the condition of your pedal assembly? i didn't see that on the theory list

 

[Hertz]

I would suspect the pivot ball too.

 

[donkeylips]

Quoting DynastyLCD:
keep it simple. start by pulling that boot off, and looking at the clutch fork to see if its bent. have a friend press the clutch pedal, and observe the slave cylinder pushrod movement. after checking the pushrod movement, have them continue to depress the clutch pedal, and see if you can feel the crankshaft pulley moving. look up behind the dash, check and see if any brake fluid is leaking on the inside at all through the master cylinder.

how is the condition of your pedal assembly? i didn't see that on the theory list



These were all of the first things that I did(except checking crankshaft for play because I really doubt that it has walked). As I said in my first post, I have replaced the slightly leaking master cylinder with another one that is not leaking. This had no effect. The pedal assembly has no play. The clutch feels normal and the pushrod moves ok. It kind of makes a creaking noise that you can't hear from inside the car though.


It's gotten much worse. The strange thing is that if I push the pedal to the floor, the clutch drags and I can't change gears at all. If I start the car in 1st with the clutch to the floor it will move. But - if I let up on the pedal (an inch or two) it will kind of disengage (shifting is still hard, but at least it is possible).

The engagement point of the clutch is not too high. It has never slipped. I assure you that it was adjusted properly before these problems. I don't have any extended push rods.


I've started driving my other car and haven't had time to really investigate yet. The clutch(Fidanza street disk), pivot ball (shimmed with one or two washers), clip, TOB (all OEM parts) were replaced a couple of years ago and probably have less than 12k on them. I don't remember if I replaced the fork or not.

 

[SouthCaliVR4]

you need to back off the pedal adjustment. there should always be the slightest amount of play or the system will not bleed back. over time it pushes the clutch too far, this is whats happening to you BTW. other cause can be an extended rod when not needed.

 

[donkeylips]

I have NO extended pushrods. I have installed and adjusted a fair number of clutches on these cars and also driven cars where they were adjusted wrong as you say. I believe that this is not the case.
It was also fine between December/January (when I replaced the slave cylinder) and most of May. I never had any slipping.

There is no play in the pedal assembly, but there is some "play" in system.

 

[donkeylips]

Quoting SouthCaliVR4:
you need to back off the pedal adjustment. there should always be the slightest amount of play or the system will not bleed back. over time it pushes the clutch too far, this is whats happening to you BTW. other cause can be an extended rod when not needed.



I found this response to be so cocky. Because you ignored the fact that I said this:
Quoting donkeylips:

The engagement point of the clutch is not too high. It has never slipped. I assure you that it was adjusted properly before these problems. I don't have any extended push rods.



I'm glad I get to prove you wrong:

 

[Jason G.]

You're glad you get to prove someone wrong who didn't correctly diagnose your problem over the internet?

 

[turbowop]

Internet diagnosis is serious business.

 

[raptorWagon]

 

[mitsuturbo]

That disc looks just like a few i've pulled out of my VR4s over the years. There for a while i was destroying them pretty quickly. I tried a variety of different sprung hubs. None of them held up. Some lasted longer than others. Constantly launching, racing, and beating on it is really hard on the sprung hub units.
Because of incidents like this, i stopped running sprung hubs, and learned that i could have a transmission pulled out, and on the ground in about 30 minutes. After running solid hubs for a while, i learned that OTHER things wear out instead... like the splines in the disc.