Clutch Hydraulics

[NISTECH]

rip your trans out and look at your pressure plate. Hydrolic problems are usually consistant in nature not erratic as you have been describing. A hydrolic problem will be as follows.

Pedal has not been pushed for some time then when you do push it the engagement or pressure is very low as you pump it the pressure builds up. once you let it sit for a few seconds or so in the up postion the next time you push it it will be low again. the reason being is if there is air in the lines as you pump the air compresses giveing you a better pedal.

The best way to bleed the system if you have drawn air into it(master ran out of fluid,seals blow out in slave or master,ect.). Start at the application point(master cyl) fill it. Then while someone is pumping up then holding pedal down. crack the line fitting to purge air from master do this 3 or 4 times. Replace any lost fluid during that process. Move on to the next fitting point. In some of your cases you have removed the dampner so it would be the slave in others you still have factory parts installed. If the dampner does not have its own bleeder follow the procedure you did for the master and crack the lines to bleed it. again replace any lost fluid from the resivor. Then move to the next point which would be the slave. Follow the same procedure with the bleeder screw. By this point you would have purged all air from your hydrolic system. There are some circumstances where lifting the front of the car helps but I use that method primarily on the 300z since it has the remote bleeder near the front of the car on the right side. It helps the air travel upward to that point instead of bypassing the dampner block and going back and forth as you bleed the 2 points . I can not be sure the 240 has a remote bleeder for the dampner I havent seen a manual one in awhile. But if so try that method to assist you.

All that info was to help a true hydrolic problem. which i dont think is the case here I think you have a pressure plate problem in this case.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

my clutch and pressure plate are pretty damn new, they only have about 3,000 miles on them, and they worked fine before all this happy horse poo started happening. thanks for the input. id really rather not pull my transmission again tho, its a pain in the ***.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

oh yeah, if i did so happen to rip out my transmission again, what would i be looking for on the pressure plate, you just said look at it. thanks.

[NISTECH]

first look to make sure the pressure plate is bolted down completely. in the last year had 2 vehicles to the dealer ship that some one had just installed a clutch and now they cant get it in gear. or pedal engage ment was very low. once we got the trans out found the pressure plate was not bolted down. all nine of the bolts on the 300 we looked at were loose. basically half of the clutchs travel was the pressure plate setting down on the flywheel. he swore his mechanic was a capable one. any guesses on who his mechanic is now?? but you could also have a defective pressure plate . look at the fingers on it while its unbolted from the trans do they all peak evenly? and try pressing on each of them do any move freely? once you have the pressure plate of check your clutch disk material and dampning springs are they all secure in the plate?

if you are not 100% sure about your hydrolic system being blead as i described. go back and do that again. but if you are physically seeing good travel from the slave cyl what else could it be? I mean the rest of the clutch operation occurs in the trans bellhousing right!

[bumpermatic]

if the hydrolics were the problem it would be consistantly bad not fluctuate with one exception. The master cyl. is the exception. If it were to have a fluid by pass problem. You said its new so its most likely not the problem. From your description especially the info you provided in your second post I am thinking pressure plate problem or fork alignment problem. If it were fork alignment there would be noise associated with it.

I having this issue now with a newly installed clutch and new slave cylinder. Like PapaSmurf, I can clutch and shift when first starting up without any issue, but after a bit of driving, and it seems that it has warmed up a bit, it's as if the clutch isn't disengaging and I start grinding gears. In fact, I've stalled out, and started with the car in first gear, clutched in, and the starter will start the engine and the car will move forward as if i have the clutch partially engaged/disengaged. Can you explain why if the pressure plate isn't installed correctly it would cause this issue, I mean why it takes some time for it to kick in, and then after letting the vehicle cool down, it'll work again? Thanks.

PS, I did bleed the system at both the dampner and the slave cylinder. I'll have to double check and bleed again tommorrow cause I ran out of daylight. Also PapaSmurf did u ever resolve this issue?

[NISTECH]

once the spring portion of the pressure plate gets hot it becomes weak. if it wear installed incorrectly it would be a constant problem not just hot.